Comp 2008
Assignment 3
Question 1)
“I watched the video.”
Question 2)
a) According to the Article 3 of the universal declaration of human rights, adopted by the
United Nations in the year 1948, always confirms that everyone has the right to live, be free,
and safe. If an online platform has no rules or moderation, it goes against this most important
right. Without moderation, things like threats, harassment, and hate speech can spread and
deliver without control. This makes users feel unprotected and affects their well-being. When
a platform does not protect its users from harmful content, it fails to uphold the basic rule of
personal safety and Security.
b) One of the biggest issues with Chatter’s purely utilitarian approach to content moderation is
that it purely prioritizes the “greatest good” meaning that it only focuses on what makes the
most people happy which can stop the innovative and important new ideas that challenge
the norm. Specifically, when Galileo stated that the earth moves around the sun, many
individuals did not believe the fact that had predicted initially. However, his revolutionary
idea faced some discrimination as it only allows well-known beliefs to be accepted which
may ignore the Galileo’s groundbreaking discovery. Similarly, not everyone believed in
Albert Einstein’s new ideas, and he also faced criticism for their unconventional theories.
Additionally, those people who speak out against the injustice like whistleblowers may
have their posts removed if others disagree. Everyone should be allowed to express their
own point on thoughts and opinions, even if not everyone agrees with him.
c) Everyone in this rapidly changing modern world engages with social media apps such as X,
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky. But establishing consistent regulations for every
nation is quite challenging. Specifically, this is because various locations possess their own
unique cultural norms, regulations and ideas. For instance, in 2020, TikTok was banned in
India due to various concerns regarding the national protection and safety, whereas users in
numerous other nations still actively use the app. In addition to that, another significant point
is that AI sometimes finds harder to recognize local humor and and jokes because of various
distinct ascent of language and cultural standards. Generally, changing social standards and
AI’s limitations make it harder to uphold fair and equitable laws everywhere.
Question – 3)
a) According to Jon Ronson’s TED Talk on online shaming, a key difficulty with
Chatter’s Report System is the delayed response and mob-driven censorship.
Ronson shares the story of Justine Sacco, who posted a sarcastic tweet before
boarding a flight: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m
white!” While Sacco intended to make a joke to show how unfair the world can
be. But many people took it differently what she was meant to be and the tweet
went viral while she was travelling. By the time she landed, the outrage had
already destroyed her reputation and job and most of the people were unhappy
with her. However, Rohnson says these systems should be fair, but they often hurt
people instead. They make people feel shame and ruin their lives. He reminds us
that every tweet comes from a real person with feelings.
b) One of key concern with the auto-detection systems based on the Justin Sacco’s scenario of
the John Ronson’s TED Talk is that they cannot understand the emotions and humor which
are hidden behind them. However, the algorithms only look for bad and offensive language.
For instance, the system recognized someone posts to be very silly tweet about Africa,
because it was the dangerous words like “AIDS” However, the person was trying to be just
kidding, not the mean! In addition, to that, sometimes the system makes mistakes as they
make overlook posts that are damaging or prohibit those that are harmless. Thinking about a
robot trying to figure our human emotion. Robots find this difficult because they don’t
acknowledge the feelings well. When we cannot see the rules without considering the
reasons behind how people express themselves, we might end up hurting their feelings.
People use words to be funny or to appear strong, but computers miss these nuances. The
key here is being kind and empathetic, abilities that only humans genuinely possess and
excel at.
Question -4)
Having a decentralized structure would indeed help. each community sets its own standards of
acceptable behavior. This approach enables users to find spaces that match their values, with
human moderators who engage more judgments rather than relying on automatic content
blocking. By distributing control across independent servers, each community sets its own
moderation rules and prevents centralized control by allowing users to choose platforms that best
reflect their individual preferences and values. Chatter can attract users by giving them more
freedom while keeping things in check. This is to build in clear rules that stop problems before
they start.