[bognition]

There will always be misinformation "hot spots" the big difference between private messaging apps and Facebook is the private apps are not:

- actively recommending new groups for me to join

- actively trying to acquire my attention

- actively trying to get me to consume incendiary content

Instead they're trying to help me communicate with people This removes the "attractor function" of the really bad content and protects average people who aren't aware of or equipped to deal with misinformation. I dont have the correct stat in front of me by a large percentage of people that join QAnon groups on facebook do so b/c facebook recommended the group to them.

Most people are not going out of their way to find this content, its being shoved at them by algorithms.

[notriddle]

That’s basically what TFA itself says.

“We know that when they’re on big, mainstream platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, extremists don’t just talk among themselves. They recruit. They join totally unrelated groups and try to seed conspiracy theories there. In some ways, I’d rather have 1,000 hardened neo-Nazis doing bad stuff together on an encrypted chat app than have them infiltrating 1,000 different local Dogspotting groups or whatever.”

[mttddd]

I agree with your points and I am generally pro encrypted messaging. However, I am a bit concerned that FB messenger going encrypted means you will get all the same algorithmic boosts/spread for misinfo tightly coupled with a product that lets you trivially move the discussion behind encryption.

Obviously that can still happen now, e.g., finding other like minded people on FB and connecting on Signal. But that added friction is not insignificant