Sacha Baron Cohen speaks passionately and eloquently about the need to regulate social media

I like what he's saying in theory, but he does strike me as kind of technologically unaware in practice

For example, he's suggesting that social media posting could be delayed so that moderators / "algorithms" have time to screen everyone's content to make sure there is no hate speech / killing / wacky conspiracy theories

He's making the argument that social media are publishers, and should be required to live up to the standards of newspapers or TV. This is... Impractical overall, since there is so much content. And it's kind of dystopian if some collection of moderators are reading everything you write, and choosing to censor you. You really shouldn't trust people with that kind of power... I think it might be worse than what's going on now

On the topic of "algorithms" that can detect these things automatically instead of moderators... That's doesn't really exist yet. The ability to understand the nuances of language and culture algorithmically - that would be a gigantic advance in artificial intelligence. Lots of stuff would get censored when it shouldn't, and the bad actors will find a way to get around the ban by using different language

That said, he also makes some great points, like Facebook being required to fact check political ads, and prevent the spread of hate / lies in advertising

Also, advertisers should do something about controversy based advertising. He gave the example of Alex Jones being constantly promoted on YouTube because he sparked outrage and gave a "spectrum of options" on topics that should really be a matter of facts. Half of my Google news feed is clickbait of that type, "vegans are killing the planet" or whatever can rustle my jimmies

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