Devin Coldewey. Study finds Reddit's controversial ban of its most toxic subreddits actually worked. TechCrunch, September 2017. URL: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/study-finds-reddits-controversial-ban-of-its-most-toxic-subreddits-actually-worked/ (visited on 2023-12-08).

14.5. Moderation and Ethics# In the contexts of social media and public debate, moderation has a meaning that is about creating limits and boundaries about what is posted to keep things working well. But this meaning of “moderation” grew out of a wider, more generic concept of moderation. You might remember seeing moderation coming up in lists of virtues in virtue ethics, back in Chapter 2. So what does moderation (the social practice of limiting what is posted) have to do with moderation (the abstract ethical quality)? 14.5.1. Origin Story for Moderation# One concept that comes up in a lot of different ethical frameworks is moderation. Famously, Confucian thinkers prized moderation as a sound principle for living, or as a virtue, and taught the value of the ‘golden mean’, or finding a balanced, moderate state between extremes. This golden mean idea got picked up by Aristotle—we might even say ripped off by Aristotle—as he framed each virtue as a medial state between two extremes. You could be cowardly at one extreme, or brash and reckless at the other; in the golden middle is courage. You could be miserly and penny-pinching, or you could be a reckless spender, but the aim is to find a healthy balance between those two. Moderation, or being moderate, is something that is valued in many ethical frameworks, not because it comes naturally to us, per se, but because it is an important part of how we form groups and come to trust each other for our shared survival and flourishing. Moderation also comes up in deontological theories, including the political philosophy tradition that grew out of Kantian rationalism: the tradition that is often identified with John Rawls, although there are many other variations out there too. In brief, here is the journey of the idea: Kant was influenced by ideas that were trending in his time–the European era we call the “Enlightenment”, which became very interested in the idea of rationality. We could write books about what they meant by the idea of “rationality”, and Kant certainly did so, but you probably already have a decent idea of what rationality is about. Rationalism tries to use reasoning, logical argument, and scientific evidence to figure out what to make of the world. Kant took this idea and ran with it, exploring the question of what if everything, even morality, could be derived from looking at rationality in the abstract. Many philosophers and, let’s face it, many sensible people since Kant have questioned whether his project could succeed, or whether his question was even a good question to be asking. Can one person really get that kind of “god’s-eye view” of ultimate rationality? People disagree a lot about what would be the most rational way to live. Some philosophers even suggested that it is hard to think about what is rational or reasonable without our take being skewed by our own aims and egos. We instinctively take whatever suits our own goals and frame it in the shape of reasons. Those who do not want their wealth taxed have reasons in the shape of rational arguments for why they should not be taxed. Those who do believe wealth should be taxed have reasons in the shape of rational arguments for why taxes should be imposed. Our motivations can massively affect which of those rationales we find to be most rational. This is what John Rawls wanted to address.

Anya Kamenetz. Selfies, Filters, and Snapchat Dysmorphia: How Photo-Editing Harms Body Image. Psychology Today, February 2020. URL: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202002/selfies-filters-and-snapchat-dysmorphia-how-photo-editing-harms-body-image (visited on 2023-12-08).

13.6. Design Analysis: Mental Health# We want to provide you, the reader, a chance to explore mental health more. We want you to be considering potential benefits and harms to the mental health of different people (benefits like reducing stress, feeling part of a community, finding purpose, etc. and harms like unnecessary anxiety or depression, opportunities and encouragement of self-bullying, etc.). As you do this you might consider personality differences (such as introverts and extroverts), and neurodiversity [m37], the ways people’s brains work and process information differently (e.g., ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Face blindness, depression, anxiety). But be careful generalizing about different neurotypes (such as Autism [m38]), especially if you don’t know them well. Instead try to focus on specific traits (that may or may not be part of a specific group) and the impacts on them (e.g., someone easily distracted by motion might…., or someone sensitive to loud sounds might…, or someone already feeling anxious might…). We will be doing a modified version of the five-step CIDER method [m39] (Critique, Imagine, Design, Expand, Repeat). While the CIDER method normally assumes that making a tool accessible to more people is morally good, if that tool is potentially harmful to people (e.g., give people unnecessary anxiety), then making the tool accessible to more people might be morally bad. So instead of just looking at the assumptions made about people and groups using a social media site, we will be also looking at potential harms to different people and groups using a social media site. So open a social media site on your device. Then do the following (preferably on paper or in a blank computer document):

The Selfish Gene. December 2023. Page Version ID: 1188207750. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Selfish_Gene&oldid=1188207750 (visited on 2023-12-08).

