Profile picture
Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥
@senatorshoshana
, 21 tweets, 11 min read Read on Twitter
Guys I'm obsessive and I'm going to do a thread on why Hawley's new legislation on social media is SO BAD. I tried to resist. Sorry. Get ready
Link: hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/…

"The business model for many internet companies, especially social media companies, is to capture as much of their users’ attention as possible."

Uh yea same for any entertainment
He explicitly wants to regulate dating apps. We'll come back to this later
Here's what he's outlawing
- Infinite scroll or auto refill - LITERALLY would kill Twitter. Also none of this is inherently bad. Also he legalizes pagination but not infinite scroll, what? EXCEPT in music all that's cool??? This is utter nonsense. Pagination/inf scroll are...
not good/bad, they're just different. It depends on the company and its needs (I say this as a digital professional and consultant), but it's not like pagination isn't "addictive" and infinite scroll is. This is EXTREMELY arbitrary.
WHY 3 minutes? Again, arbitrary as hell and users WANT newer content. Not inherently bad. I use Facebook to see new stuff my friends are doing. THE HORROR
According to Hawley, music streaming isn't bad but video streaming is. Listen to a concert - YOU'RE GOOD. But watch it in 7 parts? THE HORROR

Watch 1 DIY video while working on a craft? Ok. Watch it in 7 parts? NO AUTOPLAY FOR YOU
He's outlawing gamification. Under this standard, @duolingo would be illegal.
@duolingo This part mandates tech companies do what endless plugins and apps do - lots of apps to force you to limit time on social

So he's mandating tech monopoly/vertical mergers of services—but more than likely companies will make their own and apps that already do this will be screwed
@duolingo Here he demands all devices (which? WHO KNOWS but he's mandating all - whatever that means) work together to put in a 30 minute time limit for users

Does this include your apple watch? laptop? your desktop app? your bluetooth?
@duolingo BUT EMAIL AND MESSAGING IS OK U GUYS. Because reasons
@duolingo wtf
@duolingo "is conspicuously shaded differently than the immediate background color"

what is wrong with you
@duolingo bias. He doesn't want real studies. Also the science, as @petersuderman notes, IS inconclusive. reason.com/2019/07/30/jos…
@duolingo @petersuderman The rest is enforcement.

So let's recap:

This bill would crush services like @duolingo, apps that help you limit your time online, Twitter, Instagram, pretty much any online game, and it's all based on shoddy evidence.
@duolingo @petersuderman OH, YES! Dating apps! Unclear if this would outlaw, but some dating apps have infinite scroll, others what is essentially autoplay. Unclear if he'd outlaw them. LOVE ME SOME ARBITRARY LAW

In all of this, is Netflix ok? It has autoplay. But remember VIDEO BAD AUDIO GOOD UGGA UGGA
@duolingo @petersuderman outlawing @duolingo to own the libs
@duolingo @petersuderman u do not mess with @duolingo
@duolingo @petersuderman
@duolingo @petersuderman
And for those on this thread, I wrote this up here: rstreet.org/2019/08/02/sen…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @senatorshoshana see all

Profile picture
Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥
@senatorshoshana
But one thing I'll PLEAD with Facebook, @Google, and @twitter to do - release some numbers so people can understand how hard content moderation is. Release stuff like:
- How many millions of posts are created each day
- How many AI flags as dangerous
- How many users flag...
@Google @Twitter - How many platform staff flag
- How many posts get human moderators see/make decisions on

People really don't understand this and how many millions of posts there are to moderate. And how only after you get through the super illegal dangerous stuff, can you even think about...
...viewpoints or whatever.

And explain to people what happens if your moderators stop or even just police stuff 10% over the line and ignore all that's on it. I know what happens, but I think people and Congress need to hear this all from platforms.
Read 10 tweets
Profile picture
Shoshana Weissmann, 9th Circuit Judge 🦥
@senatorshoshana
Kids are playing in their yard when a fugitive ends up on their property. Police come over, hold the kids at gunpoint and make them all get down on the ground. The family dog comes out, and an officer tries to shoot it. He misses.
The dog runs underneath the porch. Some time passes. The dog comes back out. The cop tries to shoot it again, misses it, and hits one of the kids in the knee.
BUT GUYS IT'S ALL OK DON'T WORRY

Qualified immunity.

So the police won't be held accountable
media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/f… #CJreform cc @ConLawWarrior
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥
@senatorshoshana
Unreal.

"Cobb-based Must Ministries has been handing out the bagged lunches every weekday during the summer across Cherokee and Cobb for the last 25 years."

/1
"But this year, the state's Department of Public Health is enforcing new rules -- and said the way Must Ministries prepares sandwiches doesn't meet its guidelines."

/2
"The health department now said the sandwiches have to come from a certified kitchen, rather than homemade by churches, businesses and families as they have been prepared in the past."

