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Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

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21–30 of 150 posts

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#21
post #10

Facebook should be taken offline a week before the election.

So... I shouldn't talk to family overseas during this time or find another way to do it?

Or everyone not living in the US should not have facebook before an American election?

It would seem to be more prudent to disallow political ads the week before. Or make it a crime to, say, spread wrong information about voting. And so on.

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#22

People spread misinformation on Facebook. Arguably, it's not Facebook's responsibility to fact-check anything. Facebook is not a publishing house (at least not the Facebook social media platform as such) and mandating that they fact check and curate their ads and content is tricky business. It requires a legal definition of truth, which is a matter complex enough to justify the existence of the whole judiciary system…

Ads are different to the things people post on social media. Facebook can’t moderate and fact check ads? Why not? Because it would cost them too much of their 17billion dollar revenue? Boohoo

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#23
post #7

One thing I still don’t quite understand is how a system like this one can develop when the people developing it almost certainly are completely opposed to these ideas on a personal political level. I almost feel like it was an excess of idealism and belief in “the free market of ideas” -as well as the idea that Facebook should remain a neutral party at all cost- that led to overcompensating in the wrong direction, a…

Most people's political beliefs and ideas are simply something they wear, like a piece of clothing. If you asked them to change into different clothes for a specific purpose they will usually gladly do so without a moment's hesitation, if the purpose makes sense to them. The daily context of our lives and what we need to be getting on with is vastly more powerful than anything else.

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#24
Frustrating. At the same time, I all too often see claims of "fake news" or "disinformation" that which is simply embarrassing or inconvenient for one party or the other. I'm not sure that there is a way to solve this problem that will not cause worse problems, like censorship of good but unpopular notions, or notions that are true but annoy the powerful

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#25
post #2

> When a Utah county accidentally sent out 13,000 absentee ballots without a signature line, the NewsGuard Red-rated site LawEnforcementToday.com called this a "cheat-by-mail scheme." This isn't a Facebook problem as such. It's just sensationalistic journalism. Just that Facebook as a platform helps amplfiy it. Just my 2 cents.

You are assuming that they did it by accident...

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#26
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The algorithm is designed to propagate misinformation like crazy because that's what drives engagement and improves Facebook's metrics.

Come on, you know it's not true that it's designed to propagate misinformation. The algorithm can't even tell whether it's misinformation or not.

The algoritthm is driven by engagement, wich is driven by misinformation, because that’s what people click more. So then a lot of more misinformation is written to feed this need. Clearly a lot of money is involved

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#27
post #5

Facebook needs to be nationalized and regulated as a public utility. It's outrageous that this hasn't already happened. How much more election meddling do they need to get away with before everyone understands that this is necessary? At this stage, all remaining Facebook investors are deeply immoral individuals. All the reasonable moral individuals have already cashed out. The government should just screw over the re…

> Facebook needs to be nationalized and regulated as a public utility It is outrageous that the history and effects of arbitrary nationalisation is so uncommonly understood.

Railways and telecoms worked out just fine. Sure, in many countries, train tickets have been getting overly expensive under government control but high costs are not such a huge concern in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, the break up of AT&T in the US had huge benefits for consumers in terms of lowering costs.

If Facebook is nationalized, at least they will not manipulate people to serve corporate interests (that is the main threat).

Sure, in the worst case, under government ownership, social media might be used to manipulate elections to give preference to the incumbent party over the other, but that is infinitely better than manipulating elections based on the financial interests of a tiny minority and allow it to drive an increase in surveillance and restrictions of public freedoms. Eventually, even the tiny minority of shareholders (the smaller ones) will end up being harmed at the expense of the bigger shareholders. It's not going to stop at non-shareholders.

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#28
post #2

> When a Utah county accidentally sent out 13,000 absentee ballots without a signature line, the NewsGuard Red-rated site LawEnforcementToday.com called this a "cheat-by-mail scheme." This isn't a Facebook problem as such. It's just sensationalistic journalism. Just that Facebook as a platform helps amplfiy it. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, it was just sensationalistic journalism, or "election misinformation". And Facebook just helped amplify or "spread" it.

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#29
"The people most responsible for destruction of the internet, as well those most blind about the destruction they’re wreaking are the journalists and activists who spent years begging Silicon Valley to regulate discourse."

And the fruits of their labor?

https://twitter.com/palinfoen/status/1321141294807322624

Re: Facebook Is a 'Super Spreader' of Election Misinformation

#30
post #7

One thing I still don’t quite understand is how a system like this one can develop when the people developing it almost certainly are completely opposed to these ideas on a personal political level. I almost feel like it was an excess of idealism and belief in “the free market of ideas” -as well as the idea that Facebook should remain a neutral party at all cost- that led to overcompensating in the wrong direction, a…

Because of the kind of content that drives engagement, optimizing for engagement is not being a neutral party. And censoring content costs money. So Facebook has at least two financial motives.
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