12.3.1. Replication (With Inheritance)# For social media content, replication means that the content (or a copy or modified version) gets seen by more people. Additionally, when a modified version gets distributed, future replications of that version will include the modification (a.k.a., inheritance). There are ways of duplicating that are built into social media platforms: Actions such as: liking, reposting, replying, and paid promotion get the original posting to show up for users more Actions like quote tweeting, or the TikTok Duet feature let people see the original content, but modified with new context. Social media sites also provide ways of embedding posts in other places, like in news articles There are also ways of replicating social media content that aren’t directly built into the social media platform, such as: copying images or text and reposting them yourself taking screenshots, and cross-posting to different sites

Systemic bias. November 2023. Page Version ID: 1185361788. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Systemic_bias&oldid=1185361788 (visited on 2023-12-07).

11.1. What Recommendation Algorithms Do# When social media platforms show users a series of posts, updates, friend suggestions, ads, or anything really, they have to use some method of determining which things to show users. The method of determining what is shown to users is called a recommendation algorithm, which is an algorithm (a series of steps or rules, such as in a computer program) that recommends posts for users to see, people for users to follow, ads for users to view, or reminders for users. Some recommendation algorithms can be simple such as reverse chronological order, meaning it shows users the latest posts (like how blogs work, or Twitter’s “See latest tweets” option). They can also be very complicated taking into account many factors, such as: Time since posting (e.g., show newer posts, or remind me of posts that were made 5 years ago today) Whether the post was made or liked by my friends or people I’m following How much this post has been liked, interacted with, or hovered over Which other posts I’ve been liking, interacting with, or hovering over What people connected to me or similar to me have been liking, interacting with, or hovering over What people near you have been liking, interacting with, or hovering over (they can find your approximate location, like your city, from your internet IP address, and they may know even more precisely) This perhaps explains why sometimes when you talk about something out loud it gets recommended to you (because someone around you then searched for it). Or maybe they are actually recording what you are saying and recommending based on that. Phone numbers or email addresses (sometimes collected deceptively [k1]) can be used to suggest friends or contacts. And probably many more factors as well! Now, how these algorithms precisely work is hard to know, because social media sites keep these algorithms secret, probably for multiple reasons: They don’t want another social media site copying their hard work in coming up with an algorithm They don’t want users to see the algorithm and then be able to complain about specific details They don’t want malicious users to see the algorithm and figure out how to best make their content go viral

