There is so much happening in the world of algorithmic media to start the year that we had to discuss it on the podcast.
“You have just seen control of one of the most popular social media platforms in one of the most influential countries in the world switch from one foreign power relative to you to another.”
I say algorithmic media because there is nothing truly social about media platforms that decide what you see and how you must behave to be seen. It’s really about control.
The topic of control comes up a lot in this week’s conversation with Anis Heydari, a CBC News senior reporter covering business and economics. A majority American-owned joint venture will finally take control of TikTok’s US business, after years of threats of an outright app ban over national security concerns due to the company’s Chinese ownership.
The ownership swap might solve those concerns, but it certainly raises new questions, including the impact of a revised algorithm retrained only on US user data. That algorithm and the data will be “secured” by Oracle, the US cloud computing company chaired by Larry Ellison, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, the guy who initially floated the whole idea of taking control of TikTok in the first place. Trump’s name anywhere near media (algorithmic or otherwise) is bound to raise eyebrows, and early reports have the new US joint venture changing TikTok’s privacy policy to allow for the collection of “precise location data.”
There are also more practical questions: namely, will there be a US version of TikTok and a global version? If so, which one does Canada get? More pointedly, which one would Canadians prefer?
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If you’ve been paying attention to the news out of Davos, you’ll know that Canada is a middle power on the outs with its largest trading partner. Canada had also raised the broad spectre of national security when it suspended TikTok’s operations (but not its app) in the country. That ban has now been reversed pending new government review, for reasons that are as clear as those for the initial ban (see: not at all). The whole thing is a mess, which might not matter depending on how developments down south play out.
The current state of Grok, the generative AI model created by Elon Musk’s x.AI, is another mess that might be beyond Canada’s control. The model’s predilection for posting non-consensual sexual images (including CSAM) at the request of X users has highlighted gaps in Canada’s deepfake laws, laws which the federal government is currently working to modernize.
Modern laws to address modern problems are one thing, but enforcement is another. AI Minister Evan Solomon has already said publicly that Canada is not considering a ban of X; what happens if (Canadian citizen and one-time Trump supporter) Musk decides that X, x.AI, and Grok need not comply with laws restricting harmful content published to the platform?
Let’s dig in.
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