It's a shame because the thing that kills alternative platforms is getting flooded with racists to the point that they drive everyone else out.
A lot of "free speech" platforms box themselves into a corner by declaring themselves "free speech" platforms while intending that to mean they won't ban users for mild wrongthink, but then white supremacists show up, and if they get banned then they start causing a massive shitstorm over the fact that the platform isn't truly supporting free speech. Then they drive out all the normal people who don't want to be associated with them and the platform is forced to shutdown.
Then you have morons like Tim Pool who will endlessly attack "free speech" platforms if they ban white supremacists.
I have watched super progressive content on Youtube but also watched conservative content as well. It's possible there are a lot of progressives who also watch content from the other side so the algorithm pushes it.
Imagine if Google's decision to do this to fight adblockers results in them losing the lead in the browser war because everyone switches to other browsers.
I wouldn't say that Gab used to be an exclusively neo Nazi site, but now that Twitter allows standard conservative discussions, all the normal people probably left Gab for Twitter and now Gab is probably more of a Nazi shithole.
I have seen openly Jewish people on Gab but you couldn't go 10 posts without finding something blatantly racist.
If they push hard enough eventually there will be a replacement.
Federation could solve this. All you need is one flagship instance that doesn't allow uploads, but it allows users to create accounts and playlists to act as "the" site for the federated network and then content creators can start their own instances.
I was wondering about this. If they didn't keep track of who is voting, manipulation would be easier then it already is. The problem is that rogue instance admins could make votes public.
TBH I can understand that it's a problem for people who aren't expecting it. If they disregard instructions not to index things then that's also a problem. The only real way to prevent scrapers from replicating content is to place it behind a registration wall.
Reddit also has vote fuzzing where you can get the number of votes, but it's always manipulated for some reason.
I don't understand the point, and tbh it's a serious case of social media mind fuckery. It's a real problem for anyone who creates an incredibly specific subreddit for use by a group and then everyone is left wondering who keeps downvoting them. That can have real life consequences for anyone who doesn't understand what is happening.
It's a shame because the thing that kills alternative platforms is getting flooded with racists to the point that they drive everyone else out.
A lot of "free speech" platforms box themselves into a corner by declaring themselves "free speech" platforms while intending that to mean they won't ban users for mild wrongthink, but then white supremacists show up, and if they get banned then they start causing a massive shitstorm over the fact that the platform isn't truly supporting free speech. Then they drive out all the normal people who don't want to be associated with them and the platform is forced to shutdown.
Then you have morons like Tim Pool who will endlessly attack "free speech" platforms if they ban white supremacists.