WEBVTT - Thinking is Critical 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.000 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.040 and I love all things tech and a lot of 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.000 you out there who have been listening to this show 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.680 for a while, I know that I like to get 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.400 on a soapbox about critical thinking, and I also talk 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.800 a lot about compassion and how I believe we really 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.480 need to employ both critical thinking and compassion together if 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.240 we are to be good human beings. In many places 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.280 around the world, including here in the United States, we 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.520 are seeing a play by play of what happens when 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.360 we ignore critical thinking and compassion when we do not 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:01.240 incorporate those qualities into our systems. When we do that, 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:04.560 then there are people who are specifically left out of 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.479 those systems who suffer because of those systems, from pandemic 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.680 responses to people on the sidelines who are judging the 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.360 actions and motivations of protesters who, let's face it, are 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:21.480 actually just asking that they be treated like human beings. 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.640 This is a problem that has a real world negative 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:31.360 impact on countless lives. We need to examine ideas and 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.880 claims carefully and make sure that those ideas and those 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.200 claims have merit. But we also need to remember that 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.520 other people are you know people. Some of them might 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:48.480 be knowingly engaged in creating or perpetrating falsehoods for whatever reasons, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.200 and that's obviously bad. You know, if their motivations are 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.240 bad and they're acting on those bad motivations, they are 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.400 not good people. But others might be doing this without 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.760 realizing it or noing that the information that they're spreading 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.960 is wrong, which is also bad, but that is potentially 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.720 reparable with the right approach. So today's episode is going 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.080 to be another one about critical thinking and probably a 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.840 bit of compassion thrown in there too, and I'll frame 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.480 it within the context of technology for the most part. 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.520 I'm not going to do a rundown of you know, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.240 current events. But please keep in mind that we should 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.000 be employing these qualities everywhere, not just when it comes 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.280 to should I buy this gadget or is it too 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.560 good to be true? Critical thinking really is about digging 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.560 beneath the surface level of a topic or an issue 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.400 to understand what's really going on. And it's related to 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.760 stuff like the scientific method, and it's a skill that, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.960 like most skills, gets better the more you use it. 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.799 It's not the same thing as outright denial. I'm not 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.079 telling you to go out and just deny stuff. It's 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.720 really more about asking questions and looking for the answers 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.960 and evaluaiting those answers, and if the answers hold up, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.120 then accepting those answers, even if the answer doesn't align 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.440 with what you had already guessed was going to be 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.080 the answer You've you've got to be willing to accept 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.320 it if it holds up under evaluation. And one other 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:20.480 thing I want to get out of the way is 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.480 that I don't mean to come across as being on 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.760 a high horse here. I want to tell you guys 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.400 something that I am not very proud of. It took 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.760 me an embarrassingly long time to really embrace critical thinking. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.560 I didn't even hear the term until I was in college, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.080 and my professors talked about it as though it had 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.280 been part of my education the entire time, and it wasn't. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.960 And while I learned about critical thinking in college, I 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.920 was not good at it. I'd say it wasn't until 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.360 I was in my mid thirties that I started really 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.480 understanding it and employing it, and to this day I 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.200 still slip up. It's not unusual for me to realize 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.440 that something I had previously just accepted really required more 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.800 scrutiny and understanding. So you can think of this episode 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.200 as being inspired by my own slow journey toward critical thinking, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.440 a journey that's still going on today. But let's start 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:18.200 with the obvious. We've all seen countless advertisements of variable 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.280 messaging and quality, and we all understand that ads are 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.320 intended to motivate us to spend money on goods or services. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.400 That includes stuff like political ads too. By the way, 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.080 in those cases, you can think of the transaction as 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.240 a vote rather than an exchange of money, unless we're 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.120 talking about ads that are asking for campaign contributions, in 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.800 which case, yeah, that's similar to an ad trying to 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.360 sell you a new car or pair of sneakers or whatever. 