"Leaving Facebook: Why People Are Logging Off" --

"a) Privacy Concerns & Data Misuse" --
"b) Overwhelming Ads & Algorithmic Feeds" --
"c) Toxicity, Drama, and Negativity" --
"d) Unwanted Recommendations & Forced Follows" --
"e) Time & Mental Health"

https://dev.to/therabbithole/leaving-facebook-why-people-are-logging-off-and-where-theyre-going-33lm

#facebook #leaving #delete #privacy #misuse #data #personaldata #algorithm #algorithms #feed #toxicity #drama #unwanted #wasteoftime #time #mentalhealth #health #psychology

From #BigOil to Big #Algorithm: Public Money in Private Models

https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/5767/big-oil-big-algorithm-public-money-private-models

#privacy #AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA_hmtuAPTY

[copypasta]

Did the Algorithm Change Your Decisions? | How Your Feed Was Engineered

Right now, somewhere on the internet, a video is being uploaded.

Within seconds, a system that no one elected, no one audits, and no one fully understands decides whether anyone else will ever see it.

Sometimes, it decides no one should.

And that’s the end of it.

In this episode of Plain Meaning, we examine how the modern internet quietly transformed from a system designed to deliver information… into one that decides what information exists for you at all.

It didn’t happen all at once.

It happened step by step.

Feed by feed.

Platform by platform.

Until nearly everything you see online is filtered through a machine making decisions on your behalf.

We trace how:

• Social media moved from profile pages to infinite feeds
• Facebook’s News Feed shifted from chronological to algorithmic control
• Advertising—not user experience—drove the need to control timing and visibility
• “EdgeRank” introduced the first large-scale automated editorial system
• By 2016, every major platform—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube—had adopted algorithmic feeds
• Recommendation systems replaced direct navigation across the entire internet

But this isn’t just a story about technology.

It’s a story about incentives.

Because once platforms controlled what you saw, they didn’t just control engagement.

They controlled attention.

And once attention became the product, the system began optimizing for something far more powerful than clicks.

We examine what happened next:

• How foreign influence operations exploited algorithmic feeds during the 2016 election
• The role of Cambridge Analytica and its parent Strategic Communication Laboratories in psychological targeting
• The scale and strategy of Russia’s Internet Research Agency
• How fake local news accounts built trust before deploying disinformation
• Why most influence content wasn’t political—but divisive
• How algorithms amplified all of it without distinction

And then we go further.

Because 2016 wasn’t the end of the story.

It was the beginning.

We look at how:

• Algorithmic systems shape not just what you see—but how you think
• Platforms reward emotional, extreme, and addictive content
• Foreign-owned platforms introduce new geopolitical risks
• Systems like ByteDance’s TikTok operate differently across countries
• The same algorithmic architecture can produce completely different realities depending on its objectives

This episode is not about one platform.

It’s not about one political party.

And it’s not about one country.

It’s about the system itself.

Because the algorithm isn’t just recommending content.

It’s acting as an editor.

And most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s there.

By the end of this video, the next time you open a social media app, you’ll understand:

Why your attention isn’t fully yours.

Why the world you see isn’t necessarily the world that exists.

And how to recognize when a machine—not you—is deciding what matters.

#Algorithm #SocialMedia #DigitalMedia #YouTube #Facebook #Instagram #NewsFeed #TikTok #Twitter

[/copypasta]

RE: https://loops.video/v/ePoj4Ji--p

Why did the right wing win the #socialmedia popularity wars?

My theory is simple: The basic skill to succeed in an authoritarian system, is to figure out what the ruler likes.

The right wing has much more authoritarians than the left (at least here in the West), and with the new automated ruler computer of the #algorithm in place, these skills dominated.

The incentives of #bigtech #platforms favour something else than what we need. We will never win there. #fediverse is our only hope.

AI in IVF could be “awesome, or terrifying.”

