"Apps" and "algorithms" seem to be driving literally everything about society now. I don't think this is a good thing, nor do I see the trend reversing. These giant black boxes now control the levers of modern society, and the companies that own them get to hide behind their "terms of service" to avoid any responsibility for the damage being done.
Every significant review system is being gamed to the point of being unusable, and yet stories about not being able to trust them keep being reported as if this were somehow noteworthy. For every one of these stories that rises to a thread on HN, how many other small time vendors are getting screwed by someone who is willing to pay a room full of people in some 3rd-world country to debase their competitor's online presence?
The platforms these companies provide have been so useful and successful that they have both become oligopolies and are a big part of how society operates nowadays. Think like electrical grid or roads.
But it's still not stabilized, society has not yet found out how to deal with all this.
It's like when there were no speed limits for cars or standard signage. There was more freedom but it was way more dangerous and unpredictable and also as a result, not yet as useful as it could be.
It's not necessarily anybody's fault. A company like Google maybe sees itself as a company but it's way past that. It really provides quite essential platforms for people, families, cities, you name it. And also the platform for content creators and developers and businesses.
Many of these don't have a proper contract with the platform. It doesn't scale to have lawyers to be involved in every point to point dealing either.
My assumption is that there is going to be maturation of these platforms, common rules and terms. Governments and WTO could be involved.
Every significant review system is being gamed to the point of being unusable, and yet stories about not being able to trust them keep being reported as if this were somehow noteworthy. For every one of these stories that rises to a thread on HN, how many other small time vendors are getting screwed by someone who is willing to pay a room full of people in some 3rd-world country to debase their competitor's online presence?