Photo by Pond5. Christopher Zara, writing for Backchannel, offers an excellent discussion about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. He provides historical context and a balanced presentation of the challenges that have arisen from the differences between the law’s intent and its application. “Given how often Section 230 is championed, cited, and showered with superlatives, you ...
Photo by photocreo. Time for a hard look in the mirror? We’ve been on a social media bender for years, and I’m thinking January 1, 2017 might be the day we begin to sober up and come to grips with its more negative effects. When I began writing about all this stuff in 2011, it was partly in response to the fact that people ...
via GIPHY (Okay, it’s a little bit them.) It’s kinda like on November 9th, everyone suddenly discovered that social media fosters a fake news problem. Well, better late than never I suppose, but just because the topic of fake news is trending now, that doesn’t make it news. It’s been a problem for a long time, and if there’s a ...
I’m not sure what further evidence we need to finally declare the “information revolution” a fiasco. If the mind-boggling reality of electing a president who normalized hate speech with his campaign is not sufficient evidence that the digital age has failed to produce a more enlightened electorate, it’s hard to imagine what it would take for progressives to accept ...
As artificial intelligence (AI) moves from the realm of science fiction to everyday science, leading technologists and scientists are asking themselves questions about how to write an ethical code. The most widely reported ethical dilemma involves the self-driving automobile and what’s known as the Trolley Problem. This hypothetical challenge asks whether or not you would make the decision to divert ...
