Maybe this is a cultural difference. I lived in Germany for a long time, and here "political education" ("politische bildung") is something you get in school (e.g. as part of history lessons). This is probably a result of experiencing the decline of democracy, and the rise of fascism. Note this is not about partisanal topics, but about how the separation of powers work, federalism, what happens with your taxes, and even complex things like monetary policy (if you take certain classes).
I think the idea to educate the people on general political issues is not too foreign to the US, at least I've seen many PSAs there, which they don't have over here.
The idea is not to force anybody to watch anything. My idea would be akin to putting up an informational poster next to an advertizing poster outside. But I've made the experience that in many places you literally can't put a billboard up or run a radio ad if it has political / "world-view-based" content - such as talking about unions, rent control, atheism etc. - whereas it is fine to advertize beer or dog hair brushes or any other product.
Conversely, now many platforms actually "force" you to sit through an ad before you get to your content. Tell me, why is it OK if that clip is an ad for some random beauty product, but sinister if it is about the pros or cons of wind energy?
What I'm envisioning is not "forcing" anybody to view anything, but for example changing the display algorithms of social media. Let 10 percent or so be an unbiased selection of posts showing different world views. I'm sure the text analysis algorithms could provide that.
But yeah, I'd find it beneficial for society if I could get more eyeballs on non-commercial, important-for-society topics. This is the same reason I occasionally hang up a poster in a public place. And I honestly believe it is good if someone passes by my poster and reads it on their way to work. (They are also free to ignore it!)
And so I ask the question which is always the test: how would you feel about the algorithm including "information" which is directly opposed to your personal stance. Imagine a "CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT REAL" poster. Would that also be acceptable? That is, after all, the world view of some.
My guess is that you would answer no to that, that such a thing would not be permitted. And so it begins ... who vets such a thing? And we are back to the issue of making Facebook (or anyone else) responsible for some kind of monitoring of what is and is not allowed.
> Maybe this is a cultural difference. I lived in Germany for a long time, and here "political education" ("politische bildung") is something you get in school (e.g. as part of history lessons).... Note this is not about partisanal topics, but about how the separation of powers work, federalism, what happens with your taxes, and even complex things like monetary policy (if you take certain classes).
Those kinds of classes exist in the US. In my high school the course was called "Government," but I think it's sometimes called "Civics." It was only one semester, but I'm pretty sure the basics were touched on in Social Studies classes in younger grades.
I think the idea to educate the people on general political issues is not too foreign to the US, at least I've seen many PSAs there, which they don't have over here.
The idea is not to force anybody to watch anything. My idea would be akin to putting up an informational poster next to an advertizing poster outside. But I've made the experience that in many places you literally can't put a billboard up or run a radio ad if it has political / "world-view-based" content - such as talking about unions, rent control, atheism etc. - whereas it is fine to advertize beer or dog hair brushes or any other product.
Conversely, now many platforms actually "force" you to sit through an ad before you get to your content. Tell me, why is it OK if that clip is an ad for some random beauty product, but sinister if it is about the pros or cons of wind energy?
What I'm envisioning is not "forcing" anybody to view anything, but for example changing the display algorithms of social media. Let 10 percent or so be an unbiased selection of posts showing different world views. I'm sure the text analysis algorithms could provide that.
But yeah, I'd find it beneficial for society if I could get more eyeballs on non-commercial, important-for-society topics. This is the same reason I occasionally hang up a poster in a public place. And I honestly believe it is good if someone passes by my poster and reads it on their way to work. (They are also free to ignore it!)