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10.1. Disability# A disability is an ability that a person doesn’t have, but that their society expects them to have.[1] For example: If a building only has staircases to get up to the second floor (it was built assuming everyone could walk up stairs), then someone who cannot get up stairs has a disability in that situation. If a physical picture book was made with the assumption that people would be able to see the pictures, then someone who cannot see has a disability in that situation. If tall grocery store shelves were made with the assumption that people would be able to reach them, then people who are short, or who can’t lift their arms up, or who can’t stand up, all would have a disability in that situation. If an airplane seat was designed with little leg room, assuming people’s legs wouldn’t be too long, then someone who is very tall, or who has difficulty bending their legs would have a disability in that situation. Which abilities are expected of people, and therefore what things are considered disabilities, are socially defined [j1]. Different societies and groups of people make different assumptions about what people can do, and so what is considered a disability in one group, might just be “normal” in another. There are many things we might not be able to do that won’t be considered disabilities because our social groups don’t expect us to be able to do them. For example, none of us have wings that we can fly with, but that is not considered a disability, because our social groups didn’t assume we would be able to. Or, for a more practical example, let’s look at color vision: Most humans are trichromats, meaning they can see three base colors (red, green, and blue), along with all combinations of those three colors. Human societies often assume that people will be trichromats. So people who can’t see as many colors are considered to be color blind [j2], a disability. But there are also a small number of people who are tetrachromats [j3] and can see four base colors[2] and all combinations of those four colors. In comparison to tetrachromats, trichromats (the majority of people), lack the ability to see some colors. But our society doesn’t build things for tetrachromats, so their extra ability to see color doesn’t help them much. And trichromats’ relative reduction in seeing color doesn’t cause them difficulty, so being a trichromat isn’t considered to be a disability. Some disabilities are visible disabilities that other people can notice by observing the disabled person (e.g., wearing glasses is an indication of a visual disability, or a missing limb might be noticeable). Other disabilities are invisible disabilities that other people cannot notice by observing the disabled person (e.g., chronic fatigue syndrome [j4]

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While we have our concerns about the privacy of our information, we often share it with social media platforms under the understanding that they will hold that information securely. But social media companies often fail at keeping our information secure. For example, the proper security practice for storing user passwords is to use a special individual encryption process [i6] for each individual password. This way the database can only confirm that a password was the right one, but it can’t independently look up what the password is or even tell if two people used the same password. Therefore if someone had access to the database, the only way to figure out the right password is to use “brute force,” that is, keep guessing passwords until they guess the right one (and each guess takes a lot of time [i7]). But while that is the proper security for storing passwords. So for example, Facebook stored millions of Instagram passwords in plain text [i8], meaning the passwords weren’t encrypted and anyone with access to the database could simply read everyone’s passwords. And Adobe encrypted their passwords improperly and then hackers leaked their password database of 153 million users [i9]. From a security perspective there are many risks that a company faces, such as: Employees at the company misusing their access, like Facebook employees using their database permissions to stalk women [i10] Hackers finding a vulnerability and inserting, modifying, or downloading information. For example: hackers stealing the names, Social Security numbers, and birthdates of 143 million Americans from Equifax [i11] hackers posting publicly the phone numbers, names, locations, and some email addresses of 530 million Facebook users [i12], or about 7% of all people on Earth Hacking attempts can be made on individuals, whether because the individual is the goal target, or because the individual works at a company which is the target. Hackers can target individuals with attacks like: Password reuse attacks, where if they find out your password from one site, they try that password on many other sites Hackers tricking a computer into thinking they are another site, for example: the US NSA impersonated Google [i13] Social engineering [i14], where they try to gain access to information or locations by tricking people. For example: Phishing attacks, where they make a fake version of a website or app and try to get you to enter your information or password into it. Some people have made malicious QR codes to take you to a phishing site [i15]. Many of the actions done by the con-man Frank Abagnale [i16], which were portrayed in the movie Catch Me If You Can [i17] One of the things you can do as an individual to better protect yourself against hacking is to enable 2-factor authentication [i18] on your accounts.

Kurt Wagner. This is how Facebook collects data on you even if you don’t have an account. Vox, April 2018. URL: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17254312/facebook-shadow-profiles-data-collection-non-users-mark-zuckerberg (visited on 2023-12-05).

8.4. How is this data used# Social Media platforms use the data they collect on users and infer about users to increase their power and increase their profits. One of the main goals of social media sites is to increase the time users are spending on their social media sites. The more time users spend, the more money the site can get from ads, and also the more power and influence those social media sites have over those users. So social media sites use the data they collect to try and figure out what keeps people using their site, and what can they do to convince those users they need to open it again later. Social media sites then make their money by selling targeted advertising, meaning selling ads to specific groups of people with specific interests. So, for example, if you are selling spider stuffed animal toys, most people might not be interested, but if you could find the people who want those toys and only show your ads to them, your advertising campaign might be successful, and those users might be happy to find out about your stuffed animal toys. But targeting advertising can be used in less ethical ways, such as targeting gambling ads at children, or at users who are addicted to gambling, or the 2016 Trump campaign ‘target[ing] 3.5m black Americans to deter them from voting’ [h18].

