Thread by @profcarroll

Watching Congressional hearing on ALGOS #PublicInterestInternet judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/algor…

Senator Durbin will introduce for the Cleans Slate for Kids Online act - legal right to demand to delete all personal data collected under Age of 13. Every kid needs a reset button. But honestly, every human deserves this right. #datarights

Monica Bikert of FB touts newsfeed controls incl. disabling algorithmically ranked feed in favor of a reverse chronology of “eligible content” — but of course this begs the question as to why the latter is not the default and the ranked feed is the option. #PublicInterestInternet

Alexandra Veitch of YT touts controls (but forgets to turn on her own Do Not Disturb setting for this hearing as a call interrupts her opening statement…

Lauren Culbertson of Twttr touts the sparkle toggle button✨ and blue sky decentralized social media protocol (@jack touted this last time but got no bites from electeds to probe initiative further) #PublicInterestInternet

@tristanharris brings the insider reformer perspective hoping to focus on the business models that “prey on human attention” and “a psychological deranging process” “a Hobbessian war of all against all” promise of personalization to get our chance go viral #PublicInterestInternet

Harris frames the tech-nationalism/exceptionalism question as Orwell - social control (China) vs. The West - amused to death (Huxley) #PublicIInterestInternet

@BostonJoan introduces the notion of #PublicInterestInternet and points to the structural asymmetry of misinformation at scale and its deadly consequences as feature not a bug.
“My computer thinks I’m a white supremacist”
Repetition, Redundancy, Responsiveness, Reinforcement

Here’s except from @BostonJoan where she defines 4 R’s that describe qualities of algorithms that cause harm by their intrinsic nature in the context of people being surrounded by an experience that artificially validates their false or toxic views.
judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Sen Sasse observes that the statements from the companies are irreconcilable with Harris’ argument that the business model cannot be solved, likening the platforms to oil companies fighting climate change. He hands Bickert the softball to spin this. She cites new internal KPI.

Sen Sasse notes that company’s are not responding to Harris’ business model critique but instead hedging around the edges (because they’re not allowed to directly respond to Harris’ critique!) #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Durbin references the EU’s recent work on tackling the “manipulations” of AI and social credit scoring in China asking @tristanharris for comment, and Harris talks about his teaching at Stanford (under BJ Fogg) who taught him persuasive technology as a discipline.

OK so here’s to hoping a subsequent hearing is scheduled to tackle racist technology and bring in subjects from @CodedBias and that Netflix document gets its fair share of shout-outs in the Congressional record. #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Hawley proposes nuking Section 230 for companies that employ behavioral advertising and algorithmic amplification and then tosses it to Tristan Harris (who is an ethicist not a lawyer but neither am I). #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Hirono asking Bickert how FB does prevents discriminatory advertising but it’s a top priority — Will get back to you later — but pleads ignorant on MIT Tech Review report (always love executive ignorance over at Menlo Park) #PublicInternetInternet technologyreview.com/2021/04/09/102…

Sen Grassley is up. He is a Twitter user. He tweets like he speaks. He plays the fictitious conservative bias card and the platform executives pay obligatory lip service culminating in “enhanced due process”. #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Kennedy is up (no camera), drawl thick as the reams of data collected to conduct the “surveillance” to narrate a tale of finding kindness in America but you have go offline to do it. @tristanharris gets another silly Section 230 reform question. #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Kennedy is demonstrating the notion of time not well spent. “We have these hearings and we never get down to it. I’m as guilty as everyone else. Appreciate it a Doc, I’m gonna run out out time.” OK now he’s waxing GDPR to Facebook for additional and pointless dodges.

Sen Ossoff is up. He’s not a fan of corporations arbitrating speech for profit necessary based on their outsized scale and power. One company should not be a gatekeeper for the property of ideas. Bickert employs Repetition and Redundancy on their ‘control’ features to Reinforce.

Sen Ossoff asks if FB will take Apple’s lead and cease tracking but then botches the question about “selling data” which will always result in a dodge/get-back-to-you-later, so we don’t a response on the question relevant to iOS4.5 #ATT. <sigh>

Sen Blackburn doesn’t like @jack and the way he looks and that he live tweets congressional hearings.

Sen Blackburn asks if YT algorithm “manipulates customers” but her use of that term “customers” signifies her fundamental misunderstanding of everything. #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Blumenthal asks if Facebook does in fact have a dial for hate, why does it not always dial it down? Asks for more data made available to researchers. Bickert cites new Prevalence KPI. #PublicInterestInternet

Sen Coons asks YT about providing transparent data about number of recommendations for removed violative videos. They can’t commit because these executives don’t have the power or pay grade to field these questions. #PublicInterestInternet

@BostonJoan explains to Sen Coons how the BuzzFeed published internal report reveals some specifics of how Facebook still struggles to counteract coordinated adversarial networks using its evolving internal nomenclature and methodologies. #PublicInterestInternet

🎛🎚BTW today’s use of the terms “knobs” “dials” and “levers” that control algorithms probably amplifies the cartoonish qualities of Social Dilemma and not to benefit of the tech companies nor our collective understanding of split-test designed simulations of human behavior mod.

Tristan Harris proposes a tax on the externalities to fund regenerative civil society structures but it just floats into the ether as another piece of content as the hearing comes to a close. #PublicInterestInternet Adjourned.

Thinking back on things I missed, discussion got most intriguing when it teased into how employees are compensated for designing services; how their compensation governs the reward systems they design for the publics to behave in the company’s interests. #PublicInterestInternet

We are moving past, “Senator, we sell ads” and getting ever so closer to //Senator we use KPIs to measure our efforts in counteracting against the effects of the KPIs we employ to reward users to optimize the KPIs that our advertisers & marketers use to reward themselves.//