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Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

wired.com

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Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#41

Post by ksk »

TomMckenny wrote: post #20
dilippkumar wrote: post #10

This article misses a crucial point: I do not want fact checked information. I do not want a ministry of Truth telling me what’s an acceptable set of statements to trust. I do not want a third party providing unsolicited opinions on how much I conform with the acceptable statements a ministry of Truth has blessed for public use. I’ll provide three arguments. First, how will Facebook or any other entity that takes on…

So the enormously popular post telling parents to make their kids drink Lysol should not have even the slightest warning next to it because the poster could be like Galileo or Einstein?

Lysol has warning labels on the bottle. You can't fix the failure of the education system by coddling people and putting blinders on them.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#42

Post by caseysoftware »

As much as I'd like to hammer on Facebook for this, they're just one of many, many questionable actors here.

Almost 10 years ago, I conducted an experiment. I watched an hour of CNN every night but it was never that night's coverage. It was from exactly two weeks ago.

It was amazing how much "breaking news!" was irrelevant or just outright wrong, how many large trend predictions were wrong, and how many "[person] will do X" were wrong. While the predictions could have been portrayed as opinions, they were presented as facts and the obvious next steps or conclusions.

I realized pretty quickly that avoiding CNN kept out the blatantly wrong information so even if I didn't replace it with anything, I was net ahead.

A few years ago, I discovered this article and realized that some portion of it was probably on purpose:

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-...

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#43

Post by jasonheh »

kick wrote: post #14
dilippkumar wrote: post #10

This article misses a crucial point: I do not want fact checked information. I do not want a ministry of Truth telling me what’s an acceptable set of statements to trust. I do not want a third party providing unsolicited opinions on how much I conform with the acceptable statements a ministry of Truth has blessed for public use. I’ll provide three arguments. First, how will Facebook or any other entity that takes on…

...and you go to Facebook for your scientific and world news? Facebook is a toy. Relying on a platform with a built-in way to reply to posts with nothing more than a laugh-cry-smiley to deliver you accurate news in the first place is ridiculous. They could never be a Ministry of Truth or whatever you're implying, because it's a toy. If they want to fact-check posts on their site, it changes literally nothing of impor…

People do go to Facebook for their news. Whether you like it or not, or think those people are fools, it's true. What Facebook decides is deserving of censorship matters because we have to live with those fools.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#44

Post by asdff »

dilippkumar wrote: post #10

This article misses a crucial point: I do not want fact checked information. I do not want a ministry of Truth telling me what’s an acceptable set of statements to trust. I do not want a third party providing unsolicited opinions on how much I conform with the acceptable statements a ministry of Truth has blessed for public use. I’ll provide three arguments. First, how will Facebook or any other entity that takes on…

The difference between Einstein working in the patent office and the 'armchair physicist' isn't that we live in a more cynical era. The difference is that Einstein submitted his work to be published in a reputable journal. If you have some ideas and don't want to be called an 'armchair scientist,' you are free to publish in a preprint journal and it will probably get accepted if the work is good. It has never been easier in history for an individual to share their scientific ideas with the world.

Personally, I could do away with all the armchair epidemiologists that have come out from the woodwork during this pandemic, and would much rather people and politicians be getting their information from experts who publish their thoughts for the scientific community.

If facebook could offer at least as much moderation as the newspaper stand of yore, the world would be a much less polarized place imo.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#45

Post by Nextgrid »

CyanLite2 wrote: post #17

Simple: "Ignorant" people make up a large percentage of their user base. They argue with "informed" people and it drives traffic and revenue. Meanwhile the social fabric of the United States is being torn apart by political polarization.

Ignorant people are also more likely to click on whatever ads are shown without any skepticism.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#46

Post by bertil »

> Whatever Facebook says (or thinks) about the backfire effect, this phenomenon has not, in fact, been “shown” or demonstrated in any thorough way.

I’m positive that the company has conducted internal AB-test to check for those and has a far more nuanced view on those than Wired assumes.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#47

Post by new2628 »

TomMckenny wrote: post #37
new2628 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not arguing in good faith. You are making a caricature of the opposing argument, presenting in the worst light possible.

I'm pointing out a problem with a real post that actually exists right at this very moment.

It is easy to pick one clear-cut case that supports one's viewpoint. The question is how to handle the more murky cases.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#48

Post by creaghpatr »

rwmj wrote: post #38
dilippkumar wrote: post #10

This article misses a crucial point: I do not want fact checked information. I do not want a ministry of Truth telling me what’s an acceptable set of statements to trust. I do not want a third party providing unsolicited opinions on how much I conform with the acceptable statements a ministry of Truth has blessed for public use. I’ll provide three arguments. First, how will Facebook or any other entity that takes on…

You are missing the whole point. Facebook (and Youtube etc) do not simply show you all opinions in the world at the same time with equal weight. They select things for you to view based on your prior interactions with the website. So they can emphasize and deemphasize articles and videos to show you next. Across their entire userbase selecting articles that are based in reality will have a large effect.

>So they can emphasize and deemphasize articles and videos to show you next.

Maybe they should stop doing that then.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#49

Post by xienze »

protonfish wrote: post #23
dilippkumar wrote: post #10

This article misses a crucial point: I do not want fact checked information. I do not want a ministry of Truth telling me what’s an acceptable set of statements to trust. I do not want a third party providing unsolicited opinions on how much I conform with the acceptable statements a ministry of Truth has blessed for public use. I’ll provide three arguments. First, how will Facebook or any other entity that takes on…

I agree that I don't trust anyone to tell me what is true, but there is a base level of fact-checking that is beneficial: Remove anything that is completely fabricated and makes claims without a single shred of evidence. There is absolutely no need for this type of "news." No organization can definitely curate the truth, but almost any can sweep out the garbage.

The problem is that many of the things shared on Facebook et al are subject to debate on what the actual truth of the matter is, subject to one’s political biases. We’re not necessarily talking about content stating that the sky is green but say, the accusations Tara Reade made against Joe Biden.

Re: Why Is Facebook So Afraid of Checking Facts?

#50

Post by squidofbits »

new2628 wrote: post #31
TomMckenny wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the enormously popular post telling parents to make their kids drink Lysol should not have even the slightest warning next to it because the poster could be like Galileo or Einstein?

You are not arguing in good faith. You are making a caricature of the opposing argument, presenting in the worst light possible.

Maybe he is, but if a system is to function properly it must work in the worst-case scenario.

Therefore, I disagree that this person is arguing in bad faith and is in fact attempting to point out where the system fails in a worst-case scenario such as this.

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