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.560 So let's think about this from the perspective of someone 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.120 who designs ads. Their job ultimately is to create something 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.800 that motivates the audience to take action. Moreover, that action 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.360 typically means motivating them to spend some of their own 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.240 money on a product or service, and that could be 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:06.279 a tough hill to climb right, So someone who is 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.839 good at creating ads has to think about how to 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.640 frame their subject in a way that speaks to the 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:16.320 intended audience. Typically, these ads need to convince that audience 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.520 that whatever is being sold is something that the audience 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.400 actually needs. Now, if whatever is being sold is already 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.400 an established thing, that's not as difficult, right. I mean, 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.120 if I'm trying to sell microwave ovens, I don't have 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.760 to explain what a microwave oven is because those have 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.159 existed for decades. Moreover, folks tend to understand the use 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.479 case for a microwave oven and how they can really 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.960 be convenient and fast compared to other methods of food preparation. 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.640 So all of that groundwork has already been done for me. 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.920 But let's say I come out with a new product, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.000 or a product that hasn't really established a firm foothold 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.520 in the market. Now I have to convince my audience 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.159 that the thing I have created or that I am 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.000 tasked to sell is actually useful. I will have to 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:07.280 demonstrate how it solves a problem or and these ads 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.880 are particularly clever, I have to convince my audience that 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.800 they have a problem. They were previously unaware of, you know, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.279 the problem they never knew they had, and that my 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.839 product solves that problem. I'm sure you've seen examples of 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.880 ads or critiques of ads that have some variation of 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:23.640 the phrase it solves a problem and you didn't even 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.680 know you had. That, by the way, is a red flag. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.839 But we're going to get to red flags a little later. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.039 So that's one of the responsibilities that add creators must meet. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.240 Another is to convince the audience that the specific variant 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.799 of the goods or services that the ad is about 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:44.839 is superior to all others in that same category. Going 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.880 back to the microwave oven, if I were to try 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.039 and market a new oven, I would need to convince 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.080 people that the oven I was producing was better than 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.040 the dozens of other variations that are already on the market, 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:56.760 or else I'm not going to get a good return 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.440 on my investment. I'm not gonna sell many ovens, so 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.919 I need to come people my microwave is the best 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.760 in some way. Maybe it's less expensive, maybe it's more 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.279 energy efficient, maybe it heats more evenly, or maybe I 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.760 just claim some combination of these things and then try 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:15.880 and go for that all of this needs to be 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.040 conveyed in an effective way to the audience, and that 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.240 means it needs to grab attention, It needs to be memorable, 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.640 and typically it needs to be short and really skilled 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.680 advertisers have become adept at sussing out some basic psychology 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.120 to trigger our impulses. So let's talk about some of 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.600 those red flags I just mentioned. I already said that 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.000 the concept of solving a problem you didn't know you 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:42.440 have should be a warning. In some cases, it may 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.560 very well be legitimate. The product or service might actually 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.440 take care of something that otherwise we had to do ourselves, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.480 and we never even thought twice about it because in 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.440 our experience there was no way to offload that task. 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.800 But there is no shortage of products, particularly in the 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:04.720 as seen on TV category, that really don't solve anything. 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.840 They might create an alternative way to do something, but 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.000 they don't actually save any one time or effort. They 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.160 might not even work as well as the more established 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.679 methods they're supposed to replace, and they also cost you money. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:21.920 You have to buy these things, right, so that would 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:23.760 mean for you it would be a net loss if 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.200 you bought one. As a rule, I assume any product 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.960 that relies on videos of actors being comically incapable of 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.280 doing something simple like opening a carton of milk to 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.760 fall into this category. Another red flag falls in line 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.000 with the old saying if it looks too good to 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.120 be true, it probably is. I think that's saying can 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.319 be applied to about of all the ads I see 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.520 whenever I visit Facebook. I can't tell you, guys how 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.000 frequently I've seen ads for stuff like electric guitars that 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.959 really go whole hog on this one. Now. I've been 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.120 doing a lot of research on guitars because I'm thinking 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.480 about finally learning to play one, but because I'm browsing 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:08.040 online to learn this stuff, and because I have not 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.400 taken better precautions to hide my browsing from Facebook, and 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.040 that is totally on me, I now get flooded with 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.079 ads for guitars when I look at Facebook. These ads 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.520 frequently claimed to sell some brand named guitars, stuff like Fender, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.920 you know, the Fender Strato Caster or the Gibson Less Paul, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:30.560 but for ludicrously low prices. A guitar that could cost 