r/aussie • u/mrducky78a • 12h ago

News Toxic algorithms wouldn't let them go - now Australia wants an off switch

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwr7y8er1n8vo
18 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

5

u/Ok-Concert7018 8h ago

I mean news.com.au has been pushing stupid shit for decades… when it came up on my news feed… I blocked it 🤷‍♂️ I prefer to be in charge of my own life

2

u/Rolf_Loudly 7h ago

Do you ever wonder WHY they’re pushing stupid shit at you?

1

u/Ok-Concert7018 7h ago

I did years ago, the wealthy elite have the working class fully and completely captured, physically and mentally… whenever something threatens that control, the legacy media will shoot it the fk right out of the sky before lift off… it’s why corrupted politicians get rewarded and anyone like say Julian Assange get buried alive

Moderators on Reddit are often compromised, and low IQd people and most boomers lap the legacy media up and will defend it

7

u/mrducky78a 12h ago

I personally would love to see how social media would look today without the algorithm fucking it up. It would after all juat be an option to choose from. And I reckon governmental legislation like this is just about the only thing that can bring that about since there is heavy incentive to continue using algorithms to push content and therefore ads.

5

u/Bulky_Swordfish_4702 12h ago

I'd love OG social media back, where I can only see what my friends post or what I CHOOSE to subscribe too.

I hate when I open Facebook and all it is, is some super f'd up things that have been happening and insane violence.

I only got social media originally to see what my friends and family were up to.

2

u/Grande_Choice 12h ago

Agree. We’ve given these companies the chance to self regulate and they’ve failed.

2

u/DecalageVersLeRouge 12h ago

Mastodon is social media with no algorithm. Its great. You miss some stuff, but then someone will probably boost it anyway.

2

u/dvsbastard 11h ago

How exactly do you turn this off? The way these algorithms work is not geared to specific toxic content, they are simply create a feedback loop of engaging content, and what is engaging is completely driven by the individual.

Don't get me wrong, the way social media works is inherently dangerous, addictive and irresponsible. But it is absolutely how social media works by design. But I would personally be fine if they all disappeared tomorrow haha.

13

u/KnodulesAintHeavy 10h ago

As per the article:

“  The centrepiece of their proposed reforms: an algorithm switch which would force social media platforms to let users turn off recommender content. The idea is that you would only see posts from accounts you follow. ”

Basically it would return to the what feed was originally. A chronologically sorted list of updates from your friends. Simple easy fix that solves all the major problems.

8

u/Runinbearass 10h ago

I see almost no friends feed in facebook, my interests are skating surfing bodybuilding but the more bodybuilding content I consume the more right wing bullshit my feed sees… i dont engage politically on fb if I did it would certainly lean more to the left..
There is something cooked with the algorithm

2

u/CowsWithGuns304 7h ago

Same here. It's all pushed posts and ads with a very very occasional actually friend post now. I have to load up specific people's pages to see what they have posted. I ended up blocking 99% of news and MPs pages just to stop the politics chocking up my feed.

4

u/AngryAngryHarpo 9h ago

This a simplistic view. 

I love cooking and crafting. I engage in left-wing political content and academic feminism. 

However,  the algorithm constantly feeds me trad wife content.  I am not religious, queer and in a queer relationship. None of that is a “secret” to the algorithm - yet it still feeds me the exact opposite of my beliefs and politics. 

It’s naive to think tech companies aren’t taking money to boost particular content or make it easier for particular content to be recommended. 

5

u/Rolf_Loudly 7h ago

For starters, you’re wrong. That’s not how the algorithms work. They absolutely DO intentionally feed you toxic and controversial content. This has been known for years. You’ve got a very naive take on what’s going on out there.

1

u/ThereRnoIDs 2h ago

The only thing I needed from my algo was shuffling my music tracks & youtubes been doing an amazing job of it lol.

YT screwed up the migration where my entire home feed was looping the same 5-10 videos for awhile since they wernt exactly sure what to do with it. 

1

u/Flaky-Gear-1370 1h ago

Good to see the bots already out in force against it…

Back when Facebook and MySpace launched and it was just your friends and a couple of ads they were substantially better

1

u/itgoez 9h ago

The elephant in the room here is the vast majority of people in question actually enjoy the algorithm, and will leave it switched on. Especially dumb teenagers like these.

The option already exists on a lot of social media sites to filter the content on your feed and the vast majority never use it.

I'd even go as far as to say they'd turn it on if it was opt in. 

1

u/championpickle 5h ago

Where? And on what ones?

0

u/syborfical 7h ago

Its just more over reach made to look like its protecting children

-3

u/ScatLabs 12h ago

Problem is how do we define a "toxic" algorithm?

It's all sorted bjective, afterall.

5

u/mrducky78a 10h ago

The point of this legislation is to add an option to disable any social media algorithm

1

u/ScatLabs 12m ago

Based on what?

The criteria of whatever the current government will be?

-1

u/Jozfus 11h ago

The funny part is you can already control your algorithm by clicking the dots then Manage your feed, you can toggle sensitive and toggle political, so truly this is about control

3

u/MrsCrowbar 8h ago

Control back in the hands of the consumer? Having a pop up that asks if you want to turn off the algorithm is far easier than searching through settings, and also makes you actually think about the content you want to consume. It's about returning control to the consumer.

2

u/Jozfus 8h ago

To be honest I think most people support the bill if this was all it did and didn't have the censorship in it

1

u/Rolf_Loudly 7h ago

Facebook boomers barely know how to respond to a post. Do you think they’re mucking around in detailed settings?

0

u/Flaky-Gear-1370 1h ago

The funny part is people are dumb enough to think that foes anything other than just push other ads

-1

u/hbthegreat 3h ago

"Australia wants an off switch" - no the politicians want an off switch to stop the spreading of information that they don't like while allowing them to continue spreading information that they do like. Things like this sound "fine" when the person with the politics you agree with is in power but sounds horrific when that party gets replaced with someone you vehemently disagree with. Censorship in general is a net negative for society.
We already have brainrot on every platform including traditional forms of media and letting the government decide what is and isn't suitable for you as an adult to see should ring alarm bells.

1

u/GET-MUM 2h ago

So let's leave in the hands of predatory billionaires who have created social media to be as addictive as possible and add to our eduction statistics slipping.

Mass mis/disinformation is already rife, imagine it when our population is dumber.

1

u/Flaky-Gear-1370 1h ago

Yes because much better to have Elon and Lizardberg doing the censoring for you

1

u/hbthegreat 1h ago

They aren't the only platforms caught in the net and your comment highlights why it's terrible policy. Im in general agreement with you about those 2 particular individual examples however the exact same issue with censoring them is when the opposite site of politics land in power they will use it with just if not more force against other opposing ideas.

1

u/Flaky-Gear-1370 1h ago

How is turning it off “censorship”