Don’t trust the machine nor Facebook
Today, Biden amped up the rhetoric about COVID-19 misinformation and the role of Facebook.
President Biden's message to social media companies about misinformation on Covid-19? “They’re killing people,” he said.
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) July 17, 2021
"It was a stunning thing to say, even if it is in many ways true," writes @karaswisher. https://t.co/EWyXirdsiR
The title of Kara Swisher’s opinion piece is right on.
Biden is wrong about the role the government should have in deciding what should and shouldn’t be shared on social media, or any media or who. That is, unless it is call for violence.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
On the other hand, he is right in calling out disinformation. The government has an important duty to educate and communicate truthfully. Especially in times of crisis. So give us the facts, give us the scientific data, and update us on changes thereof. And please don’t jap about alternative facts, nor start removing data from government websites when it doesn’t fit your politics.
By jumping from calling out the distributors of lies to censorship, Biden went too far.
As it happens, I have been reading and listening to The Data Dedective, by Tim Harford. On my run this evening, I listened to Rule Seven: demand transparency. The chapter could not have been more timely.
It starts by telling the story of Google Flu Trends (GFT) and how initially it was able to detect a flu outbreak before the CDC noticed it. However over time, the machine and algorithm lost its mojo and guiding quality. Big data and machine learning is really hard. Even it is for a noble cause as flu detection.
This is also why you definitely shouldn’t trust the recommendation algorithms from Facebook, or even the content shared on Facebook. There is no noble cause there, except Mark’s Bank of America account.
“a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,”