Sure, but do we really want to platform to take an active and knowing hand in shaping politics?
Right now they have an effect through algorithms, but their actions don’t seem to be coordinated towards any goal other than increasing engagement with the platform. This is actively different than pitching centrist content to extremists because the platform owners are centrists themselves.
What if the platform owners become extremists like Parler?
Up until 3 or 4 years ago, I was nearly a free speech maximalist. Now, it seems clear that society is poorly equipped and adjusting poorly to social media.
I think giving more control to centrist platforms is the least bad of all the bad options I see. I'm not sure how to mitigate the long-term risks introduced, but the bifurcation of society appears to be a slow motion car crash in progress.
I'd love to be convinced that there are better options, especially if they allowed me to move closer to free speech maximalism.
I think it would help to change middle school and high school civics curricula by adding cognitive biases, logical fallacies (including some basic statistical fallacies), and other tools to better handle social media.
Right now they have an effect through algorithms, but their actions don’t seem to be coordinated towards any goal other than increasing engagement with the platform. This is actively different than pitching centrist content to extremists because the platform owners are centrists themselves.
What if the platform owners become extremists like Parler?