
Sacha Baron Cohen Links the Decline of Democracy to the Rise of Social Media - csomar
http://www.openculture.com/2019/11/sacha-baron-cohen-links-the-decline-of-democracy-to-the-rise-of-social-media.html
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badrabbit
In my opinion the problem is not just legislative but also technical. This is
the same problem you have when creating anonymous or decentralized networks
and services -- content must be policed and censored to some extent.

I think the solution lies in having an authority model. You establish
authority models that vouch for identities and reputations, you build
solutions based on protocols and services that use these authority models to
establish trust.

Let us look at existing authority models in society:

\- The BBB,chambers of commerce and similar authoritative bodies allow
consumers to identify a business and lookup it's reputation. \- The state bar
associations in America (example) identify lawyers. Public court records allow
guaging quality of a lawyer. \- DMV/DPS identify motorists and allow a driving
record of a motorist to be disclosed/certified so that others can measure the
reputation of a motorist.

The list goes on. My point herr is that the internet has authority models but
they don't to the most part identify clients and they don't measure
reputation.

If for example I have anonymous network, it would allow identity-reputation
vectors of participants to be measured in a way that preserves anonymity. The
SPLC can track hate speech activity and maintain a service that allows other
participants to cross check reputation before they propagate content from that
participant. The FBI and Interpol can track anonymous participants that
participate in childporn , a person running a node in this anonymous network
can forbid nodes that don't have a reputation certificate clearing them of
such activity from connecting.

So back to Sacha's views. Yeah these internet companies should do more but
that _more_ is to come up with a protocol and standard where legitimate
authorities (such as a news/journalist validation authority for example) to
certify reputation diffenrent participants and allow users to opt in or opt
out of cebsorship under that authority model.

The internet itself with ICANN, certification authorities,dnssec,etc... Is
filled with messes of poorly implemented authority models. Like why is .com
not under a commerce authority? Why is .org being sold to private equity? why
are CA's validating domains when they play no role in domain
registration,hosting or revocation? Things just got pieces togethet instead
figuring out who has enough merit to be authoritative on a subject?

Do we perhaps need public funding to sustain proper authorities?

I think the solution is solvable but there is absolutely no time left, this
needs to happen yesterday!

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jstewartmobile
Get into the history of science, and it will become apparent that getting at
the "truth" is one hell of an uphill climb. Whether it was The Church vs
Galileo, or Keys vs Yudkin, this is an area where "authorities" have failed
greatly and frequently, and honest open debate remains the most effective tool
we have--albeit an imperfect one.

To appoint fucking salary-persons as the "facts" police--people more invested
in steady paychecks and institutional authority rather than the study of the
thing itself--will only yield error, confusion, and tyranny.

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badrabbit
Did you even read what I said? Does science itself not use academic journals
ans peer review in it's authority model?

The whole "church" vs Galileo thing was hugely misportrayed in popular
culture. Most people believed him but there was corruption like you said where
those in power needed him gone. So we are not trying to find a magical source
of truth to all things here! We are simply translating existing societal
authority models to the internet.

If you think there is a unifyig authority model (which i doubt you do) the
production (the internet) is not where you test it out right? The idea is not
prevent another death of another galileo but to prevent death of
magelan,columbus ,newton,einstein,etc.... as well. Each society in it's own
way determines what authority models are authoritative over domains. In
science you have peer review, in law enforcement you "salary men" as you
called them, in finance you have credit reporting companies (which I
dislike),etc... while you are trying to replace all that with a one-size-fits-
all society is being torn apart!

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jstewartmobile
The first amendment is one of the enlightenment's greatest progeny. It is a
right that we Americans possess, and we will defend it--with violence if need
be.

If Borat doesn't like that, he should stick to Britain.

