Network Algorithms: Who Protects Us? / Multimedia Editor's Analysis

A few days ago, I came across a reel of The Daily Show where Jon Stewart gave a very interesting catharsis about social media algorithms: “That place everyone considers 'free speech' is the least free of all; social media algorithms incentivize engagement for their own financial gain, and that's manipulation.”

For the presenter, social media works like "free food" at a casino: "It's not free! It's not a free space to share ideas; it has a plan of manipulation."

And he's absolutely right. While Europe and the United States are experiencing major debates on this topic, in Latin America and Colombia we are in a very poor state of ignorance, culminating in an official syndrome of "do not care."

So, so traditional and direct: no one cares today, neither in the State, in Congress, nor in entities like the Ministry of ICT, about understanding and containing the extremely serious influence of social media algorithms on our society and economy; about the way these media outlets (because that's what they are, even if their lawyers are skilled lobbyists to say otherwise) are misinforming, manipulating, and, in the least (but serious) of cases, littering the population, especially the youngest, with garbage under the guise of "humor," with misogynistic content, micro-violence against women, poverty, or highlighting "the narco-life dream."

The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) , a technical body that has stood out for its firm confrontation, even against attacks from the current government itself, is launching an interesting debate on the relevance of having "intelligent regulation" that considers the effect of these algorithms on the way Colombians are educated and informed.

The interesting thing about the idea of ​​the CRC is that there should be an open and public debate that results in measures that do not affect the rights of individuals or the media with improvised or arbitrary decisions, but that do allow us to understand how we create a framework for the responsible use of these digital tools in order to create, distribute and access information in an ethical manner and in the service of society.

Furthermore, there's talk of achieving a collaborative governance process with the responsibility of all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem, including, of course, the social media giants. They're very adept at trying to maintain the innocuous sense of "community self-management" as a shield for continuing their irresponsibility.

In a few years, we will see with horror what we have been experiencing for decades: a clear understanding of how we were vulgarly manipulated, controlled, and channeled ideologically, politically, and economically by digital industries that obeyed everything except freedom of expression and truthful, reformable information.