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.000 six dollars or more will list on one of these 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.400 ads for so talk about the temptation. If you're an 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.720 aspiring musician or someone who's been playing on an entry 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.199 level instrument, but you would love to own something more professional, 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.840 more high end, that sounds like an incredible offer. The 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.760 ads I saw typically said that whatever store was posting 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.439 the ad was going out of business, or that they 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.520 had to make room for new stocks, They had to 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.320 do a clearance sale of all this old inventory, and 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.440 the ad was creating a fiction to make it seem 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.440 as though there was some justification for those low prices, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.480 to give at least some sense that this possibly could 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.960 be on the up and up. Now did those ads 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:16.160 tempt me? Yeah, I'm human, But I also didn't believe them. 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.079 Immediately I was suspicious. So I decided that I was 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.080 going to start opening up these ads into another browser 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.760 and look at the landing page. And I immediately grew 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.800 suspicious of them because the language was very similar to 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.400 other ones I had seen before, the details about the 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.559 page were really sparse, and also as soon as I 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.040 opened up more than one of them, I saw that 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.640 these ads, which were supposedly all for different companies and 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.160 different guitar shops, they all had different names and different 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.160 U r L s They all landed on pages that 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.520 were identical except for the U r L address, So 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.679 I wasn't getting redirected to the same website. No, there 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.280 were duplicates of this same web site. That's dead giveaway. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.920 It's an indication that someone is casting as wide a 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.920 net as they can to try and trick people into 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.320 a transaction. So what is actually going on here? Well, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.720 with many of these companies, most of which are running 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.400 places like China, the whole operation is a bait and switch. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:19.880 The goal is to convince people that they are buying 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.160 something legitimate, like a Fender stratocaster, but it could be anything. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.520 It could be a costume piece, it could be some 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.240 other gadget, it could be knives, you name it. But 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:31.800 what the company will ship will be some sort of 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.040 cheap knockoff. And most companies won't even attempt to hide 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.120 this fact. It's just apparent as soon as you receive 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:44.239 the package. These companies are very slow to ship those products, 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.600 and really the goal is to waste enough time so 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.280 that by the time you finally get whatever that cheap 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:54.319 knockoff is, it's really hard for you to cancel that transaction. 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.120 The transaction is already gone through, and it's hard for 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.120 you to get your money back. Many of them have 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.520 no return policy, or they do have a return policy, 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.920 but it's going to cost you more to ship the 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.559 product back to the company then it cost you to 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.520 buy in the first place. So that one hundred dollar 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.920 cheap knockoff of a Fender stratocaster would end up costing 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.880 me two hundred dollars to ship back to the company 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.840 for a refund. So it's a net loss. So you 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.240 don't get the thing you actually, you know, paid for, 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.079 and you're left with no real way to fix that situation. 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.800 And since the company is operating out of another country, 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.480 you don't really have many options to seek justice. Now, 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.400 in my case, I started marking these ads and reporting 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.120 them to Facebook as being misleading, and this would prompt 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.600 Facebook to essentially block those ads from appearing on my page. Now, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.320 it didn't mean that Facebook removed the ad, It's just 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:50.679 that I didn't see it anymore. But here's the thing. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.840 As soon as I would block one version of that ad, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.200 I would see another one that was nearly identical to 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.680 the first one, and it would go to a different 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.920 you are l but it was on that exact same 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.760 style web page, the same layout, same pictures, everything, So 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.440 it was the same scam. And then I would report 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.680 that ad, and then I would see another, And I 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.160 must have gone through at least half a dozen of 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.480 these before I stopped seeing versions of that ad. So today, 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.160 if I go to Facebook, I don't see that one anymore. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.040 But doesn't mean that there aren't other ads that are 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.840 following in this same pattern. And again, none of this 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.120 means that Facebook is actually not running those ads for 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:35.040 other people. Facebook's revenue is almost entirely dependent upon advertising. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.680 It is not in Facebook's financial interests to come down 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.240 hard on advertisers and demand that they are transparent and honest. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.280 If Facebook institute those rules, it would lose out on 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.400 millions of dollars of revenue every quarter. So Facebook has 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.920 a financial incentive to run those ads and to serve 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.960 as a platform for advertising that's both good and bad. 