7 ms·

They should not recommend buying those items together.

adrianN 4y ago
I don't see how you can prevent this from happening without banning recommendations completely. There are lots of ways to combine items so that they become dangerous. I don't think even a human in the loop could prevent "suicide kits" reliably.
- CPLX 4y ago
  I went to my local hardware store the other day to buy a rope. The owner did recommend some good rope options, and he didn't offer me a handy guide to tying a noose and killing myself. So it's possible. I'd venture to guess that store has never actually given teens advice on how to kill themselves. If they were I bet they wouldn't stay in business long. We don't have to excuse these big tech companies for the consequences of what they do. We just don't. We can demand they don't freeze accounts and keep people's money without letting them talk to a human, we can demand they don't recommend harmful products or send counterfeit goods to people, we can demand they don't evade labor laws or local zoning laws. We don't have to put up with this bullshit. I don't give a fuck if Amazon's recommendations engine is cost effective for them. Their business model isn't my fucking problem they need to exist in society in a healthy positive way just like everyone else or they can go out of business.
  - catiopatio 4y ago
    > We don't have to put up with this bullshit. I don't give a fuck if Amazon's recommendations engine is cost effective for them. Their business model isn't my fucking problem they need to exist in society in a healthy positive way just like everyone else or they can go out of business. You’re so ready to make everything worse for everyone just because some two-bit journalists’ clickbait has put you into a state of panicked hysteria over nothing. Your lack of control over your own mental state should alarm you more than this story.
    - TheNewsIsHere 4y ago
      There is room for others to firmly believe that Amazon could simply preclude some items from “customers also bought” product suggestions, when those product combinations create serious issues. That’s all many here are asking to see changed.
  - adrianN 4y ago
    But would you ban stores from also recommending a book on knots when you buy a rope? After all, the book also contains instructions on how to tie a slip knot.
    - CPLX 4y ago
      I am pretty sure if a normal sized store was doing that regularly in a community and a bunch of teenagers ended up dead and concerned parents walked in and begged them to stop and they told the parents to fuck off, there would be a fistfight. The owner of the store wouldn't feel comfortable going to local restaurants. There would be consequences. We live in a fucking society, with people in it. These tech giants are wrecking major parts of it. The degree to which everyone in this thread is just utterly blind to the moral and interpersonal obligations of corporations and unwilling to insist on something better is really something.
  - brokenmachine 4y ago
    I'm going to assume you're from the same country that allows 16 year olds to buy guns and people of any age to buy guns at a swap meet with no paperwork or whatever. I'm sure the gun nuts will come out and correct me if I'm wrong. But I sure know the easiest way to kill myself if I find myself in the US, and it's not ordering some obscure chemicals.

I don't see how you can prevent this from happening without banning recommendations completely. There are lots of ways to combine items so that they become dangerous. I don't think even a human in the loop could prevent "suicide kits" reliably.

CPLX 4y ago
I went to my local hardware store the other day to buy a rope. The owner did recommend some good rope options, and he didn't offer me a handy guide to tying a noose and killing myself. So it's possible. I'd venture to guess that store has never actually given teens advice on how to kill themselves. If they were I bet they wouldn't stay in business long. We don't have to excuse these big tech companies for the consequences of what they do. We just don't. We can demand they don't freeze accounts and keep people's money without letting them talk to a human, we can demand they don't recommend harmful products or send counterfeit goods to people, we can demand they don't evade labor laws or local zoning laws. We don't have to put up with this bullshit. I don't give a fuck if Amazon's recommendations engine is cost effective for them. Their business model isn't my fucking problem they need to exist in society in a healthy positive way just like everyone else or they can go out of business.
- catiopatio 4y ago
  > We don't have to put up with this bullshit. I don't give a fuck if Amazon's recommendations engine is cost effective for them. Their business model isn't my fucking problem they need to exist in society in a healthy positive way just like everyone else or they can go out of business. You’re so ready to make everything worse for everyone just because some two-bit journalists’ clickbait has put you into a state of panicked hysteria over nothing. Your lack of control over your own mental state should alarm you more than this story.
  - TheNewsIsHere 4y ago
    There is room for others to firmly believe that Amazon could simply preclude some items from “customers also bought” product suggestions, when those product combinations create serious issues. That’s all many here are asking to see changed.
- adrianN 4y ago
  But would you ban stores from also recommending a book on knots when you buy a rope? After all, the book also contains instructions on how to tie a slip knot.
  - CPLX 4y ago
    I am pretty sure if a normal sized store was doing that regularly in a community and a bunch of teenagers ended up dead and concerned parents walked in and begged them to stop and they told the parents to fuck off, there would be a fistfight. The owner of the store wouldn't feel comfortable going to local restaurants. There would be consequences. We live in a fucking society, with people in it. These tech giants are wrecking major parts of it. The degree to which everyone in this thread is just utterly blind to the moral and interpersonal obligations of corporations and unwilling to insist on something better is really something.
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  I'm going to assume you're from the same country that allows 16 year olds to buy guns and people of any age to buy guns at a swap meet with no paperwork or whatever. I'm sure the gun nuts will come out and correct me if I'm wrong. But I sure know the easiest way to kill myself if I find myself in the US, and it's not ordering some obscure chemicals.