Randomized trials show AI tools picking embryos almost as well as humans—but 10x faster. But who will control the algorithm? Phineas Rueckert digs into the new fertility frontier in our latest #Longreads piece: https://longreads.com/2026/03/03/ivf-and-ai-infertility/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#AI #IVF #fertility #AItools #algorithm #writing #reported #essays

A better and #symbolic #deeplearning #algorithm in #commonLisp .

https://screwlisp.small-web.org/fundamental/a-better-deep-learning-algorithm/

I hope I come across as slightly tongue-in-cheek! Though all my points and notes are in fact genuine.

tl;dr I define completely explainable and interpretable deep learning / inferencing in terms of operations on sets of symbols.

I think it successfully underscores the wild misapprehensions about deep learning that abound in the wild. What do you think?

#ai #programming #DL

@_elena @Gargron

yup

#corporate "#journalism"

we are on #mastodon/ #fediverse because the profit motive in corporate #socialMedia means privacy defilement, free reign for bigotry/ ignorance, and #algorithm manipulation by #plutocracy agendas

the same applies to the #news #media:

#ventureCapital takes over dying traditional media outlets and puts right wing goons in the managing editor positions

we have nonprofit news (#NPR, #ProPublica, #TheGuardian, etc)

trust them

all else: beware

After a couple of years on the #fediverse, I’m quite certain of my position when I say that big tech actually killed Social Media!

It’s #enshittification, of course. But in this case it’s gone for long enough for the new generation to not even know what it stood for.

A whole generation has grown up, thinking that the #algorithm is the point, not the #social. So deep are we in right now!

Thank you everyone here for bringing it back. What it means to be on a network built for human interaction

Healthy reminder to log off of social media, put your phone away every once in a while, and take up an offline hobby. 🍵

Or, as the kids say today, "touch grass". 🌱

"Now and then, I've been hanging by a string.
I watched the world change from man into machine.
Zeroes, ones, is that all that we'll become?
An empty shell of what was human...
We have become so inhuman!"

https://youtu.be/x6PXV4x1ths

#socialmedia #mentalhealth #Smartphone #algorithm #disconnect #music #metal #alternative

Just because you post something doesn’t mean your followers will see it. @Techcrunch tells us how creators are navigating social networks that have become increasingly reliant on algorithmic feeds:

https://flip.it/RH1N.T

#Tech #SocialMedia #Technology #Algorithm

thanks to @paige for the very flattering and in depth video about the #FediAlgo project and the larger case for having demonic "algorithms" in the #Fediverse.

https://video.fedihost.co/w/a1522517-704e-44a3-aa0e-5c4e7d49e7d1

#activitypub #algorithm #algorithmicFeed #algorithmicTimeline #Fedi #FediTips #FediTools #Fediverse #Feed #FOSS #GoToSocial #hashtag #hashtags #javascript #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #MastodonApi #mastohelp #mastojs #node #nodejs #opensource #socialmedia #SocialWeb #timeline #TL #typescript #webdev

Ω🪬Ω
Just released version 1.2.32 of #FediAlgo, the customizable timeline algorithm / filtering system for your Mastodon feed. Very minor changes that improve a couple of things in a small way.

https://universeodon.com/@cryptadamist/115255251993344917

#activitypub #algorithm #algorithmicFeed #algorithmicTimeline #Fedi #FediTips #FediTools #Fediverse #Feed #FOSS #GoToSocial #hashtag #hashtags #javascript #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #MastodonApi #mastohelp #mastojs #node #nodejs #opensource #socialmedia #SocialWeb #timeline #TL #typescript #webdev

In the next few weeks, I feel like I wanna write a personal #mastodon #algorithm. Track my interests, likes, follows, hashtags, etc, and create a list of suggested #toots.

Updated I think YouTube is harming users and creators https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/20250414/ #Blog #YouTube #Algorithm #SocialMedia

The #spotify #algorithm seems to have no idea of how to handle a Brazilian listening to the soundtrack of #kpopDemonHunters, it plays just a single song and then immediately jumps to some Brazilian band.

(My wife uses it, I can't stand the ads)

Flagged by the #Algorithm: #Klarna Thought I’m a Fraudster - https://algorithmwatch.org/en/flagged-algorithm-klarna-fraudster/ "Klarna’s algorithms sent her straight to a defaulter list she could not leave without an administrative hassle"