Less than a quarter of schoolboys in the Netherlands have a positive view of homosexuality, almost half the proportion of four years ago, according to a Europe-wide survey. The HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) poll found that just 22% of boys aged 12 to 16 had a positive view of homosexuality, compared to 40% the last time the survey was carried out in 2021. Gonneke Stevens, professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University, said there was a...
Social media. It’s unregulated, and allowing people to fall into echo chambers of hate. When all you see is unchallenged radical nonsense you become a radical. The social media companies don’t care what people see, just that they stay on the apps as long as possible. Young men are a particularly vulnerable group - when you feel disenfranchised and worried for the future you’re the perfect target for easy answers from hate groups. And if you get fed more and more of that crap because you watched a bit, it soon becomes all you see unchallenged.
We urgently need social media regulation across Europe - not bans for children (pointless) but complete reform of social media to benefit all ages. Control of the algorithms need to be taken out of the hands of the big US & Chinese tech companies who use to to create addiction and maximise “engagement” to maximise profit, and instead it needs to be run for the benefit of the citizens / user. Public Service Social Media is what we need - much like Public Service Television ensured balanced and healthy TV across Europe in the 20th and early 21st century, we need the same for social media.
Social media is the common factor between the rise in far right hate groups across the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and more. The changes in the Netherlands are a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.
Social media is unregulated but also in the hands of billionaires. Most of which absolutely hate democracy and think we, the general population are an obstacle to overcome as they work to replace us with machines.
Social media is practically universal; that does not explain why young men are the most right-swinging group. I don’t think it’s just an emergent situation like you suggest. I think that they are swinging hardest because they are most vulnerable to the intentional manipulation we are all experiencing.
While I think the current corporate structure of social media is fucked, I absolutely 100% do not want the government controlling feeds, content, or communication. That’s a path that will lead to an even worse outcome than the path we’re currently on.
Well, we are in c/Europe community so that’s not really a government I’m thinking of.
But besides: There’s hardly any difference between US government controlled and US billionaire controlled social media. And frankly, both are orders of magnitudes worse than EU government controlled social media.
See the danger is that you can’t rely on the European government being the same forever, and by the time you realize it’s too late…I mean look at the slow frog boil second rising of v the right in Europe right now
Sure, but even if EU governments turn fully to fascism that would be at worst as terrible as the current status quo with social media in fascist billionaire’s control.
Control as in decide whats allowed and whats not? No thank you.
Control as in enforcing people placing illegal content on the internet, from child pron to hate speech to sexual harrasment to doxxing? Yes please. The regular internet and social media should be as safe as the physical world.
Defining what is illegal content is exactly the issue. A photo of two women kissing might be fine where you live for now, but in Saudi Arabia that would be quite problematic.
Totally, a government choices should be held accountable. Which is why giving the government power is only a good thing in fully functional democracies. I agree. But a Saudi based company is not likely to give you a better treatment as the Saudi government. But either way, on someone else’s platform you’ll have to adhere to someone else’s rules. I like how the Fediverse gives us our own houses with our own rules.
Social media. It’s unregulated, and allowing people to fall into echo chambers of hate. When all you see is unchallenged radical nonsense you become a radical. The social media companies don’t care what people see, just that they stay on the apps as long as possible. Young men are a particularly vulnerable group - when you feel disenfranchised and worried for the future you’re the perfect target for easy answers from hate groups. And if you get fed more and more of that crap because you watched a bit, it soon becomes all you see unchallenged.
We urgently need social media regulation across Europe - not bans for children (pointless) but complete reform of social media to benefit all ages. Control of the algorithms need to be taken out of the hands of the big US & Chinese tech companies who use to to create addiction and maximise “engagement” to maximise profit, and instead it needs to be run for the benefit of the citizens / user. Public Service Social Media is what we need - much like Public Service Television ensured balanced and healthy TV across Europe in the 20th and early 21st century, we need the same for social media.
Social media is the common factor between the rise in far right hate groups across the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and more. The changes in the Netherlands are a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself.
Social media is unregulated but also in the hands of billionaires. Most of which absolutely hate democracy and think we, the general population are an obstacle to overcome as they work to replace us with machines.
Social media is practically universal; that does not explain why young men are the most right-swinging group. I don’t think it’s just an emergent situation like you suggest. I think that they are swinging hardest because they are most vulnerable to the intentional manipulation we are all experiencing.
While I think the current corporate structure of social media is fucked, I absolutely 100% do not want the government controlling feeds, content, or communication. That’s a path that will lead to an even worse outcome than the path we’re currently on.
How is the government controlling social media worse than Zuckerberg or Musk doing so?
Think about the current US government.
Well, we are in c/Europe community so that’s not really a government I’m thinking of.
But besides: There’s hardly any difference between US government controlled and US billionaire controlled social media. And frankly, both are orders of magnitudes worse than EU government controlled social media.
See the danger is that you can’t rely on the European government being the same forever, and by the time you realize it’s too late…I mean look at the slow frog boil second rising of v the right in Europe right now
Sure, but even if EU governments turn fully to fascism that would be at worst as terrible as the current status quo with social media in fascist billionaire’s control.
Control as in decide whats allowed and whats not? No thank you.
Control as in enforcing people placing illegal content on the internet, from child pron to hate speech to sexual harrasment to doxxing? Yes please. The regular internet and social media should be as safe as the physical world.
Defining what is illegal content is exactly the issue. A photo of two women kissing might be fine where you live for now, but in Saudi Arabia that would be quite problematic.
Totally, a government choices should be held accountable. Which is why giving the government power is only a good thing in fully functional democracies. I agree. But a Saudi based company is not likely to give you a better treatment as the Saudi government. But either way, on someone else’s platform you’ll have to adhere to someone else’s rules. I like how the Fediverse gives us our own houses with our own rules.