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Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

foreignpolicy.com

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Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#31

Post by deletefb »

felipeko wrote: post #25
richardknop wrote: post #12

Facebook has to be broken down to pieces. I think it has reached a state where it cannot be allowed to continue as a single company being able to observe/monitor public and private communication / social interaction of so many people and not being regulated and controlled by the government.

I don't understand why do you think that. The biggest problem of big companies is when they hurt consumers with predatory practices. With Facebook I fail to see how that's the case. Everybody is perfectly capable of not being hurt by their own accord by just no using it. If the problem is how it influences politics and government, I think that's even a point against letting the government mess with it, as it is a pow…

Yeah, why don’t opioid addicts just stop? And why don’t fat people just lose weight and eat healthy? And why don’t poor people just stop being poor? Clearly every issue in society is a result of a lack of personal responsibility.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#33

Post by frik »

feikname wrote: post #23
wybiral wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I upvoted this comment and then immediately felt dirty.

To be fair, HN hides a comment score until the user decides to see it.

How can one see the HN comment score? (except own comments)

I think it was there some years ago, but vanished incl karma-ratio info when PG stept back.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#34

Post by tryingagainbro »

lithos wrote: post #9

It's gotta feel bad for the local reporters that are literally risking their lives reporting news in Cambodia, to then have their views go down 80%. Because Facebook decided to experiment and implement the Timeline feature. Facebook is barely even tied to the fate or all that concerned, since it's only 18million users.

>>because Facebook decided to experiment and implement the Timeline feature

That's to increase ad revenue, make no mistake about it. Like Google's algorithm and display changes...buy ads to be on top of the page

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#35

Post by nkozyra »

john2x wrote: post #7

My idea for a quick fix is to remove likes/dislikes/emoji reactions. If people can't see how others feel about a post/article in an instant, they might have to read and decide for themselves how to feel.

Passive ranking is subject to the same bias, though. If I click - even if I dislike the content - it contributes positively.

I don't think there's a quick fix for wanting autonomously produced graph-based timeline without the ability to exploit it for clicks, propaganda, etc.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#36

Post by QAPereo »

richardknop wrote: post #18
amelius wrote: post #5

I don't want to read about how bad the situation is, because I already know. I want to read about how we are going to find a solution.

Unfortunately, there is no solution in our current system. The only solution would be to accept that the western (current) capitalist decadent society is causing wealth and power to concentrate in a very narrow group of chosen people who end up having extreme power over masses of people that make up society today. The only way is to try to try to regulate this capitalist wet dream and try to break it down to smaller…

Putting aside the ideological scree, regulation is the answer.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#37

Post by wil421 »

monort wrote: post #22
richardknop wrote: post #12

Facebook has to be broken down to pieces. I think it has reached a state where it cannot be allowed to continue as a single company being able to observe/monitor public and private communication / social interaction of so many people and not being regulated and controlled by the government.

Would you apply the same logic to government? Government has to be broken down to pieces. I think it has reached a state where it cannot be allowed to continue as a single government being able to observe/monitor public and private communication / social interaction of so many people and not being regulated and controlled by market forces.

We already break government up into federal, state and local governments. What you stated is literally how it already works.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#38

Post by wslh »

john2x wrote: post #7

My idea for a quick fix is to remove likes/dislikes/emoji reactions. If people can't see how others feel about a post/article in an instant, they might have to read and decide for themselves how to feel.

I think we need new signals to decide about content. This issue happens everywhere from top music charts to movie rankings.

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#39

Post by have_faith »

FreakyT wrote: post #27
john2x wrote: post #7

My idea for a quick fix is to remove likes/dislikes/emoji reactions. If people can't see how others feel about a post/article in an instant, they might have to read and decide for themselves how to feel.

Upvotes on HN/Reddit do essentially the same thing. I don't have the user statistics, but I'd imagine the typical HN reader only reads a sampling of the top-voted comments, which essentially allows them "to see how others feel about a post/article in an instant." If you want an example of the opposite approach, you can always look at 2009-era YouTube, when all comments shown were in a strict "newest" order. If you re…

> YouTube had a bit of reputation for some of the lowest-quality comment sections anywhere

Has this reputation changed much?

Re: Facebook Can’t Cope with the World It’s Created

#40

Post by wybiral »

Seeing the recent wave of discourse surrounding social media platforms has been interesting.

We had similar problems before them. Tabloids, conspiracy theory subculture, clickbait, etc, are nothing new.

And we had "feed readers" that functioned to aggregate news sources that we subscribed/followed/liked. Which, in theory, should have catered to us in the way that people now label an "echo chamber".

But there are a few differences that stick out to me:

- More people producing content (back in the day anyone could create a blog or personal site, but the barrier of entry is lowered by social media platforms)

- These platforms are promoting some content above other content (which goes beyond aggregation)

- There's more data being collected and the tech to analyze it is increasing (targeting segments is easier)

- Bots

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