The Supreme Court May Overhaul How You Live Online

upstart writes:

The Supreme Court may overhaul how you live online:

On my Google Discover page, for example, I was seeing loads of stories about cancer and grief, which is not in line with the company's targeting policies that are supposed to prevent the system from serving content on sensitive health issues.

Imagine how dangerous it is for uncontrollable, personalized streams of upsetting content to bombard teenagers struggling with an eating disorder or tendencies toward self-harm. Or a woman who recently had a miscarriage, like the friend of one reader who wrote in after my story was published. Or, as in the Gonzalez case, young men who get recruited to join ISIS.

So while the case before the justices may seem largely theoretical, it is really fundamental to our daily lives and the role that the internet plays in society. As Farid told me, "You can say, 'Look, this isn't our problem. The internet is the internet. It reflects the world'... I reject that idea." But recommendation systems organize the internet. Could we really live without them?

Speaking of the State of the Union, Biden called out Big Tech several times, offering the clearest signal yet that there will be increased activity around tech policy-one of the few areas with potential for bipartisan agreement in the newly divided Congress.

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