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Amazon has recently demoted anti-vaxxer documentaries on Prime. Bezos said he bought The Washington Post to help protect democracy. His wealth increases $260,000,000 every day.
Meanwhile…vaccines *still* do not cause autism. But there won’t be books published to override the anti-vax grifters and lunatics in the Amazon reco algo. Toxic waste must be demoted. There is no free market solution to this intrinsic automation problem.
Tech companies need to confront the toxic waste of their business models head-on. Presently, they only face bad PR and a chance of Congressional grilling, also just bad PR. We let these companies get so powerful that we cannot punish them when they become the new polluters.
A legitimate book store would never carry a Qanon book. Why would Amazon sell one? Because of avarice, automation, accumulation of power, and absolute unaccountability.
If Jeff Bezos wants to control the world he’s going to have to be responsible for it, whether he likes it or not. The achilles heel of these tech robber barons is cultural curation. Hard to imagine anything else as effective as a fulcrum to devolve their unbridled power.
Not advocating for censorship. Asking if disinformation-for-profit is socially sustainable.
Sorry I do need to correct a poorly constructed tweet, above.
Revised: "A legitimate book store might supply a Qanon book discretely but doesn't push it, even if it sells. Why does Amazon push? Because of avarice, automation, accumulation of power, and absolute unaccountability."
Revised: "A legitimate book store might supply a Qanon book discretely but doesn't push it, even if it sells. Why does Amazon push? Because of avarice, automation, accumulation of power, and absolute unaccountability."
An alternative to demoting content on recommendation algorithms: Define ratings and criteria for trusted peer review for grading non-fiction vs. fiction as a consumer labeling requirement. Like how it works in libaries. Somebody take a Qanon book out of a publicly funded library!
YouTube (all social media, user generated content) made no effort to emulate a local library, legacy of the renaissance, center of community, the commons. Carnegie, a Bezos-like-figure, built thousands of local libraries. Fiction and non-fiction were to be dutifully separated.
