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The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

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Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#11

Post by claydavisss »

squozzer wrote: post #8

What bothers me about the coverage of the riots is so far I have seen no one offer an opinion on whether the rioters' complaints have merit.

If the rioters were protesting racism or homophobia, no one in the media (or HN) would challenge them.

Since the rioters are protesting a Green Tax, the media (and HN) concludes that Facebook, Russia, or a general lack of cognitive ability among the French working class must be the cause.

Look no further than the discussion yesterday re: "Is France losing its first information war?" to see all the "enlightened" HN posters discuss how free expression should be limited if it runs contrary to their worldview (characterized as "restricting the public's potential to be misinformed")...the same posters of course are constantly aghast at censorship in China

Its really scary to see hackers become advocates for censorship

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#12

Post by JacobJans »

There is something about the Facebook platform that encourages thoughtless distribution of incorrect and violent ideas. I don't say this lightly; a certain subset of users seem to get hooked on the propogation of "viral crazy," with no regard to the factual accuracy of their posts, or the real world consequences of their ideas.

I believe what happens is that people become "gamified." They use the logic of video games; going after points/likes, and gaining immense satisfaction when they are victorious.

The power of gamification shouldn't be underestimated. Especially when it combines with personal identity, as it does on Facebook.

Gambling addiction can destroy lives; Facebook uses the same psychology, and combines it with personal identity. Most people are not very vulnerable to gambling addiction. The same is true with Facebook gamification. However, certain people are highly vulnerable, and have become victims of those vulnerabilities.

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#13

Post by dtf »

squozzer wrote: post #8

What bothers me about the coverage of the riots is so far I have seen no one offer an opinion on whether the rioters' complaints have merit.

I just read this from the Guardian's Paris chief, thought it was a pretty good sampling of some of the grievances:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/07/macrons-arroga...

Seems a common complaint is that Macron looks great from abroad, but he's ignoring the people at home.

Also worth checking this tweet from the French government account:

https://twitter.com/gouvernementFR/status/107096383300978278...

"Protest is a right, but let's do it properly.", overlayed on montage clips of good protesters and bad protesters.

Finally, the recent images of students being made to kneel with hands behind their heads by riot police is not going down well anywhere.

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#14

Post by spunker540 »

uxhack wrote: post #2

It really worries me about if we know the implications of the algorithms that are been used. I don't think that this is what FB intended, but more thought needs to be given to affects of algorithms.

I think the tie between the protests and the algorithm changes are tenuous at best. Who can say if the protests would have happened without Facebook? Paris and France have a long history of protests besides.

“Normal stuff happens due to Facebook” should really be the onion take here.

Suppose there’s a headline “50% of birthday parties are planned on Facebook” - does that mean Facebook is suddenly responsible for all those birthday parties? Or are they normal events that happen to be planned on Facebook these days?

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#15

Post by maeln »

> [...] is a beast born almost entirely from Facebook

No, it's not. Yes, a lot of the communication circulate through social media (like most things nowadays), but the movement was also covered a lot in traditional medias at the very beginning of the movement.

It is also completely disregarding that there was a lot of movement "against the government"/a specific law before this specific movement (train worker, public hospital workers, students, ...) and that protest have become more and more violent in recent years (with a big increase during the labor law from the previous president).

Maybe Facebook help people organize and in some case radicalize. But you have to be completely oblivious to the current state of France politics to not have seen the problem brewing.

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#17

Post by [deleted] »

dtf wrote: post #13
squozzer wrote: post #8

What bothers me about the coverage of the riots is so far I have seen no one offer an opinion on whether the rioters' complaints have merit.

I just read this from the Guardian's Paris chief, thought it was a pretty good sampling of some of the grievances: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/07/macrons-arroga... Seems a common complaint is that Macron looks great from abroad, but he's ignoring the people at home. Also worth checking this tweet from the French government account: https://twitter.com/gouvernementFR/status/107096383300978278... "Protes…

[deleted]

Re: The Riots in France Are What Happens When Facebook Changes It Algorithm

#19

Post by dev_dull »

Over the past week I’ve seen maybe 3 or 4 articles about why social media or X are to blame for people protesting / acting irrational (inferred) yet not a single article with interviews from protesters asking them why it’s happening, or exploring the merits of their grievances.

I saw the same thing here in the US in 2016. Lots of talk about Facebook, and nothing about the dramatically shifting economics of the middle class.

They call us “elites” and “globalist” for a reason.

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