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. November 2023. Page Version ID: 1186577416. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr.&oldid=1186577416#Alleged_government_involvement (visited on 2023-12-05).

Every “we” implies a not-“we”. A group is constituted in part by who it excludes. Think back to the origin of humans caring about authenticity: if being able to trust each other is so important, then we need to know WHICH people are supposed to be entangled in those bonds of mutual trust with us, and which are not from our own crew. As we have developed larger and larger societies, states, and worldwide communities, the task of knowing whom to trust has become increasingly large. All groups have variations within them, and some variations are seen as normal. But the bigger groups get, the more variety shows up, and starts to feel palpable. In a nation or community where you don’t know every single person, how do you decide who’s in your squad? One answer to this challenge is that we use various heuristics (that is, shortcuts for thinking) like stereotypes and signaling to quickly guess where a person stands in relation to us. Sometimes wearing items of a certain brand signals to people with similar commitments that you might be on the same page. Sometimes features that are strongly associated with certain social groups—stereotypes—are assumed to tell us whether or not we can trust someone. Have you ever tried to change or mask your accent, to avoid being marked as from a certain region? Have you ever felt the need to conceal something about yourself that is often stereotyped, or to use an ingroup signal to deflect people’s attention from a stereotyped feature? There is a reason why stereotypes are so tenacious: they work… sort of. Humans are brilliant at finding patterns, and we use pattern recognition to increase the efficiency of our cognitive processing. We also respond to patterns and absorb patterns of speech production and style of dress from the people around us. We do have a tendency to display elements of our history and identity, even if we have never thought about it before. This creates an issue, however, when the stereotype is not apt in some way. This might be because we diverge in some way from the categories that mark us, so the stereotype is inaccurate. Or this might be because the stereotype also encodes value judgments that are unwarranted, and which lead to problems with implicit bias. Some people do not need to think loads about how they present in order to come across to people in ways that are accurate and supportive of who they really are. Some people think very carefully about how they curate a set of signals that enable them to accurately let people know who they are or to conceal who they are from people outside their squad.

Todd Vaziri [@tvaziri]. Every non-hyperbolic tweet is from iPhone (his staff). Every hyperbolic tweet is from Android (from him). August 2016. URL: https://twitter.com/tvaziri/status/762005541388378112 (visited on 2023-11-24)

The way we present ourselves to others around us (our behavior, social role, etc.) is called our public persona [f20]. We also may change how we behave and speak depending on the situation or who we are around, which is called code-switching [f21]. While modified behaviors to present a persona or code switch may at first look inauthentic, they can be a way of authentically expressing ourselves in each particular setting. For example: Speaking in a formal manner when giving a presentation or answering questions in a courtroom may be a way of authentically sharing your experiences and emotions, but tailored to the setting Sharing those same experiences and emotions with a close friend may look very different, but still can be authentic Different communities have different expectations and meanings around behavior and presentation. So what is appropriate authentic behavior depends on what group you are from and what group you are interacting with, like this gif of President Obama below: Fig. 6.6 President Obama giving a very different handshakes [f22] to a white man and a Black man (Kevin Durant [f23]). See also this Key & Peele comedy sketch on greeting differences [f24] with Jordan Peele [f25] playing Obama, and also Key & Peele’s Obama’s Anger Translator sketch [f26].# Read/watch more about code-switching here: How Code-Switching Explains The World [f27] ‘Key & Peele’ Is Ending. Here Are A Few Of Its Code Switch-iest Moments [f28] Still, modifications of behavior can also be inauthentic. In the YouTube Video Essay: YouTube: Manufacturing Authenticity (For Fun and Profit!) [f29] by Lindsay Ellis, Ellis explores nuances in authenticity as a YouTuber. She highlights the emotional labor [f30] of keeping emotional expressions consistent with their public persona, even when they are having different or conflicted feelings. She also highlights how various “calls to action” (e.g., “subscribe to my channel”) may be necessary for business and can be (and appear) authentic or inauthentic.

