I worked on a media recommendation model with access to high volume Facebook share data. In between web spam and what most people consider journalism is a sea of algorithmically tuned content mills that recycle outrage headlines with garbage tier ‘content’. Failing media outlets cycle downward into this territory, but the most effective ones seem to be purpose built to farm clicks. They are shockingly easy to identify – Google pagerank domain credibility of zero and 1,000,000 shares per week? nah, bro – and we burned them all out of our recommendation engine.
But the salient point here is that they are absolutely massive part of Facebook’s share traffic. FB knows it, and they can dial it up or down whenever they want. FB could, with a single blow, destroy this entire ecosystem to the benefit of actual journalists and Facebook users worldwide. But they don’t.
I just finished watching an excellent documentary, The Social Dilemma. It really seemed to get at the root of what’s wrong with internet advertising. It’s not just Facebook, not by a long shot.
But the real take-away remains slightly buried, still. At some previous point Faceberg deliberately flipped a secret switch to actively favour right wing nut jobs and disfavour mainstream credible mainstream media.
I mean we all knew it, but … here it is confirmed. Makes one wonder what all the right-wing fuss was at the congressional hearings about how Zuckbook was biased against the right.
Not sure I fully follow all this, but I think the gist is that Zuckface and these people are all in a parasitic sociopathic self-supporting relationship?
I actually don’t object to the timing of this “secret switch”. If it had happened before the election then US Conservatives would have hyped it up more than the Russian interference in 2016. By doing it after they avoided the interference charge but still had the changes in place during Trump’s efforts to change the election outcome.
Make no mistake, this is about $$$ for Facebook. They’re trying to strike a balance between keeping their users engaged and interested (controversial news is great for that!), staying family friendly (controversial news is bad for that!), and seeming neutral (seeming to censor controversial news is bad for that!).
They don’t want to be seen as throwing elections for one side or the other.
I really doubt that. They built algorithms to promote news articles built on engagement, which fringe news sources are far more able and willing to exploit. Since then they’ve been trying to figure out a way to de-emphasize the fringe without seeming to censor conservatives or lose the engagement those trolley jobs drive.
You know it’s bad when the judge presiding the trial feels compelled to apologize to the defendant in the name of the Judicial Branch of the United States.
The food that’s bad for you and doesn’t taste good just drops out of the market, Although inexplicably Tootsie Rolls and Candy Corn are still a thing. I blame passive-aggressive people who secretly hate kids.
This only proves that he was influencing Facebook all along and what people saw.
The idea that Facebook was somehow neutral is ludicrous because even algorithms are programmed for a purpose.
I joined Facebook at the very beginning when it started when I was a college student and I was on there for over a decade and then in 2016 I saw how toxic it was and deleted my account and I’ve never looked back.
I refuse to use any social media at all, in fear that it will just be bought by Facebook or Google or someone else. I’m tired of Corporations knowing fucking thing about me voluntarily or otherwise
I probably should too. I’ve had a Facebook account since about 2006, but stopped using it in 2016. Now I have an identity there, so people can tag me in pictures, but I don’t know it’s happening. I keep thinking I should cancel it, but I worry it will make it hard to interact with people and organizations who use Facebook as their online presence.
Those applauding censorship should remember that it is ALWAYS turned against the Left. The idea that Facebook (or Twitter) should be the arbiters of who constitutes a “credible” news source and who doesn’t is very creepy. FB and Twitter both regularly censor voices that are adversarial to power, including those on the Left. Pro-Palestine voices are censored off FB at the request of the Israeli government, anti-War voices and other dissident voices of all stripes are regularly disappeared off social networks.
I’m not sure which straw men you’re talking about. All I see here are people pointing out Zuckerberg’s craven and cynical move in switching back to favouring mainstream media outlets instead of far-right outlets it gave equal weight to during Il Douche’s regime (the former, for all their faults, still being far more credible than the latter).
As for progressive left outlets, assuming they participate there against their core principals they always get the shaft from Facebook – not because of bad ol’ Israel or the M-I-C but because they’re calling for anti-trust action, corporate governance reform, and higher taxes on billionaires.
