Anecdotal: apparently this isn't work for me. My news feed is FILLed with conservative election news. How can I enable this feature ;)
Apparently you are too conservative according to Facebook? Or too many friends that are conservative?
Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
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Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#72People 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?
Yes libertarians would be pissed if right-leaners control news. But the topic here is facebook. Let's stay on topic.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes libertarians would be pissed if right-leaners control news. But the topic here is facebook. Let's stay on topic.
Stop telling people what the topic is, please. This is a public forum, you can't control other people's conversations, or determine the validity of their interests.
Post a comment about Facebook that's worth replying to if you want to steer things away from politics.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#74Anecdotal: apparently this isn't work for me. My news feed is FILLed with conservative election news. How can I enable this feature ;)
This is about the trending news section (top right of the screen on desktop), not the newsfeed.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#75This 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…
Of course there is "conservative news" and "liberal news". Liberal news is things that happened, things that will happen, etc. Conservative news is a made up stories, things that never happened, etc. Example of trending "conservative news": Obama bans the phrase "Merry Christmas". E.g. http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines-2015/barack-obama-bans-...
>Of course there is "conservative news" and "liberal news". Liberal news is things that happened, things that will happen, etc. Conservative news is a made up stories, things that never happened, etc.
So what do you call Vox and Rolling Stone? Do you really have such a simplistic view of the world, where half of America is a bunch of morons with no legitimate gripes? You are destroying America. You are spreading division and hatred instead of understanding and reasoned arguments. I wonder if you would say the same thing if you were commenting with your real name.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes libertarians would be pissed if right-leaners control news. But the topic here is facebook. Let's stay on topic.
Stop telling people what the topic is, please. This is a public forum, you can't control other people's conversations, or determine the validity of their interests. Post a comment about Facebook that's worth replying to if you want to steer things away from politics.
@krapp
EDIT: I said stay on topic, because some will try to go tangent to prevent meaningful discussion on the real topic. Much like politicians not answering questions. This achieves one's goal of causing FUD to keep the person/organization's brand from getting tarnished.
If facebook comes out saying it's not true, will anyone really believe them, knowing their past practices?
Facebook has a lot of eyeballs looking and thus influence, and so the higher-ups there now want to use it to influence others. Much like celebrities do.
And they got to such position of influence using not so good tactics. Are people ok with this? My guess is not.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#77> “It was absolutely bias. We were doing it subjectively. It just depends on who the curator is and what time of day it is,” said the former curator.
> Other former curators interviewed by Gizmodo denied consciously suppressing conservative news, and we were unable to determine if left-wing news topics or sources were similarly suppressed. The conservative curator described the omissions as a function of his colleagues’ judgements; there is no evidence that Facebook management mandated or was even aware of any political bias at work.
It sounds like any issues were from curators who weren't being adequately supervised, instead of top-down orders from executives at Facebook.
This is different than what the current Hacker News headline suggests. Can we all collectively read the article and understand that the issue is different than our preconceptions lead us to believe?
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#78> “It was absolutely bias. We were doing it subjectively. It just depends on who the curator is and what time of day it is,” said the former curator. > Other former curators interviewed by Gizmodo denied consciously suppressing conservative news, and we were unable to determine if left-wing news topics or sources were similarly suppressed. The conservative curator described the omissions as a function of his colleagu…
Or Facebook has learned the art of Plausible Deniability.
If the bias happens during hiring (by preferring candidates who naturally lean left), then Facebook merely needs to give them curation power without giving explicit instructions.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#79It has been blatantly clear something is up with their Trending algorithm when you notice there is a Trending: Hillary Clinton header on top of every single shared Bernie Sanders article. Never once have I seen a Trending: Bernie Sander header.
Given Facebook's influence and the sheer size of their userbase, the potential long-term implications of this particular kind of manipulation are... unsettling.
I am not surprised Facebook has been doing this.
It's ironic. Silicon Valley is all about question the authorities. Ask why.
And now we hear stories like these Orwellian like practices...
This will be another interesting topic historians will examine years from now. What happens when an outsider/outcast/underdog group becomes the insiders/powerful. Do they act like tycoons in the past (using power to preserve itself) or keep true to the spirit of outsider/outcast that may lead to its demise?
I vote for Silicon Valley powers becoming like the past tycoons.
Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Yes libertarians would be pissed if right-leaners control news. But the topic here is facebook. Let's stay on topic.
I am staying on topic. That I ask a followup to identify the extent of where someone stands on an issue isn't going off-topic. The parent made a statement about ideological leaning informing their ire toward information suppression. I was curious if it was one-way ire. Since you aren't the parent, I don't think you're able to answer my question.
Moreover, the topic here isn't just Facebook, but their suppression and intentional modification of news and information based on a specific ideological bias.