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.io considered harmful
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this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Technology
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Completely agreed. If anything this kind of accusation pushes people to the right as they got defensive.
Every significant organisation, government, big company probably had done something terrible at some point. The world is not black and white. Internet activism is "not helpful".
If people want to help the refugees, donate to organisations helping them. Or even better, volunteer to help them. Stop doing "purity tests" in the online world.
The only thing I want to push back on is that internet activism isn't helpful. It's incredibly important for education, because most people don't see or hear anything but CNN or Fox in their daily lives, so Facebook and Twitter have become an excellent opportunity and tool to get important causes in from of peoples' eyes who would otherwise never encounter them.
In the context of the blog post, I found the background information about the Chagos refugees incredibly educational, it was just a terrible call-to-action. Like you said, the CTA should have been to donate or to volunteer, or to spread the blog post in order to educate others. It became counterproductive when it became about a highly-specific, questionably-impactful action that no one reading the article can likely affect.
CNN/Fox are biased, for sure - but that's nothing compared to straight up lies pushed by large sections of the internet. And those lies tend to perform better than facts on algorithmic timelines that optimise for engagement. For example articles showing "proof" that covid-19 killed various celebrities who are, in fact, very much alive and healthy, with the clear intent to create fear among large sections of society. A tactic that seems to be far too effective.
I think the world needs to go back to human moderation. Like we have on (well run) fediverse communities.
I never said Facebook and Twitter are good, I said they're an important tool for getting non-mainstream/neoliberal viewpoints in front of people. They exist whether we like it or not.
Do the algorithms favor conservative viewpoints? Yep. But that's no reason to just wholesale cede those platforms to the Right.
Yup, which is why it's basically impossible to be an ethical consumer these days. "The Good Place" did a really entertaining exploration of this idea.