Regulating algorithms for new parents?

[comoatoupeira]

Just reading that thread about the mum
overcome with anxiety and thinking again about how these things are totally manipulated and fuelled by social algorithms - like I clicked on that awful story about Boxing Day fire mum and two kids killed and for days afterwards social media was ‘recommending’ more ‘content’ about that fire.
Does anyone know, is there any pressure groups or advocacy around this issue? If so I’d like to join.
specifically thinking about the sort of content you get post partum a lot of which is totally inappropriate or anxiety inducing or misinformation or all of the above
AIBU to think that policy needs to act on this issue like, yesterday?

There have been pressure groups for mums who have lost a baby to get the social media to stop showing them baby products and “baby milestone” posts. But normally the social media companies just don’t care. Their algorithms have one rule that whatever you click on, you see more of. And they don’t change that for individual cases whether it is anxiety or something worse.

all you can do it deliberately click on “happy” items on your feed and avoid the ones that make you miserable.

if you want to campaign for more regulation of social media as a whole, you could but I think it is v hard to make progress. Look up the news articles on the parents of molly Russell if you can bear it.

Or step away from social media. Switch off FB, TikTok, FB, X etc. Get your news from legitimate sources instead. Maybe keep WhatsApp for keeping in touch. It's liberating.

It is liberating, but if you’re a creative you miss out on a lot I think

That seems like a weird campaign, effectively saying there can't be baby related advertising or content? How would that work?

The campaign in relation to baby or child death or illness asks that social media should have a setting to opt out of posts relating to child development. Say your feed has been full of toddler stuff and the algorithms have you down as someone interested in kids. Then your child tragically dies. And you want to still connect to friends online but the algorithm keeps saying “now your child is learning …”. Which would obviously make the bereaved parent miserable. So the campaign wants to make it easier to opt out of that by clicking a button.

again, it is a specific case of tweaking the algorithms to work for a small group of people who need extra support, but whether big tech will do that is a different question.