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Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

gizmodo.com

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Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#311

Post by hyperpape »

Karunamon wrote: post #210
hyperpape wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nielsen makes specific claims about the meaning of its data to people who pay for that data, so it would be fraud for them to undermine those claims by manipulating the data. I doubt Facebook does anything similar.

What about to the advertisers? If I were a well-funded news outlet with a conservative bias, and I spent money on Facebook, I'd be evaluating my legal options right about now...

I'm not sure this is an issue either. The advertisers were buying advertisements, not space on a trending list.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#312

Post by [deleted] »

Karunamon wrote: post #210
hyperpape wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nielsen makes specific claims about the meaning of its data to people who pay for that data, so it would be fraud for them to undermine those claims by manipulating the data. I doubt Facebook does anything similar.

What about to the advertisers? If I were a well-funded news outlet with a conservative bias, and I spent money on Facebook, I'd be evaluating my legal options right about now...

[deleted]

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#313

Post by chillacy »

dba7dba wrote: post #79
fisherjeff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given Facebook's influence and the sheer size of their userbase, the potential long-term implications of this particular kind of manipulation are... unsettling.

I am not surprised Facebook has been doing this. It's ironic. Silicon Valley is all about question the authorities. Ask why. And now we hear stories like these Orwellian like practices... This will be another interesting topic historians will examine years from now. What happens when an outsider/outcast/underdog group becomes the insiders/powerful. Do they act like tycoons in the past (using power to preserve itself)…

I once watched a group of pigeons in a park fight for food. The biggest pigeon bullied all the other pigeons. I thought that was unfair... he was getting all the food. So I shooed him away. Immediately afterwards, one of the formerly bullied pigeons became the new bully.

Power is a funny thing... and I suspect people aren't so different than other animals in this regard.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#314

Post by kelukelugames »

dang wrote: post #282
kelukelugames wrote: post #4

Do you believe facebook does this? It's a Gawker article.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11659831 and marked it off-topic.

I don't think we should trust tabloid sources like gawker and businessinsider. They create the clickbait.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#315

Post by jqm »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #61

The issue is that FB advertises itself as "conduit" or "network connection". You log in, communicate with people and the site tools, FB runs ads on your eyeballs, etc. Similar to how I give my electricity provider money, and they give me electricity. Now FB clearly sees themselves as (let's be honest) a "power broker" or "rain maker". Not the same as "utility" or "network connection" or "conduit".

And _that_ is the real value of media. Advertising always was a side business.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#316

Post by duaneb »

shepardrtc wrote: post #288
duaneb wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not imply a lack of evidence, though. The appropriate response would be to ask for a deeper inquiry. Otherwise you're just enabling scapegoating if you accept the first view without any question.

> The conservative curator described the omissions as a function of his colleagues’ judgements; there is no evidence that Facebook management mandated or was even aware of any political bias at work. The person who brought this to light - the one who not only experienced it themselves but also had the most complain about - says that it wasn't anything pushed down by management.

I'm sure his paycheck is entirely unrelated to what he says to the press.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#317

Post by paulddraper »

ChemicalWarfare wrote: post #34
carsongross wrote: post #17

I am a conservative and I see nothing wrong with this. It is their software and their servers, after all. I want a collapse in trust in the major social networks. This is the internet we are talking about. Let them suppress, and let them see what happens.

If this was a partisan media outlet like CNN, NBC/MSNBC, ABC, etc etc ad nauseam or FOX news (is there any other conservative network?), then yeah this would be expected. The issue here is for the 'unsuspecting user' Facebook doesn't present itself as a partisan resource. There's nothing 'wrong' with this per se as long as the user understands who they are dealing with, which articles like this one help in that respe…

They're not unsuspecting anymore.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#318

Post by [deleted] »

pj_mukh wrote: post #221
throwit992 wrote: post #138

I have no great love of conservative politics, but there's a convincing argument to be made that their ideas and views are routinely suppressed by media outside of explicitly partisan media outlets (i.e. Fox News or talk radio). There are a number of studies that back up this claim. A 2008 study[0] found that 88% of journalists donate to the Democratic party. Jonathan Haidt has shown[1] that non-economics social scie…

This "seems" like an American phenomenon. As a liberal, I can have a fully formed debate with a British Conservative, A Canadian conservative, a European conservative (sans latent Nazism), however the dominant American conservative seems to be operating on a completely different plain and set of assumptions. I find it extremely difficult to relate to and debate the American conservative. In general, if an american (c…

[deleted]

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#319

Post by rdancer »

exabrial wrote: post #101

It really bothers me that acceptable forms of protests are now: intimidation(1), harassment(2), and subversion(this). If your cause is just, isn't a non-violent protest enough? Speaking about it, voting with your dollar, etc? 1) http://gizmodo.com/okcupid-tells-users-not-to-use-firefox-be... 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy

(1) is just straight-up speech. I find Mozilla's firing of Eich a disgusting example of political discrimination and stifling of free speech, and encourage everybody to boycott their products. — See, it's just speech.

Re: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

#320

Post by rdancer »

Grishnakh wrote: post #170
FBGoAway wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Irrelevant. FB is a nuclear weapon. Chain reactions that start there can take out society in a blink. That has to be understood and digested by society. Doesn't matter what the actual story of the day getting filtered is. Trump has subverted the republican party in 8 months. 8 years ago a community organizer subverted the dems in 2 years. Look at Corbyn, Modi, Kejriwal, Joko etc etc Its thanks to social media and the…

So basically you oppose democracy?

You don't? The Founders did, vehemently[0].

[0] http://www.theunion.com/opinion/7699648-113/democracy-majori...

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