[BoorishBears]

Why the false dichotomy?

The cost of their actions is easier to frame if you know the details of their implementation.

If people just naturally like using FB that's fine. If FB is hiring experts for behavioral studies in order hypertune a pipeline that exploits blind spots in the way the human brain works... that's a lot less fine. And if the inputs are wider in scope than the general public realizes, it becomes even less ok.

People will always have free will and most would rather we don't try and override that by just making all social media illegal or something... but there's an inherent asymmetry in the resources social media companies have in dissecting the psyche vs individuals have countering that.

Forcing them to show their cards is one way to thrust the results of that asymmetry into the spotlight and better equip individuals who often don't understand the extent to which they're being manipulated.