If Facebook can have an Algorithm, so can we

 

It's all over the news that Frances Haugen, a whistleblower with revelations about Facebook, has pointed out that postings on Facebook are selected and prioritized to achieve maximum "engagement" and thus maximize advertising revenues.  As she reports it, maximum engagement for Facebook involves selecting and prioritizing postings that promote disinformation, injure people, have a huge effect on public opinion and worse yet exacerbate the divisions in our country, and that this has had a negative effect on our society and our democracy.

It all lies in the powerful black box AI algorithm that Facebook uses to determine this selection and prioritization of postings, and it will very difficult for Congress to obtain, examine and understand the algorithm and the values written into it and develop effective legislation or regulation within the First Amendment to ameliorate this problem.  But one way or the other, given the damage that is being done, we do need to find a solution, and soon.

Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act of 1996 doesn't help.  It says that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider" and protects Facebook and other social media from claims for what these posts say.  Many people feel this section should be repealed to allow such claims against Facebook.  Facebook will oppose that change, but this would force them to improve the content on their sites.

ThinkTech produces 30 live talk shows every week and replays its library of talk show videos after hours and on the weekend, effectively streaming its content 24x7x365.  So far, our after hours lineup has been determined on the basis of popularity, but we are designing our own algorithm to make that determination on a more in-depth basis, not for "engagement" (we are a nonprofit) but to better serve the community.  We will incorporate the values we believe should be emphasized in our programming in that algorithm.

Our content committee is working on this right now, so stand by.  If you have any thoughts about what should be included in our algorithm, please contact us at shows@thinktechhawaii.com.  Thanks.

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