Facebook isn’t free speech, it’s "algorithmic amplification optimized for outrage"

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/21/facebook-isnt-free-speech.html

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For all their supposed skills with programming, techno-utopians (especially the white male Libertarian variety) quickly and conveniently forget that no algorithm is neutral. Zuckerberg knows exactly how to play to that crowd with his freeze peach BS.

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I love reading BoingBoing every day, but could we stop with the photoshopping mouths onto eye sockets please? Zuckerberg is horrifying enough without retouching the image.

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Facebook is a Disneyfied version of networking before it. I have no doubt that they learned from Usenet and mailing lists, and created something people would buy. Most people want “controlled”, so they get what they want.

That doesn’t make it good, but it’s not just facebook’s fault.

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stefonaccurate

Making an account just to complain about the @beschizza’ed eyes is a great way to ensure he does this to the end of time (although this is a @frauenfelder post)! :rofl:

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yeah I moved on from the mouth eyes to subtler overtures

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Subtle indeed… I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed out your work. Clearly you gave him deader eyes than normal.

Nice work sir!

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I was going to say, “you’re new here, aren’t you” but BBS has already taken care of that.

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Don’t you know that just encourages @beschizza to do it more often.
I find it a nice improvement to the creeping horror that is Zuckerberg personally.

ETA beat to it by @Mindysan33

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Most advertisers want controlled.
Because you don’t want to scare off potential customers.

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I love reading boingboing every day as well, but can I please get it without all that boingboing?

If by “controlled” you mean they want their own little bubble, then yes, that’s why the Bookface exists.

So, don’t hate the player, hate the game?

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And I vote this process continues unabated, forever.

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Love reading boingboing but trying to work out how to block the photoshopped images without blocking all the rest of the images.

for me, it was a good joke for a while but has grown very thin. You can have too much of a good thing!

I might just go to reading BB in text only mode if I can’t put a good block in place.

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Just before reading this, found this Twitter-thread about current-day social-media operations by Russia’s Internet Research Agency.

I’m wondering why Russia goes through the bother when US-based corporations are doing their best to delude citizens and destroy our democracy.

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They probably want more of the credit.

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It was already back in the early 2010’s that it dawned on me that FB was promoting/suppressing posts, and that I couldn’t just review my feed from the last 24 hours for a chronological account of what happened that day. That’s when FB became completely useless to me and it wasn’t long before I deleted my account.

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I disagree, at least where this particular image is concerned.

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It was my first comment. You assume, wrongly, that it was also my last.

I did not assume it was your last. Just noting that complaining about @beschizza’s modifications is a good way to get him to do more.

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Honestly just summoning me will get me posting something horrid and yet unusued from the hopper.

lovely nigel

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