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.920 Bad ads will only hurt Facebook if there's a large 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.880 enough response among users, and typically that would mean that 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.719 users would have to abandon the platform or or just 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.680 not use it at all, or somehow block ads across 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.319 all the Facebook. The company's standpoint is really more hands 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.320 off and essentially saying caveat intour or buyer, beware the 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.840 responsibility of figuring out which ads are legit would fall 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.720 to you, the user, not to Facebook. This also applies 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.480 to Facebook's stance on misinformation. Now, if you are in 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.560 the United States, you've likely seen a lot of news 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.960 about Mark Zuckerberg saying that he doesn't want Facebook to 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.880 be an arbiter of truth. He doesn't want Facebook to 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.600 declare to users which posts reflect honest messages and which 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.080 are misinformation, And he frames in a way that makes 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.920 it sound like Facebook is trying to be an agnostic 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.800 platform upon which people can express themselves. Freedom of speech 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.840 the first Amendment in the United States, and that to 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.960 act otherwise, we mean Facebook would have to replace this 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.800 with a company of proved expression of ideas. So, yeah, 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.400 they're framing it is a very much a free speech 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.400 kind of issue. But is that what's really going on? 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.600 When we come back, we'll consider some alternatives by applying 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.000 some critical thinking. But before that, and I know this 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.840 is going to sound totally hypocritical, We're going to take 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.240 a brief break to thank our sponsor, and by the 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.720 end of this episode I'll have more to say about sponsors. 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:30.080 And ads in our podcasts in particular. But first, let's 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:40.560 take that quick break. Zuckerberg says he doesn't want his 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.600 company to dictate what is truth, and he frames it 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.560 in a way that seems to say, who are we 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.840 to decide what is truth and what is false? And 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.560 that's a fairly compelling argument, right. I mean, I don't 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.400 know about you, but I don't love the idea of 0:15:55.440 --> 0:16:01.160 some centralized authority deciding seemingly arbitrarily, which are true and 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:05.240 which ones are false. We've seen throughout Facebook's history that 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.360 whenever the company tweaks their algorithm, people get mad because 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.960 they see only a selection of the posts their friends 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:14.640 are making. Every time it happens, I have to look 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.880 for the settings that allow me to view Facebook posts 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.200 by most recent rather than whatever factors Facebook thinks are 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.480 more important to me. And even then, I know I'm 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.800 not actually seeing everything my friends are posting in reverse 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.120 chronological order. I'm just seeing some of it. So I 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.160 think that not wanting to be the arbiter of truth 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.800 is part of the reasoning. I think that's a kernel 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.000 of truth with Facebook. But I also think it's not 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.320 the only, or perhaps not even the primary reason for 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.560 that decision. So let's think critically about Facebook and how 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.640 Facebook makes money. So, as we already mentioned, Facebook makes 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.400 money through advertising, and it doesn't have a huge incentive 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.560 to make sure that those ads that are running on 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.920 the platform are for legitimate businesses and purposes, though the 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.600 company definitely does have an interest in preventing anything that 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.480 would be damaging to Facebook from running on that platform. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.800 But another component to this is that Facebook makes more 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.600 money the longer people stay on Facebook actively. So if 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.119 you can convince people to actively stay on Facebook for longer, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.040 you can serve them more ads, and that means you 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:27.080 make more money. Therefore, it benefits Facebook to employee strategies 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.640 that keep people glued to the website longer. One way 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.760 to do that is to design algorithms that show posts 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.680 that are proven to get more engagement than others. And 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.920 by engagement, we're talking about stuff like posts that get 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.000 lots of comments or a lot of people are sharing 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.040 it to their own pages or friends pages, and the 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.199 number of likes that those posts are getting, Posts that 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:55.080 encourage people to participate and perpetuate essentially, and those are 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.720 the posts that keep people on Facebook longer. Thus, those 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.879 are the ones that mean more ads can be served 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.639 for longer amounts of time to those people. In the 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.560 business model for Facebook, all of this is a good thing. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.200 So it's in Facebook's interests to design algorithms that can 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:16.480 identify the types of posts that are driving engagement and 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.680 then serve them to a larger spectrum of Facebook's users. 