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by newobj
3065 days ago
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I know you're not saying that anonymous social networks are /strictly/ better than verified, but to maybe round this thought out explicitly - I think it's potentially naive to think that governments won't be able to wield social networks even more effectively than "freedom fighters". Whenever they catch up. Arab Spring was round 1, but I feel like round 2+ may have already played out in state actors' favors. Who knows. Relatedly: if you participate or "observe" any online communities of marginalized people, you may have noticed there are starting to be earnest conversations of whether or not "free speech" is actually more easily wielded to abuse them, than they can use it to have a voice. Just food for thought. A lot of built-in assumptions are being tested right now. |
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Let's assume for a second Twitter has a magic wand that, without consequences, automatically deletes fake users used for marketing purposes.
Now what does identity verification actually do for the remainder of the users? In what way does it benefit them? In what ways does it inconvenience them? In what ways does it put them at risk?
Should there be a process in place, that is required of the entire userbase, just to fix the fake user problem? A problem that most users aren't even sort of aware of (otherwise the NYT article wouldn't have been as successful as it was).
We do a lot of reactionary things as a society that follow this exact pattern: Put massive processes in place to remove tiny bits of risk. Governments do that and justify it all the time, cf. the "Terrorism" or "For the children" memes. You often read people's complaints here on the ridiculous security theater that the TSA is, how it doesn't solve anything and inconveniences everyone for something that happens to people less often than winning the lottery.
This, is that. The pattern is: You have a tiny problem, you fix it with something which impacts your entire userbase because you didn't stop to think whether there are more targeted solutions, or even whether it's worth it.
[Note: I argue lower down that AI and statistics aren't the correct fix for this either... gotta keep digging. Maybe the "correct fix" is a mix of identity verification and statistical analysis.]