Mark R. Cheathem. Conspiracy Theories Abounded in 19th-Century American Politics. URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/conspiracy-theories-abounded-19th-century-american-politics-180971940/ (visited on 2023-11-24).

As we talked about previously in a section of Chapter 2 (What is Social Media?), pretty much anything can count as social media, and the things we will see in internet-based social media show up in many other places as well. The book Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years [e1] by Tom Standage outlines some of the history of social media before internet-based social media platforms such as in times before the printing press: Graffiti and other notes left on walls were used for sharing updates, spreading rumors, and tracking accounts Books and news write-ups had to be copied by hand, so that only the most desired books went “viral” and spread Later, sometime after the printing press, Stondage highlights how there was an unusual period in American history that roughly took up the 1900s where, in America, news sources were centralized in certain newspapers and then the big 3 TV networks. In this period of time, these sources were roughly in agreement and broadcast news out to the country, making a more unified, consistent news environment (though, of course, we can point out how they were biased in ways like being almost exclusively white men).

Julia Evans. Examples of floating point problems. January 2023. URL: https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/01/13/examples-of-floating-point-problems/ (visited on 2023-11-24).

Think for a minute about consequentialism. On this view, we should do whatever results in the best outcomes for the most people. One of the classic forms of this approach is utilitarianism, which says we should do whatever maximizes ‘utility’ for most people. Confusingly, ‘utility’ in this case does not refer to usefulness, but to a sort of combo of happiness and wellbeing. When a utilitarian tries to decide how to act, they take stock of all the probable outcomes, and what sort of ‘utility’ or happiness will be brought about for all parties involved. This process is sometimes referred to by philosophers as ‘utility calculus’. When I am trying to calculate the expected net utility gain from a projected set of actions, I am engaging in ‘utility calculus’ (or, in normal words, utility calculations).

Plato. Phaedrus: Translated by Benjamin Jowett. January 2013. Page Version ID: 1189255462.

In this example, some clever protesters have made a donkey perform the act of protest: walking through the streets displaying a political message. But, since the donkey does not understand the act of protest it is performing, it can’t be rightly punished for protesting. The protesters have managed to separate the intention of protest (the political message inscribed on the donkey) and the act of protest (the donkey wandering through the streets). This allows the protesters to remain anonymous and the donkey unaware of it’s political mission.

Kumail Nanjiani was a star of the Silicon Valley [a6] TV Show, which was about the tech industry. He posted these reflections on ethics in tech on Twitter (@kumailn) on November 1, 2017: As a cast member on a show about tech, our job entails visiting tech companies/conferences etc. We meet ppl eager to show off new tech. Often we’ll see tech that is scary. I don’t mean weapons etc. I mean altering video, tech that violates privacy, stuff w obv ethical issues. And we’ll bring up our concerns to them. We are realizing that ZERO consideration seems to be given to the ethical implications of tech. They don’t even have a pat rehearsed answer. They are shocked at being asked. Which means nobody is asking those questions. “We’re not making it for that reason but the way ppl choose to use it isn’t our fault. Safeguard will develop.” But tech is moving so fast. That there is no way humanity or laws can keep up. We don’t even know how to deal with open death threats online. Only “Can we do this?” Never “should we do this? We’ve seen that same blasé attitude in how Twitter or Facebook deal w abuse/fake news. You can’t put this stuff back in the box. Once it’s out there, it’s out there. And there are no guardians. It’s terrifying. The end. Kumail Nanjiani

Consequentialism# Sources [b46] [b47] Actions are judged on the sum total of their consequences (utility calculus) The ends justify the means. Utilitarianism: “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” That is, What is moral is to do what makes the most people the most happy. Key figures: Jeremy Bentham [b48] 1700’s England John Stuart Mill [b49], 1800’s England