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.720 Remember I said earlier, I know I'm not seeing all 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.880 of the stuff my friends are posting, even when I'm 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:29.960 trying to view my Facebook in you know, chronological order. Well, 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.480 that's because Facebook is kind of choosing which ones I 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.840 see in which ones I don't, And usually it's trying 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:38.200 to pick the ones that are more likely to drive 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.000 high engagement, and those are the ones I'm seeing. Once 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.040 you understand that that's how Facebook works, you can start 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.720 to craft posts that take advantage of this property. You 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.600 can game the system. You can build stuff that by 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:55.960 its very nature, is designed to drive engagement. Now, it 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.200 doesn't have to be true. In fact, if you restrict 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.720 yourself to posting stuff that's only true, you're not likely 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.720 to drive that much engagement. But it does need to 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.600 be really compelling. Things that are more outrageous or tap 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.919 into basic emotional responses, whether positive or negative, tend to 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.080 work really well. So it is with that understanding that 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.680 people can craft messages that contain misinformation and have those 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:27.200 messages perpetuate quickly across platforms like Facebook, and those messages 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.000 can be really harmful. And whether the person who made 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.920 the message intended to push a specific agenda, or they 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.560 wanted to discredit some other point of view they don't 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.160 agree with, or they just wanted to find a way 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.399 to drive engagement for whatever reason, the motivations are immaterial. 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.400 They could range from irritating but mostly benign to downright 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.440 mean spirited, but the outcome ends up being the same. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:54.679 Misinformation spreads like wildfire across Facebook and beyond. And if 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:58.280 you are encountering misinformation all the time, and it's popping 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.040 up like crazy in your feet and being re and 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.119 forced that way, you start to get the impression that 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.840 that stuff is the real deal, even if it doesn't 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.920 sound legit to you. The fact that Facebook can become 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.080 a fire hose of misinformation helps reinforce those messages, even 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.920 if the messages themselves lack merit. I compared to living 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.119 in a place like China or North Korea, where nearly 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.800 all messaging requires state level approval, and that means the 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:27.560 government gets to dictate what information the citizens can access. Well, 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.159 that sort of thing is bound to shape thoughts and opinions. 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:35.320 If you never get to see anything outside the approved stuff, 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:37.679 then you have no idea that it even exists. We 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.760 don't have this innate ability to know the truth from falsehood. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.359 Facebook meanwhile, has little incentive to change anything. Facebook isn't 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:48.720 in the business of trying to make things better for 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.760 the average person. That's not their business model. There in 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.520 the business of making money, and that increased level of 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.960 engagement drives revenue, which means more money for Facebook. Acting 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.800 against that would go against the company's self interest. Moreover, 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:08.960 there's a concept that's important to Facebook's operations called safe harbor. Now, basically, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.800 this concept is that if a company is acting as 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.639 a means of communication, it cannot be held responsible for 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:20.560 the stuff that's said using that company's services. So let's 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.720 say that if someone were to call up another person 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.760 on the phone and then they threatened that person. So 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.400 person A calls person B and issues a threat over 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.879 the phone, the phone company would not be responsible for 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:38.000 that horrible act. The phone company just runs the infrastructure 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.040 that was used to make the phone call. The same 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.560 sort of concept generally applies to platforms like Facebook. The 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.280 idea is that if a user were to post something 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.919 illegal or disruptive on Facebook, the company wouldn't be held responsible, 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.119 particularly if the company could show that it had acted 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:59.040 promptly in response to complaints or reports about the transgression. 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.800 If face book takes a stance on misinformation, there might 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:05.240 be a fear that it would be shifting in a 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.040 role of accountability, which might seem to undermine the safe 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:13.400 harbor argument. In addition to that, monitoring posts and labeling 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.200 stuff that is spreading misinformation as such, or removing such 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.200 messages or whatever the plan is, would require an investment 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:24.560 on Facebook's part. The company would have to spend time, energy, 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.119 and resources, and all that boils down to money to 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.880 create a method to identify and label or remove posts 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.960 that are promoting misinformation. So not only would Facebook be 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.399 cutting back on the types of posts that drive engagement 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.760 and thus generate revenue, the company would also have to 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.480 pour money into that effort. Asking a business to spend 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.560 money so that it can make less money is a 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:54.600 pretty tough argument. It's no wonder Zuckerberg as opposed to it. Yes, 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.560 it would be a huge responsibility to determine which messages 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.800 reflect reality and which do not. It would bring Facebook 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.000 under enormous scrutiny and criticism. Any person or group or 0:23:06.040 --> 0:23:10.480 whatever that saw messages being labeled or removed would raise 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.119 an enormous stink over it, and the company would have 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:15.480