What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]

If you block facebook domains: https://archive.is/6zw6N

`We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people who are seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we don’t share information that personally identifies you unless you give us permission.`

`unless you give us permission`

lol

The film explains that when they say “you are the product” they mean Facebook is selling a chance to influence your behavior. It’s an interesting perspective, but this PR piece from Facebook seems to willingly misinterpret this

"Influence your behavior" seems like an over dramatic description of "show me ads".

>> Instead we want to make sure we offer value to people, not just drive usage.

How are you providing value to people when you show articles from the same perspective to the same person. I would value a product, if it gave me different perspectives on the same issue. I guess their definition of value is distorted. And therein, lies the problem and the reason for filter bubbles.

Try logging out of facebook and then login after a week. You will see a significant increase in the rate of notifications. How is this not driving usage?

>> We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people who are seeing their ads and how their ads are performing

Well, technically you are not the product. But when you combine hundreds of data points from millions of people and give access to advertisers to that data, you are a part of the product. So I guess, it should say, "You are a tiny part of the product". There, I fixed it.

>> Facebook uses algorithms to improve the experience for people using our apps—just like any dating app, Amazon, Uber, and countless other consumer-facing apps that people interact with every day. That also includes Netflix, which uses an algorithm to determine who it thinks should watch ‘The Social Dilemma’ film, and then recommends it to them.

The key difference between Facebook and other services is that facebook is a "social network". Things I post on facebook are viewed by my friends, family, colleagues which has an impact on how others perceive me and my social status. Facebook has the potential to literally shape my perception in public and my relationships. They completely fail to address this. I definitely don't get to choose the articles spewed by their algorithm and the articles I read/are shown to me definitely influence my thinking.

>> The overwhelming majority of content that people see on Facebook is not polarizing or even political

True, but there are certain topics which are "hot" topics. People usually have strong opinions on topics like religion, politics, sexual orientation etc. I wouldn't care that my friend is a cat person but I am a dog person. However, it would matter to me if my friend supports a candidate that I vehemently oppose. People usually lose their senses when it comes to the "hot" topics. So a post on these topics has a disproportionate amount of effect than a post on a vacation my friend is taking.