Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
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Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
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Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#2Referenced column by Kevin Roose (behind NYT paywall):
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#3Referenced column by Kevin Roose (behind NYT paywall): https://archive.md/As8DH
Also, HN thread with 50 comments about that Roose column:
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#4Referenced column by Kevin Roose (behind NYT paywall): https://archive.md/As8DH
> The company, blamed for everything from election interference to vaccine hesitancy, badly wants to rebuild trust with a skeptical public....
> These people, most of whom would speak only anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss internal conversations, said Facebook’s executives were more worried about fixing the perception that Facebook was amplifying harmful content than figuring out whether it actually was amplifying harmful content. Transparency, they said, ultimately took a back seat to image management.
I can think of few approaches that are worse than that at rebuilding trust. "Building trust," by ignoring the real issue to focus on perceptions can only work (sometimes) if you can dominate someone's perceptions. Facebook doesn't have the power to do that, especially since it's lost the public's trust and invited more scrutiny.
And that leads me to the conclusion that Facebook's executives may not event understand even some basic things about trust, at least with they're in a sociopathic corporate setting.
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#5What is also interesting is the motivation of the people wanting to use CrowdTangle, etc to see the list of top posts.
My guess, is that it less about learning what is the top post, but more about using that information as a way to try to pressure Facebook to censor content they don't like.
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#6What is also interesting is the motivation of the people wanting to use CrowdTangle, etc to see the list of top posts. My guess, is that it less about learning what is the top post, but more about using that information as a way to try to pressure Facebook to censor content they don't like.
> ...but more about using that information as a way to try to pressure Facebook to censor content they don't like.
That's far too simplistic of a take. Facebook and social media amplifying partisan shit-stirrers and misinformation over more sober voices should be seen as a serious issue, regardless of your ideological commitments.
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#7What is also interesting is the motivation of the people wanting to use CrowdTangle, etc to see the list of top posts. My guess, is that it less about learning what is the top post, but more about using that information as a way to try to pressure Facebook to censor content they don't like.
More fundamentally than asking for censorship is holding Facebook accountable for what content they are promoting. They've been caught multiple times allowing Ben Shapiro's page to break the rules that other pages have to follow [0]. They also keep claiming that they don't favor right-leaning content. Maybe this should be regulated or not, but at least we can call them out for lying about it.
[0] https://popular.info/p/facebook-admits-ben-shapiro-is-breaki...
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#8I think the real problem that facebook leadership sees isn't that they're amplifying overly partisan posters, but that the popularity of these posters demonstrates that their userbase is increasingly low rent and heading toward an AOL/Yahoo style long goodbye.
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#9I suspect if they provided telemetry into the Facebook Zeitgeist, it would show its userbase to be terrifyingly stupid and superstitious folk on par with the late Carl Sagan's predictions in _The Demon Haunted World_.
For IMO the Google Zeitgeist was bad enough 10 years ago in a somewhat simpler time when we could still laugh at stupidity and ludicrous conspiracies, but stupidity is a major influencer on social media now that it has been monetized and drives revenue. I don't see a solution to that any time soon.
Re: Facebook's “see no evil” strategy
#10What is also interesting is the motivation of the people wanting to use CrowdTangle, etc to see the list of top posts. My guess, is that it less about learning what is the top post, but more about using that information as a way to try to pressure Facebook to censor content they don't like.
More fundamentally than asking for censorship is holding Facebook accountable for what content they are promoting. They've been caught multiple times allowing Ben Shapiro's page to break the rules that other pages have to follow [0]. They also keep claiming that they don't favor right-leaning content. Maybe this should be regulated or not, but at least we can call them out for lying about it. [0] https://popular.info…
What a trash media outlet.
Btw Shapiro isn't really liked in the MAGA movement, he's considered establishment, a grifter, and a neocon. That being said, nothing he says is bigoted or racist, you just disagree with it. Learn to recognize that and we can all talk like adults again. Shouting racism just divides.