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From the start, there were signs that Clubhouse was speeding up the platform’s lifecycle. Weeks after its launch, it heard claims it allowed harassment and hate speech to proliferate, including large rooms where speakers allegedly made anti-Semitic comments. The startup has been pushing to update its community guidelines and add basic blocking and reporting functionality, and its founders have made the requisite Zuckerbergian apology tour. (“We unequivocally condemn anti-darkness, anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism, hate speech and abuse on Clubhouse,” read a post on the company’s blog in October.)
The company has also been accused of mismanaging user data, including a report from Stanford which found that the company could have routed certain data through servers in China, potentially giving the Chinese government access to sensitive information about them. users. (The company has pledged to lock down user data and submit to an external audit of its security practices.) And privacy advocates have opposed the app’s aggressive growth practices, which include ask users to download their entire contact lists in order to send invitations to others. .
“Major privacy and security issues, a lot of data mining, use of dark models, growth without a clear business model. When are we going to learn? Elizabeth M. Renieris, director of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, wrote in a tweet this week comparing Clubhouse now to the early days of Facebook.
To be fair, there are some important structural differences between the Clubhouse and existing social networks. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which revolve around central, algorithmically organized feeds, Clubhouse is organized more like Reddit – a group of themed, user-moderated rooms with a central ‘corridor’ where users can browse current rooms. . Clubhouse rooms disappear once they’re finished, and saving a room is against the rules (although it always happens), which means that “going viral” in the traditional sense is not not really possible. Users should be invited to a room’s “stage” to speak, and moderators can easily start unruly or disruptive speakers, reducing the risk of a civilized discussion being hijacked by trolls. And Clubhouse does not have advertisements, which reduces the risk of profit seeking mischief.
But there are still a lot of similarities. Like other social networks, Clubhouse offers a number of “discovery” features and aggressive growth hacking tactics designed to draw new users deeper into the app, including algorithmic recommendations and personalized push alerts. , as well as a list of suggested users to follow. These features, combined with Clubhouse’s ability to create private and semi-private rooms with thousands of people, create some of the same bad incentives and opportunities for abuse that have hurt other platforms.
The app’s reputation for lax moderation has also drawn in a number of people who have been banned by other social networks, including Numbers. associated with QAnon, Stop the flight and other extremist groups.
Clubhouse has also become a hotbed for those disappointed with social media censorship and criticism of various custodians. Attacking the New York Times, in particular, has become something of an obsession among Clubhouse addicts for reasons it would take another full column to explain. (A room called, in part, How to Destroy the NYT lasted for many hours, drawing thousands of listeners.)
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