The last incident that happened last week at YouTube had very less to do with the guns than with the failure of the police acting on the information timely and the incapability of social media to be anything but be the major part of the problem.
Google has been offering this issue a little bit of service, but it is expected a lot more from it, given that YouTube – not some distant school – was the recent target. It is funny how personal risk can alter the perspectives.
However in both the YouTube and the Parkland, social media- Facebook in case of Florifa and Youtube in the case of YouTube appeared to help in inflaming the attackers or at least it did nothing to lessen their anger or eradicate the threats.
Foreign governments clearly want to get in the way with the elections and polarize the citizens which display the abuse of an implausible power. So the question is why the power cannot be used in some better methods – to keep the silicon and kids valley employees safer.
It can actually suggest how before closing with my product of the week a new satellite box for the TiVo service.
The Problem with this:
The Tech industry has a problem as it is pointed out in a recent column and because the book is technically wrong and spells it out in detail.
That problem however appear to be worst with the social media companies, that have exhibited the complete disregard for their users – who are not their customers actually and even disregard it for their home countries.
At the heart of the problem is the disconnection between those who offer revenue for these free firms and those who use them. Mark Zuckerberg became rather famous years ago for pointing out that those who used this service were really stupid, though he made use of the far more interesting term at the time.
Since then he has maintained that he has changed his mind, but we have watched him an interview on TV last week. And it appeared that he still thought we were all dumb claiming that Facebook share the thing that users put on the service to share. In simple words: What is the problem with this again?
We are starting to think the name “Zuckerberg” should be the new single word alternative to the “tone deaf” We know that the foreign operators made use of the social media services aggressively in an effort to leave an influence on the outcome of the last presidential election and to alter the public opinion on a national level. Simply the social networks have been used in a major way to harm the U.S Citizens.
We have also learned that in the both the YouTube and Parkland shooting, social media should have been conscious of an attack threat long before it occurred.
Whether we agree to share the information or not, we definitely did not sign up to deteriorate the country or give facility to the mass shootings.
Social media services have displayed the power to change the estimations, and they obviously have the resources and the data to recognize the threats. So now the thing is, there is a need to manage the capabilities properly and at scale.
Conclusion
These social media companies have not only become a danger to the nation, but in fact these are a danger to their own employees. Their total disregard for their users has actually created an environment where they should start thinking about building the defensible fortress rather than the open campuses. In case they do not change their behavior, their regular lack of the regard for the users will definitely result in increased violence.
However there are some AI tools that can be used to neutralize the blossoming attacker while alerting the authorities about the related impeding harm instead of being used to manipulate the population in general.
These activities will however manipulate us in some ways for sure. However they could be now used to keep us safe. They have done a bit to address other mass shootings, but given that their lives are on line now and may be they will step up.