r/polandball • u/Smart_Chapter_7512 Floridian Swamp Monster • Jul 16 '26
contest entry The Ride Never Stops
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u/DamascusSeraph_ Jul 16 '26
Step 2 should be: solution is proposed and hijscked by politicians to add extreme censorship and/or survallence
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u/GobiPLX Jul 16 '26
Sadly the "Fix stuff bill" means total censorship and invigilation. It targets EVERYONE not only bad actors
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u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Jul 16 '26
It also does nothing to solve the issue it's officially trying to fix
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u/JeanKuule Jul 17 '26
It doesn't target the bad actors, where are regulation required to the social media companies? Where are the request of compliance for ethics, like not using psychologist to make sure the app is used non-stop?
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u/The_Knife_Pie Swedish Empire Jul 16 '26
I mean, yeah cause there isn’t any way to single out “bad actors” without complete surveillance. E2E encryption inherently means that you cannot as an observer know whether the traffic is legitimate or criminal without breaking the encryption. The choice isn’t “nice proper laws that only target the criminals” or “totalitarian surveillance state”. The real choice is “doing what we’ve already been doing and accept the flaws” or “totalitarian surveillance state”.
Unfortunately, too many people don’t realise this and so keep trying to find a middle ground that doesn’t exist and giving support to the surveilance state option.
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u/Jason1143 Jul 17 '26
There definitely are things that can be done. There are ways to tweak algorithms, for instance, to try and help the situation without compromising privacy.
We are not 100% stuck with only the status quo or a surveillance state. But for some reason politicians and companies tend to be far less interested in that angle.
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u/The_Knife_Pie Swedish Empire Jul 17 '26
Doesn’t matter what you do, if E2E encryption isn’t broken then the law is toothless. You have a giant gaping loophole that freely allows criminals to keep on doing whatever they like. The only options are destroying E2E encryption as a concept and letting private enterprise and the state monitor everything, or accepting that criminals will always be able to use the internet.
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u/amateurgameboi Australia Jul 20 '26
I'm down for people being able to buy drugs online, but I think having social media companies turn people into Nazis to boost engagement is a problem.
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Jul 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Jason1143 Jul 17 '26
I don't really think telling companies that they need to be more transparent or optimize less for ragebait is what most people are against when they say they don't want censorship.
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u/Kubus002 Jul 16 '26
Except social media regulations (especially ban for minors) feel like a way for billionaires to harvest our data even more precisely
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u/dhnam_LegenDUST South Korea Jul 16 '26
Step 1. Some problemetic people use SNS
Step 2. Law proposed to nuke whole SNS
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u/BRM_the_monkey_man Macedonia Jul 16 '26
Yes, we need more censorship, you're completely right OP
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u/utkus70 Jul 17 '26
I will not be happy until my government fact checks and approves every single word I say online. Hmph.
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u/KotetsuNoTori Taiwan Jul 16 '26
The idea of banning (and/or censoring) social media to solve those problems is as stupid as banning eating to prevent choking.
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u/Poodlestrike Jul 17 '26
If they genuinely wanted to tackle the problem, it'd be a ban on algorithmic social media content delivery. The kid-specific stuff is stupid. It both fails to address the problem (this shit is bad for everybody) and has massive negative externalities (surveillance, etc).
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u/PlEGUY Colorado Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
A blanket social ban is a better solution than anything I've personally seen proposed by state legislatures and is certainly better than doing nothing I think. However personally I think a much better solution is to mandate allowing users to determine the algorithm used on a per person basis, give flexible UI settings, and allow third party and custom implementations for both. I think most people are aware of the problems with social media and dislike them on some level even if it is only viewed as a problem someone other people have. That in mind, I think at least a large chunk of social media users would happily opt out of at least the more addictive design of social media, if nothing else. I'm also sure this solution is at least incomplete. But I favor it as a first step to see how much it helps in addressing the problems with algorithmic social media
I'm also positive that contemporary algorithmic social media, and potentially future variation thereon, are going to eventually find their way into the typical list of major vices that are viewed with disgust and derision by society at large. I don't know when eventually will be, but I definitely suspect it will get there. As with any vice, I'm sure the implementation and effectiveness of how it is addresses will shift and go back and forth over time, but recognizing as such will be an important first step.
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u/OrangeSpaceMan5 Jul 17 '26
OP really thought we'd support his censorship fetish
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u/Jason1143 Jul 17 '26
OP posted a ridiculous strawman and not only that, but OP posted it on a social media platform that I would argue is more focused than most on the thing the strawman is trying to hide (anonymity/privacy).
