I've read a lot about what the Facebook whistleblower said, you know the algorithms and etc leading viewers led into negative content.
We know that social media experiences can be a contributing factor to mental illness and suicide, especially in young people. One victim, 23-Year- old mother Leanne Morrison, took her life after a bizarre online hate campaign directed toward her. In messages before she was found she described being doxxed.
And we now also know it's designed this way (upsetting, frightening, dramatic) for the user's maximum engagement on sites.
There was a thread by someone with bipolar disorder who had her UC cut for being sick (this country makes me sick) With the reaction she got I thought it was strange that people would respond in such a derisive way.
Whenever I read anything controversial, upsetting, personal dramas online I wonder if I will see it in the news next day.
Maybe we should question how interesting strangers actually do find us, that believe our privacy rights are intact only because we assume we are not.
The Covid misinformation (and other drama) at the start of the pandemic, that was so prominent throughout the media and such a threat to our collective psychology we needed laws passed against it. Advantage was being taken by the forced isolation of lockdown, to manipulate and frighten us.
I read somewhere that 100 % of controversy is stirred up by 5 % of users. I'm trying to find out who wrote it, because I think it points to something serious currently involving our rights to both expression and privacy.
We are witnessing a defining moment in the evolution of the internet and media. We didn't know how to use it, and we were naive to our propensity to be manipulated by other humans for whatever profits it is that gives.
One thing we need to do when talking about toxic algorythms after the next suicides is to call the psychological abuse what it is. Those responsible must think very little of us to act like they could get away with it so easy.