It has become a serious topic on the future of social media and the use of internet on these platforms. What appears and what does not appear in the recommendations of users on social network is one of the great controversies of recent years. Biased information, recommendations that lead to extremes or false information are usually some of the problems faced by platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. The solution proposed by Twitter? I am not responsible for what is recommended.
During a call with investors in recent hours, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey shared his idea for the future of social media. As he explained, the idea would be that the user can choose between different recommendation algorithms. In other words, what the social network itself offers is not the only recommendation option that exists. Other than what Twitter wants to show on Twitter, other than what Facebook wants to show on Facebook. An algorithm app store where the user decides which of them he prefers.
In this way, on Twitter, for example, we could have an option that tweets and recommendations are displayed according to Twitter’s preferences, but also a way in which it is according to the preferences of another company, for example Google or TikTok. For Jack Dorsey, this would imply greater flexibility for the user and consequently a greater range for access to the global conversation. This last point is where they benefit.
With this change, Twitter would also remove some restrictions and legal problems that may appear in the future about what should and should not be moderated on the platform (as happened recently with Donald Trump). As not all recommendation algorithms are yours, the problem also happens to others. Twitter has been looking to drain this bump for a while.
What Twitter CEO says about future of social media
For the last year Twitter and especially its CEO have been focusing on creating a decentralized social network. In creating a Twitter that stops depending on Twitter and is in the power of the users and not of a company or organization. Similar to what happens with the Internet as a protocol or with Bitcoin as a currency.
All of this is being embodied in Bluesky, the project through which Twitter is seeking a new standard for a decentralized social network. The truth is that decentralized social networks already exist, however they have never become popular and fully established. If you are part of a large social network already implemented, things may be different. At the moment, however, it continues with very early and diffuse ideas, like this one of offering several algorithms in the same social network.
Via | Theverge