ALT HEADLINE: CHARITY SOLVING COMMUNITY PROBLEM FOR 25 YEARS SHUT DOWN BY GOVERNMENT

ಠ_ಠ
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Tim Mak
@timkmak
Reading GOP Sen. Josh Hawley's bill banning 'addictive' features on social media.

It would prohibit:

1. Infinite scroll
2. Loading of additional content w/o being expressly requested
3. Autoplay of video/audio
4. Badges/awards linked to engagement

hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/…
Hawley's bill also requires social media:

1) allow users to set a time limit that blocks access to platform if limit reached.

2) tracks how much time each user has been on the platform.

3) Displays pop-up to users every 30 min to show how they've used the platform that day
The bill also requires a report every three years on "the processes through which social media companies and other internet companies, by exploiting human psychology and brain physiology, interfere with free choices of individuals on the internet."
Read 4 tweets
Profile picture
MICHELLE 🌎
@4AllSoulKind
Extra sauce for your liberal friends.
cc @POTUS #KAG
This is your government of
(“hand picked” “esquires”)...
Who then founded, funded, developed and weaponized (via DARPA & IARPA) the media against American citizens; Whom they lulled to sleep, and robbed blind.
ihr.org/jhr/v09/v09p30…
For centuries...
“progressive” elites have sought “alternate means” to enslave and control you.
This is but one example, of how they’ve attempted to weed out “undesirables” or “cull the herd”.
webbrain.com/brainpage/brai…
Read 21 tweets
Profile picture
Josh Blackman
@JoshMBlackman
1/ Here is the text of @HawleyMO bill: hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/… Virtually all of the criticisms I've seen so far reflect news reports of the bill--not the actual bill.
2/ As a threshold matter, the bill only applies to "covered" entities with more than 30 million active users in the US, or 300 million users worldwide. I haven't done the math, but this bill would exclude the overwhelming majority of social media platforms.
3/ Here is the general gist: Large social media firms that benefit from Section 230 would now need to be certified by the FCC to maintain that safe harbor. The overwhelming majority of firms would still be protected by Section 230.
Read 18 tweets
Profile picture
Max Fisher
@Max_Fisher
YouTube’s algorithm has been curating home movies of unwitting families into a catalog of semi-nude kids, we found.

YT often plays the videos after users watch softcore porn, building an audience of millions for what experts call child sexual exploitation
nytimes.com/2019/06/03/wor…
Each video might appear innocent on its own, a home movie of a kid in a two-piece swimsuit or a nightie. But each has three common traits:
• the girl is mostly unclothed or briefly nude
• she is no older than age 8
• her video is being heavily promoted by YouTube’s algorithm
Any user who watched one kiddie video would be directed by YouTube's algorithm to dozens more — each selected out of millions of otherwise-obscure home movies by an incredibly sophisticated piece of software that YouTube calls an artificial intelligence. The families had no idea.
Read 15 tweets
Profile picture
Callie Pepper 💕☠️
@callieRansom
I'm sure everyone has heard about the bill that Josh Hawley is trying to push in the US. The basic gist of it is that all lootboxes and micro-transaction that give competitive advantage will be banned from minor orientated games. But I sat down and actually read the bill 1/
First issue, what is a micro-transaction cover? The answer is anything that cost money PAST the original purchase. This means that it could be stretched to include DLC, expansions, character packs, anything of the sort. 2/
Another issue is that they consider a competitive advantage to include... earning awards that can't be earnt outside of that pack. At a small stretch this could also include achievements that can't be earnt without dropping money 3/
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
CodesUcq
@CodesUcq
Wikileaks Document : a “Secret US Base on the Moon” collective-evolution.com/2019/04/15/wik… - this thread, my pinned tweet and a few other threads go over Moon symbolism and "base on the" - not talking about the literal moon. #Qanon #MoonLanding #Moon #Symbolism #Comms #Wikileaks
Note the connection in that last tweet regarding moon and Russia "A document published by Wikileaks clearly implies that the U.S.A. had a "secret" base on the Moon that was destroyed by Russia." - thread connects a few dots #Qanon #Russia #China #CIA
Given the lizard person on this site next to a pro #Qanon symbol it's prolly safe to assume this is a tinfoil psyop exopolitics.org/did-the-ussr-d… but that doesn't mean it can't be useful for dissecting #Symbolism #Comms So what happened in 1977? "on the moon" #Psyop #CIA #MKUltra
Read 19 tweets

Trending hashtags

#ConspiracyTheory #BillClintonIsARapist #Symbolism #EmbraceUnity #Fakeoppo #PAM #ClintonCrimeFamily #SethRich #BreakingNews #WaPo #digitaldisruption #PublicRelations #Allen #BohoSquad #Shame #CULTS #CIA #TryHarder #NXVIM #MoonLanding #USVIA #FusionGPS #PatriotsAwakened #GrassleyMemo #Trump
Follow Us on Twitter!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!