17 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
  2. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. David Robson. The women with superhuman vision. BBC, February 2022. URL:

      I found this source super cool. It talks about a small percentage of women who can see four base colors instead of three. It's super interesting and reminds me of the Psych 101 class I took in the fall where one of the topics we looked at were how do we know if everyone sees the same colors.

    1. disabled people are often excluded from designing for themselves, or even when they do participate in the design, they aren’t considered to be the “real designers.

      Diversity should be important in both who the product is designed for and who is designing those products. I feel recently big companies prioritize diversity and accessibility in a way that seems performative and just to please their consumers criticisms about diversity and accessibility. Able-bodied people are still designing things for disabled people, and it doesn't work because they don't have the perspective and experience of disability to create solutions for them. Designers should be diverse so they can create based on experience rather than assumption.

    1. Emma Bowman. After Data Breach Exposes 530 Million, Facebook Says It Will Not Notify Users.

      It's extremely unethical for Facebook to withhold this kind of information from its users. The article states that scammers only need the tiniest bit of information to do their work, so Facebook doing this seems like they don't care about their users privacy or security at all, and only want to save face and not admit their faults.

  3. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. In some cases we might want a social media company to be able to see our “private” messages, such as if someone was sending us death threats. We might want to report that user to the social media company for a ban, or to law enforcement (though many people have found law enforcement to be not helpful), and we want to open access to those “private” messages to prove that they were sent.

      This makes sense, but I am wondering how message encryption would play into that. If messages are encrypted, does that mean they are private and those social media companies would not be able to do anything about those kinds of threatening messages?

  4. Apr 2026
  5. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. Nicole Nguyen. Here's Who Facebook Thinks You Really Are. September 2016. Section: Tech.

      The source shares the Facebook personalized ad data for several people, and they say that it is weirdly personal and specific, yet inaccurate. I wonder why companies need to collect data like that when it ends up being inaccurate anyway. Wouldn't random ads be more effective at that point rather than personalized ones to a personality you don't have?

    1. How comfortable are you with Google knowing (whether correctly or not) those things about you?

      I don't have personalized ads on for the reason that I am very uncomfortable with google knowing that kind of information about me. It's extremely personal and scary that some big corporation has that information on me. It always freaks me out when my instagram feed seems a little too targeted and personal. It feels like some strangers are invading my privacy and personal life and knowing things about me only my friends and family should know.

    1. What do you think is the best way to deal with trolling?

      The best way to deal with trolling is probably to walk away from it. Being on the internet is optional, and you could honestly just ignore it, don't look at it, and go do something else. You could block or report the troll too. Just don't get rage-baited because you really don't have to.

  6. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. Code-switching. November 2023. Page Version ID: 1185649746. URL:

      This reminds me of what I learned in my linguistics class last quarter about style shifting and code switching. Everyone does it to some extent to show belonging, community, and connection to a certain group. We switch the way we speak to project a specific image of ourselves, or we switch according to who's listening to be more like them or more different than them to establish connection or disconnect.

    1. Do you think it matters which human typed the Tweet? Does the emotional expression (e.g., anger) of the Tweet change your view of authenticity?

      Yes, it absolutely matters which human typed the Tweet because all these Tweets are presumed by the public to be coming from Trump himself, seeing that it is his Twitter account. Especially coming from the POTUS, I think honesty and authenticity to the public is important so that the people know who they are voting for and aren't misled in anyway when it comes to choosing who will lead their country. The emotional expression of the Tweet definitely changes my view of authenticity because an emotional Tweet signifies unfiltered thoughts and words coming straight from the man himself, and it shows realness and truthfulness.

  7. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. Tom Knowles. I’m so sorry, says inventor of endless online scrolling. The Times, April 2019.

      I am surprised to see someone who invented such a big money making feature be apologetic for the ethical consequences of what he made. I feel like big tech companies never take responsibility for stuff like that, so it's refreshing to see this.

    1. 8Chan [e25] (now called 8Kun) is an image-sharing bulletin board site that was started in 2013. It has been host to white-supremacist, neo-nazi and other hate content. 8Chan has had trouble finding companies to host its servers and internet registration due to the presence of CSAM, and for being the place where various mass shooters spread their hateful manifestos. 8Chan is also the source and home of the false conspiracy theory QAnon [e26]

      Social media is a powerful tool that can bring like minded individuals together, but it's disgusting that a neutral and useful tool like social media can be commandeered so easily by the evil people in our world to spread hate, violence, and other unspeakable things. It genuinely stirs disgust and anguish in my heart hearing about the terrible things that these types of people share into the world.

  8. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. Caroline Delbert. Some People Think 2+2=5, and They’re Right. Popular Mechanics, October 2023

      This reminds of of 1984 by George Orwell, where the government brainwashed everyone into believing that 2+2=5 and that is the objective truth. But this article makes me think that 2+2=4 may be the false objective truth that we were all brain washed to believe and that we aren't opening our minds to the subjective truth of reality.

    1. While we don’t have direct access to all the data ourselves, we can imagine that different definitions would lead to different results. And there isn’t a “best” or “unbiased” definition we should be using, since all definitions are simplifications that will help with some tasks and hurt with others.

      I think this is a reason to be skeptical of all statistics that we see or hear. This actually reminds me of all the statistics about how much water AI actually uses, and many of those statistics and numbers are fudged and different because people are measuring things in different ways, like what counts as water usage etc. So I think that its important to take statistics like that with a grain of salt because we never know what is being simplified, and we don't know the truth of the data for ourselves.

  9. social-media-ethics-automation.github.io social-media-ethics-automation.github.io
    1. Steven Tweedie. This disturbing image of a Chinese worker with close to 100 iPhones reveals how App Store rankings can be manipulated. February 2015. URL:

      I really wonder about how many other instances of botting are actually just real human beings who are doing the tedious work that can easily be done by a bot. Seeing that she may be working in bad work conditions also, it makes me feel upset that this may be an actual job that people do day to day. I also dislike how dishonest the whole thing is. Manipulating app store rankings this way seems unethical all the way around.

    1. How are people’s expectations different for a bot and a “normal” user?

      I think people expect bots to not have any free will or thoughtful intent behind its actions, while a human user clearly has both of those things. They might expect a bot to be straight forward and not able to be held accountable for its actions, because it does what it is coded to do, while human users are expected to have accountability and responsibility for what it posts because of their free thinking and ability to have intentions.

    1. There are absolute moral rules and duties to follow (regardless of the consequences). They can be deduced by reasoning about the objective reality.

      I don't agree that morality is objective. Absolute moral rules do not take into account context, and morality in practice is ultimately subjective to situation. Like the lying is wrong example, lying may be wrong in general, but in a situation where lying might save someone's life for example, lying is actually the morally correct thing to do. So morality is subject to change based on situational context rather than a concrete rule.

    1. I absolutely believe that tech workers should be responsible for thinking through ethical implications of their creations. For example, deep fake technology can easily be weaponized for many terrible things, and I think that the people who create this technology know that, but simply choose to turn a blind eye to it for the sake of their own profits. I can't think of any ways to use that kind of technology ethically or in a way that benefits the world, and in knowing that, the creators are being hugely irresponsible by still releasing that kind of technology to the public.