We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads | Zeynep Tufekci
We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads | Zeynep Tufekci on HackerTube: recommended by 6 Hacker News commenters across 6 separate months, 2017–2026.
Technosociologist Zeynep Tufekci argues that the machine-learning systems used to serve ads also decide what political and social information people see. She explains how opaque algorithms can nudge, segment and manipulate users, and warns that the real danger is powerful people using AI to control populations.
What HN commenters said
9 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
kaizenbAug 2026Strongly recommends
uBlock team is the modern times heroes fighting the good fight for us. Thanks to them I've been navigating the web with peace of mind for a long time. Sometimes I find myself thinking how our lives would be if couple of guys didn't build shitty tech startups. We've gone from creative advertising to these manipulative online marketing scams, that attack our brains, especially targeting young generation, which effects how our societies, behaviours, art and culture develop. Recommend watching: "We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says technosociologist Zeynep Tufecki. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren't even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us -- and what we can do in response." ▶ this video
in “uBlock Origin Is Giving Up the Fight to Keep Ads Off Facebook” · View on HN
DarkUraniumFeb 2026Recommends
There's literally a name for using this on purpose: stochastic terrorism. There's also a very good TED talk on this topic from 8 years ago : ▶ this video
in “The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling” · View on HN
inglor_czJan 2021Recommends
That is not the case of YouTube, though. YT pushes recommended videos on you. There is an interesting speech by Zeynap Tufekci on this topic: ▶ this video
in “Facebook to staff: Avoid company-branded clothing for own safety” · View on HN
save_ferrisMay 2020Recommends
> Anecdotally of course, as one of those tech-folks who's got nothing against good and relevant ads. Be careful what you wish for. This TED talk[0] on persuasion architectures brings up some interesting moral arguments against this idea. If we generally accept that ad conversion is a metric of an ad's success, how do we handle the situation where people that are susceptible to addictive behaviors like gambling and compulsive shopping are exposed to ads that exploit their condition? Data-driven advertising systems are built particularly well to find and exploit these kinds of people. We already see this a lot in the scam call/email world. Once you fall for one, the amount of inbound traffic you receive from scammers increases dramatically. 0: ▶ this video
in “Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive” · View on HN
redux13Feb 2018Recommends
This comment is highly understating the power of social media micro-targeting by dubbing it as buying a few ads on FB and running twitterbots. I would request you to check out the Ted talk by Zeynep Tufekci ( ▶ this video ) to get a sense of how effective social media campaigns can be.
in “The FBI, CIA and NSA say American citizens shouldn't use Huawei phones” · View on HN
greggmanDec 2017Recommends
you may have seen it but there is a really scary Ted talk suggesting that it's possible Facebook is using deep learning techniques to optimize for engagement and they have no idea why it picks what it picks but it's possible making people choose sides and argue happens to be the best way to meet its goals ▶ this video
in “A friend of mine died and I didn't know because of algorithms” · View on HN
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zawerfSep 2018Cites it
> Now, is it worth discussing the enormous power Google has over people's perceptions as a result of their market dominance? Absolutely. There was a TED talk covering this titled "We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads"[1]. It talks about how the same ad serving infrastructure that can segment populations into whether they are likely to buy X, can also segment people by political affiliation. Then you can simply target them and remind them to vote on election day (and it actually works and statistically affects voter turnout/results). It is kind of crazy to think that the next election might be won by whoever can make a deal with Google/Facebook to target the precise swing voters they need. Facebook/google might even do the kingmaking themselves if they can figure out how to do it without backlash/leaks. [1] ▶ this video
in “Google workers discussed tweaking search after travel ban” · View on HN
tobrSep 2018Cites it
You’re repeating what I wrote - Big tech is likely to produce new tech, but new tech comes from other places too. This discussion is mostly irrelevant to the fact that this particular company is completely reckless and unethical. The technology they accidentally produce while building a dystopia to make people click on ads[1] does not justify anything. 1: ▶ this video
in “Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users” · View on HN
HenryBemisMar 2018Cites it
15m 34s, Zeynep says: "as a public and as citizens" [1] And HERE is the problem. Facebook sees us ONLY as Product (our data) that can manipulate/buy/sell - and treat us accordingly. Advertisers see us ONLY as Consumers they can sell to - and treat us accordingly. Politicians see us ONLY as Votes (not voteRs) they can snatch - and treat us accordingly. And we let them. [1]: ▶ this video
in “We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads (2017) [video]” · View on HN