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Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

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Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#111

Post by MBCook »

xienze wrote: post #31
thatonechad wrote: post #20

false news according to "fact checkers" are not 100% accurate and depends on the statement in which they are checking. you can see this by the careful choice of words in which something may be claim to be true or false when all actuality its more complex than that. it is weird why facebook would be getting into the realm of censoring things at all.

> it is weird why facebook would be getting into the realm of censoring things at all. Not really. The entire Valley is beside themselves over Trump being elected and Twitter, Facebook, etc. feel partially responsible because Trump and his supporters were able to use the platforms to their advantage. To be outplayed by Republicans through the use of technology was previously thought impossible, so they're going to "f…

Eve if you ignore theoretical bias it may have terrified them to realize that they may have unintentionally had a SERIOUS effect on the ruler of the free world by not only allowing but accidentally promoting obviously fake content.

There was plenty of relief content that would have defected the election. The fake stuff may not have actually changed the outcome.

But to realize your 'keep up with my friends' business has the power swing elections? That has to be a terrifying prospect.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#112

Post by xienze »

zorked wrote: post #32
znpy wrote: post #16

instant question: which entity decides and how does such entity decide what news is true news ?

The phenomenon we're talking about here isn't one that causes profound ontological and ethical questions. We're talking about simple, obvious bullshit.

Uhhh, not exactly. Take for instance this gem from Politifact, one of our esteemed fact checkers:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/feb/...

Trump's statement is: "The National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion."

Politifact's explanation begins thusly:

> The numbers check out. And in fact, the total public debt has dropped another $22 billion since the Gateway Pundit article published, according to data from the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Care to take a guess as to what the "Truth-o-Meter" rating was for Trump's statement? True? Mostly True? How about "Mostly False".

They make a valid point that it's hard to read into numbers like this after such a short period of time, but that's not what's being evaluated here. Was the single statement Trump made true or false? It was obviously true, but if you play enough games and dig deep enough you can somehow make the argument that he made a false statement (oh excuse me, they were quite generous by calling it "mostly" false).

Now the question you have to ask yourself is this: if I have a Facebook page that shares a site that simply reports Trump's statement, would I be subject to Facebook's new policy? I mean after all, a fact checker said this was a "false" statement, does that make this fake news?

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#113

Post by kumarvvr »

MBCook wrote: post #43
kumarvvr wrote: post #18

It is unfortunate that platforms like Facebook have become the beacons of pessimism. I am talking in the context of the usage of social media tools to harm society, rather than help it. For me, FB, TW, etc have become unreliable sources of news. Here, FB is trying to limit ads from pages that share false news, but who will decide that?? 1. FB - Leads to a dangerous slippery slope of putting too much power into a sing…

> ...dangerous slippery slope of putting too much power into a single,private, profit-seeking entity. That's the problem. We're ALREADY THERE. It happened years ago. It's not a slippery slope, it's the thing behind us. And that's not even mentioning Google. At least they're trying (VERY late, if you ask me). They could have chosen to let it continue and profit off it. After all we know it makes lots of clicks and ad…

They are trying it now because the negative press about their main products role in the election debacle might hurt their bottomline.

IMV their response is very late, very weak and a half hearted attempt.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#114

Post by wooter »

Daishiman wrote: post #110
wooter wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so how did Hitler rise? How did freedom of speech treat the West at the time? How did the opposite help Europe?

Are you actually trying to say that Hitler rose to power because his speech was censored?

no

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#115

Post by MBCook »

0xbear wrote: post #86

Part of the strategy employed by mainstream media to misinform the public is _selective_ reporting. That is, either the entire event is not reported if it doesn't fit the narrative, or parts that don't fit the narrative are simply omitted or deemphasized. Will FB detect and demonetize that as well?

I'm not sure they can.

But if they can cut down on Pizza Gate and 'Bannon runs down liberals in his car for fun' style obvious nonsense, that's an improvement.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#116

Post by joshuamorton »

wooter wrote: post #95
joshuamorton wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "the game has changed" after thousands of years of human history proving it hasn't. But it clearly has. Only in the past 5 year did it become possible for one guy in Romania to pose as a small town Ohio news agency (or 4) and spread nonsense to millions of people. Do you feel that academic journals violate the principle of free speech? If not, why is what facebook is doing any different?

Benjamin Franklin, a runaway, started his own newspaper - as did his brother - which were called far worse than "fake news" in an "objective" way by the british.

What's your point? I doubt anyone argued that the British East India Company needed to act as a distributor for that paper.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#117

Post by dragonwriter »

sacheendra wrote: post #98
JacobJans wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is no different than being able to tell when someone is bullshitting just as you walk through every day life, and thinking we need to shield the poor naive populace from harmful ideas is borderline stereotypical paternalism. There is a huge difference. If someone is bullshitting you in real life, you don't give them a giant microphone so they can reach millions of people. You ignore them, or politely engage in…

This is not true. Someone who bullshits in real life can still buy a microphone and can rent a stadium for his event. People can choose to attend or not attend and listen to him. For example, Trump has spread so many falsehoods but people still attend his events.

> Someone who bullshits in real life can still buy a microphone and can rent a stadium for his event.

Yes, and the fact that they are free to buy a printing press doesn't mean that the New York Times is obligated to print their material on the Times’ press alongsode content that meets the Times’ editorial standards.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#118

Post by ebola1717 »

menacingly wrote: post #53
Retric wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some groups flat out make up news stories to fit some narrative. What else are you going to call that than 'fake news'? 'Candidate X comes out as gay.' 'Secret photos reveal candidate X at KKK lynching.' Are both rather over the top, but also the kind of lies that influence elections.

If you don't like that, you're going to hate the physical realm, where anyone can make any claim and you're left with nothing but your wits to discern the truth

This misunderstands the way technology, social media in particular, have exacerbated problems with misinformation. No one is claiming the media was perfect before. Obviously hoaxes and false rumors have always been a thing. But social media has made disinformation scalable.

Re: Facebook says Pages that regularly share false news won’t be able to buy ads

#120

Post by [deleted] »

menacingly wrote: post #96
quoquoquo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The game has changed. There are people with intolerant and twisted views trying to manipulate the naive herd of sheep who blindly follows whatever people like on Facebook. Knowing the tactics of people behind fake news, it's good that Facebook is responding accordingly to punish and get rid of bad actors on their platform. It's once again showing that we can't have pure anarcho decentralization. It would be a haven f…

Sticking to the principles of liberty even when the prevailing cultural winds are begging us not to literally _is_ the game, and it has not changed.

[deleted]
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