- But what gave these trolls power on platforms wasn’t just their willingness to act in bad faith and to break the rules and norms of their environment. It was their understanding that the rules and norms of platforms were self-serving and cynical in the first place. After all, these platforms draw arbitrary boundaries constantly and with much less controversy — against spammers, concerning profanity or in response to government demands. These fringe groups saw an opportunity in the gap between the platforms’ strained public dedication to discourse stewardship and their actual existence as profit-driven entities, free to do as they please. Despite their participatory rhetoric, social platforms are closer to authoritarian spaces than democratic ones. It makes some sense that people with authoritarian tendencies would have an intuitive understanding of how they work and how to take advantage of them.
Is one solution a non-commercial social media? I'm reminded of the diaspora* project, the decentralized social media network.
Honestly? I think it has to go the other way. I think a platform that has no accountability fosters a community that has no accountability. Imagine what Reddit would look like if, starting in 2007, they had to make advertisers happy the way say Disney does. You think RedPill exists? TheDonald? Commercial success is one rein on behavior. There are others, but fundamentally, anonymity makes people horrible. The difference between Reddit and Hubski, on that basis, is that Hubski relies on pseudonymity because the handles matter, whereas on Reddit or Twitter it doesn't (on Reddit it used to, sort of). If you look at your Facebook graph you will discover that the most bitter-ass fights on there are between total strangers on someone else's post. The most circumspect discussions are between people who actually know each other. Reputation constrains individuals and reputation constrains companies; the reason Reddit, Facebook, Twitter &c are such shitpiles is that the owners and operators of that site get to hold up their hands and say "ain't us, it's freeze peaches!" and shift the blame to people who literally cannot be blamed.