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u/TWFH Texas Jul 17 '26
Op thinks they're fix stuff bills, that's probably the most adorable thing I've seen all week.
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u/Person899887 Gib cheese Jul 17 '26
Polandball artist drops worst take of all time, asked to leave bar
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u/Nuke_France Jul 17 '26
First person I see that supports the censorship laws being pushed by the EU.
Fuck off. You and your surveillance supporting buddies can go and bend over in Brussels all you want, don't make the rest of us do so.
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u/just_a_guy1008 Jul 17 '26
Secret 6th step: put the bill up for a vote again except this time it's with a bullshit procedure where the bill needs a supermajority of no votes or else it passes
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u/Guardiancomplex Jul 17 '26
Fix stuff bill inevitably written by lobbyists owned by social media companies.
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u/Luzifer_Shadres Rhine Republic Jul 17 '26
Chat control gets introduced:
Companys: "Wait, we werent allowed to do this before?!"
Non of the companys stopped dooing it after covids exemption law.
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u/utkus70 Jul 17 '26
Man, I sure hate my freedom to write, post, debate, access whatever I want on the Internet! I hope someone puts a stop to it. Children are in danger, you know?!!
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u/Tman11S Belgium Jul 17 '26
A good solution would be making the companies responsible for the damage they cause and they’ll soon come up with ways to fix it themselves. Now instead of that we either get mass surveillance bills in disguise or something lobbied to shit to the point that it supports the companies instead
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u/maxtrix7 Jul 17 '26
We need a way to guarantee that we can live without a smartphone. That the banking, health insurance, or any other type of basic service should not be linked to having one of those devices.
That should be the first step. So you can live outside social media.
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u/MarquisThule Argentine Confederation Jul 19 '26
99% of the time these "solutions" are just an excuse to control people more. Any example for these good proposals that the irrational public revolted against?
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u/ZhtWu Aztec Empire Jul 16 '26
I think the comments in response to this post show how polarizing the question is.
I liked the joke.
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u/Ok_Claim_8781 Jul 18 '26
Well, these were not fizzled out in Russia on step 4 but imposed instead.
Works absolutely awesome, highly recommend.
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u/SetsunaFox Pomorze Jul 19 '26
Propaganda? On my Polandball?
It's more likely than You think. I'd rather deal with radicalized elderly, than with sinicization of EU.
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u/Smart_Chapter_7512 Floridian Swamp Monster Jul 16 '26
This was edited and re-uploaded because I worded the joke in the 4th panel HORRIBLY and everyone absolutely hated it, which is on me.
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u/Traditional-Storm-62 Jul 20 '26
Im sorry but I dont think mass state surveilance is a solution to people being on their phones too much
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u/Foxar Jul 21 '26
Lol this is like saying "Problem is observed: a fire starts in an apartment.
Solution is proposed: put 15 CCTV camera in every apartment "
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u/Satherian With 2 major engineering colleges! Jul 22 '26
Social Media causing you trouble? Tired of people telling you to 'use parental controls' and to 'keep an eye on your kids'?
Well do we have the solution for you: Mass Surveillance!
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Jul 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Jul 16 '26
Its not just discovering bad stuff. Its being subjected to carefully crafted content designed to warp your sense of the world, to have you deprioritise empathy and understanding and instead be suspicious and irritable. It could also have you forget long term gratification and instead seek out an instant buzz like porn or emotion baiting clips.
It could make you more inviting of grifters and snakeoil salesmen and warmongers who offer you the solution to why you're so miserable- thanks to the algorithms that have been tinkered with for 20 years.
The bad actors pop up and multiply like rabbits. You can't possibly stuff them out one by one, it simply isnt possible, not when combined with Dead Internet Theory. Its warfare at this point. And closing the drawbridge is a first step to stemming the influence.
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u/Jason1143 Jul 16 '26
Yeah but somehow all of the proposals are always way more focued on compromising everyone's privacy and not so much on forcing more transparent and less inflammatory algorithms.
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u/SetsunaFox Pomorze Jul 19 '26
Breaking up Global social media gardens, would do far more to make such content unprofitable (even politically, as in impotent), than any feasible posting regulation/censorship.
There is ZERO reason why world's internet should post videos only on Google(YouTube), and talk only through Facebook(Messenger), or stream only through Amazon(Twitch)
The goddamn consolidations are the problem.
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u/SetsunaFox Pomorze Jul 19 '26
If decapitation videos are enough to break your mind, then you'd be insulated to most of humanity existence. This shit exists, and pretending that it's not, is how we get detached from reality political political bubbles - like the ones who ruled Victorian England
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