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Re:Ask HN: What do you think about “The Social Dilemma”? by dsanchez97 on Monday September 14, 2020 @01:22PM (#24472653)
Like a lot of other people that replied, I enjoyed the documentary because it provided the information in a more accessible way. I think the documentary does a good job explaining the current harms of these companies, but I think the problem can be viewed more clearly through the lens of externalities (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality). As discussed in the film, these companies curated feeds are shaping peoples realities and creating a more divided society. Like with most externalities, the way to account for this cost is through regulation. I think that a tax that increases exponentially with each ad served (over a certain period of time and then it resets) would be an interesting idea that could adjust the business model to not optimize for addictive behavior.

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