Apparently, very few people learnt something from #CambridgeAnalytica.

The problem was not (just) #Facebook selling your #data to evil guys.

It was #evil guys manipulating your beliefs through #SocialNetworks thanks to such data.

So you should ask yourself: how did I become so easy to manipulate?

One word: #segmentation.

It's a old #marketing technique that constructs homogeneous groups to target.

Facebook do this algorithmically.
You do this manually on #mastodon, through block and anger.

@Shamar does this argument have space for the nuance between blocking someone because they are different vs blocking someone because they are harassing you vs blocking some because they are not directly harassing you specifically but the things they post are triggering and without CW vs other decisions like that?

(I'm struggling to think of a time when I've blocked because of "differences".)

@mikeburns

Sure. Nobody is obliged to accept harassment.

Blocks exists exactly for trolls.

And I'm not shaming anyone: the evaluation of your actions is ultimately up to you.

I just want people to reflect about what #FreeSpeech is. If you don't want to #listen you should not #talk. And if you just want to listen to people like you, you should not speak where different people may listen and respond.

But if you speak in a #public place...

@mikeburns

... like the fediverse, where strangers may read and boost your toots, you should accept some level of triggering from strangers and you should also consider to follow some of them.

You cannot really please everyone, so it's always possible that one of your toot will trigger someone else. If you can't accept her response, you should not toot.

OTOH, if you get an open dialogue with honest but different people, you open your mind.

@Shamar
I have yet to see the block feature used for anything besides trolls and harassers, TBH. Have you seen otherwise?

@mikeburns

This url should show you the last case: https://mastodon.social/web/statuses/100001489093977233

I can't see it, as I'm blocked.

I do not think what I said could be considered as trolling or harrassing.

Now, I do not really care about it, but if you imagine this at a scale, you can see how people isolate themselves in echo chambers even on the fediverse.

@Shamar
Looks like we've confirmed my point.

@mikeburns

Hum, so do you think that's harassment or trolling?

@Shamar
In your subtoot you implied that you were blocked because you "were different." Is that what this is? In which way?

@mikeburns

Not because I am "different", I'm a pretty boring hacker after all.

Apparently I was blocked because I had a different opinion from the blocker.

Now I do not care about that specific block. But I like to talk with people that are different from me, because I already know what people like me know.

So I like to engage discussions with people that are more interesting than me, people I do not agree with from the very beginning. /1

@mikeburns

Unfortunately it seems like that's not so common in the fediverse as it is in Italy.

Many people don't listen if you don't tell them what they like to read, and if you keep reasoning (peacefully and listening and asking for the reasons of their opinions) with them they don't even mute the conversation, they block you.

So in practice I suspect that people are so used to echo chambers, that they've lost /2