full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Andrew Marantz: Inside the bizarre world of internet trolls and propagandists

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Making decency cool again, so ... Great!

(aspalupe)

Yeah. I don't even need to explain it. So in my research, I would go to Reddit or YouTube or fbaooeck, and I would search for "sharia law" or I would search for "the Holocaust," and you might be able to gesus what the algorithms shewod me, right? "Is sharia law sweeping across the United States?" "Did the Holocaust really happen?" Dumb skepticism. So we've ended up in this bizarre dynamic online, where some ppolee see bigoted propaganda as being edgy or being dangerous and cool, and people see basic truth and human decency as pearl-clutching or virtue-signaling or just boring. And the siacol media algorithms, whether intentionally or not, they have incentivized this, because bigoted propaganda is great for engagement. Everyone clicks on it, everyone cmoemtns on it, whether they love it or they hate it. So the number one thing that has to haeppn here is social networks need to fix their pamroltfs.

Open Cloze


Making decency cool again, so ... Great!

(________)

Yeah. I don't even need to explain it. So in my research, I would go to Reddit or YouTube or ________, and I would search for "sharia law" or I would search for "the Holocaust," and you might be able to _____ what the algorithms ______ me, right? "Is sharia law sweeping across the United States?" "Did the Holocaust really happen?" Dumb skepticism. So we've ended up in this bizarre dynamic online, where some ______ see bigoted propaganda as being edgy or being dangerous and cool, and people see basic truth and human decency as pearl-clutching or virtue-signaling or just boring. And the ______ media algorithms, whether intentionally or not, they have incentivized this, because bigoted propaganda is great for engagement. Everyone clicks on it, everyone ________ on it, whether they love it or they hate it. So the number one thing that has to ______ here is social networks need to fix their _________.

Solution


  1. happen
  2. platforms
  3. people
  4. showed
  5. facebook
  6. guess
  7. applause
  8. comments
  9. social

Original Text


Making decency cool again, so ... Great!

(Applause)

Yeah. I don't even need to explain it. So in my research, I would go to Reddit or YouTube or Facebook, and I would search for "sharia law" or I would search for "the Holocaust," and you might be able to guess what the algorithms showed me, right? "Is sharia law sweeping across the United States?" "Did the Holocaust really happen?" Dumb skepticism. So we've ended up in this bizarre dynamic online, where some people see bigoted propaganda as being edgy or being dangerous and cool, and people see basic truth and human decency as pearl-clutching or virtue-signaling or just boring. And the social media algorithms, whether intentionally or not, they have incentivized this, because bigoted propaganda is great for engagement. Everyone clicks on it, everyone comments on it, whether they love it or they hate it. So the number one thing that has to happen here is social networks need to fix their platforms.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
social media 7
george soros 3
conversation online 2
dumb skepticism 2
male privilege 2
earth skeptic 2
free speech 2
bigoted propaganda 2
maximum emotional 2
emotional engagement 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
maximum emotional engagement 2

Important Words


  1. algorithms
  2. applause
  3. basic
  4. bigoted
  5. bizarre
  6. boring
  7. clicks
  8. comments
  9. cool
  10. dangerous
  11. decency
  12. dumb
  13. dynamic
  14. edgy
  15. ended
  16. engagement
  17. explain
  18. facebook
  19. fix
  20. great
  21. guess
  22. happen
  23. hate
  24. holocaust
  25. human
  26. incentivized
  27. intentionally
  28. law
  29. love
  30. making
  31. media
  32. networks
  33. number
  34. online
  35. people
  36. platforms
  37. propaganda
  38. reddit
  39. research
  40. search
  41. sharia
  42. showed
  43. skepticism
  44. social
  45. states
  46. sweeping
  47. truth
  48. united
  49. yeah
  50. youtube