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1. Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh: (cassidy@mastodon.blaede.family)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 03:07:27 JST Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh:

   There’s an old guy chatting with his buddy at this coffee shop spouting conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory as fact and it is terrifying because:

   • I don’t really have a good way to combat it, and don’t want the confrontation
   • It reminds me of how confidently bullshit ML models are at spouting things they heard with no critical thinking
   • He keeps referring to “they” as in “they are controlling the weather,” “they want you to think…” etc. BUT WHO ARE THEY??

   • Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh: (cassidy@mastodon.blaede.family)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 03:08:06 JST Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh:

     in reply to

     Okay this is interesting: he's telling his buddy that he uses an RSS reader (I think?) to aggregate from thousands of news sources. He says he reads the headlines and then reads some of the "trustworthy" articles to get more information.

     Clearly, he's subscribed to some whacko stuff. If you're designing an RSS or news reader, consider this guy and how you could help bring him back to reality or help prevent his radicalization in the first place.

     #RSS #TechIsPolitical #EthicalDesign

   • Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh: (cassidy@mastodon.blaede.family)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 03:08:07 JST Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh:

     in reply to

     Oh now “they” are “putting RNA in our food supply” 😒

     Adrian Cochrane repeated this.
   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 03:08:59 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @cassidy Ugh, the nebulous "they"! Conspiracy staple!

   • Adrian Cochrane (alcinnz@floss.social)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 03:24:57 JST Adrian Cochrane

     in reply to

     @cassidy Hmmmm, difficult challenge given how distrustful these conspiracy theorists tend to be. Or rather how misplaced their trust is.

     Though if we move our consideration to where they're finding these feeds, I do have some answers!

   • Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh: (cassidy@mastodon.blaede.family)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 05:08:31 JST Cassidy James :eos: :gg: :fh:

     in reply to

     • gabmus

     @gabmus framing it as "censorship" is just playing straight into the problem.

     Having a list of known-factually-inaccurate web sources in your software, or something like NewsGuard integration, is a start. Don't "censor" something a user subscribes to, but maybe point out when it's known to be untrustworthy. Just like you'd report a security error on a site; in the end, you're aiming to keep the user safe.

   • gabmus (gabmus@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 12-Jan-2023 05:08:35 JST gabmus

     in reply to

     @cassidy it's a hard problem to solve. As an RSS reader author, should I implement censorship? I don't think that's the way, but I also don't have a good solution.

     Adrian Cochrane repeated this.