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Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

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Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#201

Post by mucker »

nostrademons wrote: post #93
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, trying to solve this problem by creating a definition of "misinformation" sufficiently precise to act on it for all possible articles, then trying to remove it somehow is probably an AI-complete problem. If it's not AI-complete it's probably just plain an ill-formed question. That's before we ask questions about the biases that get embedded into the misinformation detector. This can't be fixed at Facebook scales…

This is a problem with human wetware - there are several cognitive biases [1][2][3][4] that make people engage more strongly with ideas that fit their preconceptions and discount ideas that don't. Add information-sharing to the mix and the aggregate effect you get is large information cascades that fracture the population into tribes that believe things not necessarily because they're true, but because they are state…

As someone points out Copernicus was not killed. And it illustrates the problem of FB putting its finger on the scales. Ever.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#202

Post by [deleted] »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #94
jerf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, trying to solve this problem by creating a definition of "misinformation" sufficiently precise to act on it for all possible articles, then trying to remove it somehow is probably an AI-complete problem. If it's not AI-complete it's probably just plain an ill-formed question. That's before we ask questions about the biases that get embedded into the misinformation detector. This can't be fixed at Facebook scales…

It's almost as if solving the problem of truth is antithetical to the notion of having a for-profit entity be the main channel of [legit|mis-]information in our world. It's almost as if the way we understand and use money has hardened into a giant screwball of lies, base instincts, and perverse incentives. Almost.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#204

Post by tedunangst »

234dd57d2c8db wrote: post #121
Spellman wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personally asked an individual why they don't trust snopes. Their claim is that it's a Democrat rag towel and shill. I then ask, then what fact-checker would you trust? Their response: None of them. Congratulations. We've reached a point, for this individual, where "facts" as decided in the common forum are suspect and the only thing they trust is themselves (and whatever non-Mainstream Media they listen to).…

Have you done any research at all on snopes? I just spent 5 minutes on google and found that one of snope's main "fact-checkers" is Kim Lacapria. She used to write for a blog called "The Inquisitor", a site known for posting bad news stories, similar to the right-wing Alex Jones programme. They have published fake quotes and stories without doing research: http://www.inquisitr.com/670091/retraction-and-apology-to-ro.…

Your comment is missing the link to the snopes article that's wrong.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#205

Post by andoma »

malchow wrote: post #17

It seems abundantly clear that the problem isn't low-quality content in the feed. That's unavoidable. It's the very small trickle of high-quality content in the feed – content from actual people who want to contribute to Facebook. There isn't much of it. And Facebook wants to show a fresh feed every refresh.

Having uninstalled Facebook from my phone and being too lazy to login on it from my primary computer (2fa) I only look at the feed maybe once every other day. Amazing how much better it is. Relevant and interesting stuff from real friend I care about, no junk. I can recommend that to everyone.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#206

Post by razakel »

rwhitman wrote: post #140

If you do a root cause analysis of this election's result, much of it points back to Silicon Valley in one way or another. Workforce automation created millions of unemployed people in places far away from economic hubs, with no hope of employment in their hometowns or re-skilling for the new roles, leaving them desperate. Proliferation of mobile apps lead to an explosion in use of social media. The wild popularity o…

>Workforce automation created millions of unemployed people in places far away from economic hubs, with no hope of employment in their hometowns or re-skilling for the new roles, leaving them desperate.

So did the Industrial Revolution.

We may mock the Luddites for breaking the Jacquard looms. But do you know what the punishment for frame-breaking was? Execution.

The Industrial Revolution made way for the tertiary-sector economy. When the tertiary-sector economy becomes redundant, what is next?

There are no politicians talking about this.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#207

Post by tedunangst »

mstade wrote: post #70

I read somewhere that Facebook isn't liable for information posted there, that the user's posting the information is the liable party. Here in Sweden, that's not how news organizations work. Here, whatever they publish they are liable for, regardless of who originally wrote it. I know Facebook isn't a news organization, but it's treading a fine line isn't it? At some point one might argue that by being an aggregator…

And the same for Hacker News?

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#208

Post by MisterBastahrd »

dasil003 wrote: post #185
yolesaber wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Telling people who aren't aligned to with the liberal intelligentsia to fuck off is exactly what got us in the current mess. I am so sick of this argument that Trump's victory is somehow the fault of bubble-trapped city-dwelling liberals for not understanding how the rest of the country thinks. Trump supporters are the ones who have either been manipulated to vote against their own interests; implicitly elected a Re…

To put some perspective on this, I am from Minnesota, I was there in 1998 and I helped Jesse Ventura get elected. It had a remarkably similar vibe of unexpected victory up-ending the establishment. Of course Jesse Ventura is much more of a rational and thinking man than Trump, but the race was similar in that no one took him seriously and he won in a huge upset against the major party candidates. The thing with Trump…

If you want to know why Trump got elected, it's because most people don't have a basic clue as to how the foundations of this country actually works. Seriously, go ask 100 random people what the national debt is, and I doubt you'll get more than 1 or 2 who have any sort of clue.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#209

Post by mucker »

Or Facebook can take their thumbs off the scale on what is supposed to be friends sharing information. Do you realize how Orwellian it is for a big company to say friends Bobby and Sally have to be monitored in what they share? How does this not bother people?

I don't care if Bobby and Sally believe that we never made it to the moon and wear tin foil hats. It is _none of FB's damn business_. They are a _platform_ not the editors of all things true. They should not issue us all with truth detectors.

Re: Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

#210

Post by japhyr »

It's also on us to resist the temptation to build social media bubbles around ourselves, and to poke into each other's bubbles. Every time I've wanted to block a friend or relative on facebook, I've put my phone down and come back to it later. Looking away from people we disagree with isn't working.

My cousin shared a post this morning asking why people on the left aren't celebrating the fact that a female campaign manager helped put someone in the white house for the first time. I wasn't sure what to say as his friends piled on to say things like "Yeah, I thought they were for women's rights?!" Here's the response I finally came up with:

I'm not celebrating her "success" because I imagine my facebook and twitter feeds look a lot different than yours. My feeds are filled with first-hand stories from women around the country who are being more openly harassed than they were last week. It's happening often enough that's it's really dismissive to say "Oh those are just a few assholes." People are openly harassing women in the name of Trump.

I think when we act as consumers of social media we need to stop building our own bubbles, and reach out into other's bubbles. And when we help build social networks, we need to intentionally structure them in a way that maintains connections, rather than isolating individuals and groups.

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