Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 368 posts

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#51

Post by Shivetya »

mc32 wrote: post #44

Yes they are a private publicly traded company and they are within the law to manipulate news or whatever they want with their platform in most places at this time. However, if they were to become a clearinghouse for information I would think eyes of scrutiny would descend and look at how they attempt to manipulate news and opinion. It's not clear who (in the hierarchy) is behind the decision to shape the news nor is…

Well when your company leadership proclaims how they lean it certainly lends direction to those who work there. As for why would the suppress, those in power will tend to use it and many will justify it as fixing the system after all they are the smartest people they know so how could they be wrong?

Really the media has been slanted off and on for some time and most techies are very one sided if not blinded by altruistic claims that can never be delivered. Its the only song and dance of "its for the children" - who is going to say they don't like children

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#52

Post by DanielBMarkham »

People are people. In a way this isn't news at all.

The problem is that these companies are hiding behind the "But it's all just an algorithm" defense, when, in fact, as we all suspected, there are real people behind the scenes slanting things.

My gut tells me that a lot of tech companies are subtly controlling the types of news their consumers get. Overall this is probably a good thing -- helps keep the quality high. But I'm a libertarian. If a bunch of left-leaning folks start controlling what I consume from a political angle and not just quality angle -- and then lie about it? Really pisses me off.

Yes, you're a private company. Do whatever you want. It's the lying that's the problem here -- and the implication that the electorate needs people better than they are to control and guide what they're allowed to talk about.

I bet we continue to hear about this, and in places most people would never suspect, over the coming decade or two. This is unacceptable, and something is going to need to give somewhere.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#53

Post by djur »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #42
morgante wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it suppressing free speech? It's not keeping you from posting ridiculous pro-Trump tirades. It's not even hiding those tirades from your friends. All it's doing is choosing not to shine a spotlight on conservative stories which aren't corroborated by mainstream sources.

> conservative stories which aren't corroborated by mainstream sources. Conservativism is mainstream. Part of the problem is that many people who are not conservative have been lead to believe that it is a marginal/extreme ideology. It is not. It may be a majority ideology, but it is at a bare minimum a the second most common. For what it's worth I don't consider myself a conservative.

The 'conservatism' espoused by a plurality of Americans is not necessarily the 'conservatism' of Breitbart and Red State. The activist left and right on the Internet are a small minority of even politically involved people. It is dangerous to assume that these outlets represent a substantial proportion of voters.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#54

Post by nil_is_me »

bobwaycott wrote: post #41

This is obviously very bad from the standpoint that the trending news section is ostensibly supposed to be organic, based on user behavior, and free of bias—except that which is inherent in the users themselves sharing things to be picked up as "trending". It appears that "trending news" has really been "curated news". Not cool at all. More concerning than trending news actually being curated news is learning that ne…

I agree that it is imperative to understand the biases present in the media we encounter. It is not possible to have a neutral news outlet. The mere choice or what to cover or not to cover is a judgement call. Some people might consider PBS or NPR to be neutral, but in fact they have a strong point of view in their choice of coverage and tone. Same with the major print and broadcast outlets. As this election cycle has made clear, everyone has an agenda in their coverage.

Personally, I would rather read sources on the various extremes of the spectrum and make the choice of what to trust myself. The most neutral (in my mind) coverage of US Politics I can find is foreign media such as the BBC.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#56

Post by bobwaycott »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #52

People are people. In a way this isn't news at all. The problem is that these companies are hiding behind the "But it's all just an algorithm" defense, when, in fact, as we all suspected, there are real people behind the scenes slanting things. My gut tells me that a lot of tech companies are subtly controlling the types of news their consumers get. Overall this is probably a good thing -- helps keep the quality high…

Genuinely curious:

As a libertarian, are you equally pissed off when a bunch of right-leaning folks start controlling what you consume from a political, and not just quality, angle—and then lie about it?

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#58

Post by morgante »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #42
morgante wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it suppressing free speech? It's not keeping you from posting ridiculous pro-Trump tirades. It's not even hiding those tirades from your friends. All it's doing is choosing not to shine a spotlight on conservative stories which aren't corroborated by mainstream sources.

> conservative stories which aren't corroborated by mainstream sources. Conservativism is mainstream. Part of the problem is that many people who are not conservative have been lead to believe that it is a marginal/extreme ideology. It is not. It may be a majority ideology, but it is at a bare minimum a the second most common. For what it's worth I don't consider myself a conservative.

> Conservativism is mainstream.

I never said that conservatism can't be mainstream. There are plenty of conservative outfits that are part of the mainstream (the WSJ, for example).

Brietbart, however, is not mainstream. Even many Republicans dislike it. Facebook also shouldn't include articles from dubious/questionable liberal equivalents like the Daily Kos.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#59

Post by [deleted] »

ChemicalWarfare wrote: post #34
carsongross wrote: post #17

I am a conservative and I see nothing wrong with this. It is their software and their servers, after all. I want a collapse in trust in the major social networks. This is the internet we are talking about. Let them suppress, and let them see what happens.

If this was a partisan media outlet like CNN, NBC/MSNBC, ABC, etc etc ad nauseam or FOX news (is there any other conservative network?), then yeah this would be expected. The issue here is for the 'unsuspecting user' Facebook doesn't present itself as a partisan resource. There's nothing 'wrong' with this per se as long as the user understands who they are dealing with, which articles like this one help in that respe…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN