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Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

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Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#2
Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit".

In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of how and where self-censorship manifests on social media; next, we will need to better understand what and why." This implies that Facebook wants to know what you are typing in order to understand it.

Facebook is not analyzing posts you don't submit.

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#3
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

So you're trusting what a Facebook rep says as truth?

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#4
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

Title uses vague words that are not necessarily untrue. Facebook is analyzing self-censorship, just not the contents of self-censored posts. What is maybe interesting to users is that there are people at Facebook who think it isn't right for the user to self-censor, that it apparently robs Facebook and your "friends" of the value in that self-censored post. That seems mildly insane and I'm glad I do not use Facebook.

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#5
post #3
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

So you're trusting what a Facebook rep says as truth?

You can see for yourself what it does. Just look at web inspector as you type a post.

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#6
post #3
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

So you're trusting what a Facebook rep says as truth?

Over wild, baseless speculation? Yes.

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#7
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

This should be more or less confirmable by using a traffic inspector, right? (tamper headers, web inspector, etc) If Facebook is only checking that you've entered some text, then submitting that boolean (or text length) as a POST?

Re: Facebook self-censorship: What happens to the posts you don’t publish?

#9
post #2

Someone should fix the HN headline, currently "Facebook monitors and analyzes posts that users type but don't submit". In their article, Das and Kramer claim to only send back information to Facebook that indicates /whether/ you self-censored, not /what/ you typed. The Facebook rep I spoke with agreed that the company isn’t collecting the text of self-censored posts.... "we have arrived at a better understanding of h…

I wasn't sure how to write a title that was concise and captured the substance of the article.

It seems like you want to split hairs about whether "analyzing posts" means examining text or metadata. Do you think that "NSA is analyzing phone calls" would be an accurate description of their metadata dragnet?

At any rate, if they aren't looking at the content of self-censored posts yet, it certainly sounds like they're at least interested in doing so. According to the article, "This implies that Facebook wants to know what you are typing in order to understand it."

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