Azeem Azhar's Exponential View / Season 5, Episode 18

Fixing the Social Media Crisis

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Social networks are polarizing communities and spreading lies. Can we engineer a healthier online ecosystem?

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February 24, 2021

Social networks polarize communities and spread misinformation. Professor Sinan Aral, director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of The Hype Machine, joins Azeem Azhar to explore what makes these networks so powerful and how we can engineer our way to a healthier online ecosystem.

They also discuss:

  • Why powerful “network effects” lead to social media monopolies.
  • Why forcing interoperability and “identity porting” is the key to healthy competition.
  • Why repealing Section 230 of the (U.S.) Communications Decency Act of 1996 would be a disaster for free expression on the internet.

@sinanaral
@azeem
@ExponentialView

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