“For example, according to Lewis, the algorithm might keep showing a post whose question has been answered. And it might deprioritize posts from new members that don’t get much engagement—ensuring they get even less engagement in a form of algorithmic ghosting.”
Essentially the flaw with facebook’s entire system of selecting posts. When I recently posted on Facebook to my 2000 friends, the only people to react were mother and aunt. I am actually not that much of a loser, but you’d never know from my Facebook page.
FB have made Instagram the same way and I spent days looking at posts my friends made 4 days ago while not seeing their newest posts (this is especially annoying at conventions). I have a hard time believing that Facebook actually pays hundreds of engineers above market salaries to realize this sad customer abuse. It’s a serious waste of the potential of the Internet.
As far of the rest of the article, yes, Facebook has taken over the independent web forum. And yes, their software is inadequate (the usual total lack of features or confusing UI) but their reach is incomparable.