How Much Is a Click on the Internet Really Worth? - The Atlantic - 0 views
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To that end, supplying attention itself can be an act of complicity in the unethical actions of a platform. The mere act of choosing to look at something online generates real value for a company, materially helping to support its staff, its content, and the social interactions that a platform plays host to. This is why a website like Do Not Link exists: It promises a way to share a link from a website without boosting that site’s standing in search rankings.
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I don’t want to reward them or contribute in any way to this disgrace by linking to it: Google it if you must.”
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The web of information stitched together by an individual as they browse and publish across the Internet is also implicitly a web of support for the content being linked to.
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Reddit introduces a wrinkle precisely because it is a user-generated platform. For one, no one (yet) has claimed that the individuals contributing racist or sexist content are affiliated with Reddit as employees of the company.
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What appears to be relevant in the Reddit case is the notion that the company has exercised a kind of negligence towards the organic behavior emerging on the platform. While Reddit does not create the content or even promote the content, the failure to act makes continued use of the platform tantamount to a moral complicity in the emergent behavior of other users.