People share misinformation because of social media’s incentives — but those can be changed::“After a few tweaks to the reward structure of social media platforms, users begin to share information that is accurate and fact-based.” (Though the tweaks involved paying people to do so.)
Engagement and the bottom line
Maintaining high levels of user engagement is crucial for the financial model of social media platforms. Attention-getting content keeps users active on the platforms. This activity provides social media companies with valuable user data for their primary revenue source: targeted advertising.
Or maybe it doesn’t. Maybe exploiting the public commons is simply subhuman shittery. Targeted advertising is stalking.
One thing is for sure, featuring and amplifying shitty people makes shitty places. The new Photon version of Lemmy does an unexpectedly fantastic job at managing sludge.
Social media platforms chose algorithms because of market incentives, but those can be changed.
