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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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Yeah there's a lot of 'voluntary code of conduct' government-control-laundering going on. They also proposed legislation for social media to come to a voluntary code of conduct on misinformation, without defining misinformation. The social media companies have to decide what to censor. Certain organizations can't be censored, like govt, licensed academic orgs... The whole thing seems like an excuse for govt to say 'oh its nothing to do with us, the companies are censoring' and the companies can say 'oh its the government's laws, out of our hands' and nobody can get to the bottom of the matter without losing 95% of their readers because it's too complicated and boring. I think I might've misremembered some of it already, perhaps some of the companies were already in a code of conduct and this wouldn't affect them. Anyway, a total vacuum of accountability, amongst other problems.

Frankly the notion of online sexual violence is pretty ridiculous. They really mean 'obscenity' but don't want to sound like a fuddy-duddy.

"There could be clearer communication around what happens when you report an unwanted contact or a questionable or threatening contact, and what the app does with that information," Professor Albury said.

"There could also be a clearer sense of how fast you can expect to get feedback or a very personal response from the app if you report an issue.

"One of the things that dating app users are concerned about is the sense that complaints go into the void, or there's a response that feels automated, or not personally responsive in a time when they're feeling quite unsafe or distressed."

But on the other hand, if they put a bunch of onerous penalties and regulations on dating apps, that's not all bad. Maybe it will undo some of the damage to society if it imposes costs on these apps? On the other hand, they might just move towards more aggressive subscriptions, advertising and general pay2win (pay2fuck?) mechanics...