Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 167 posts

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#41

Post by bluedino »

criley2 wrote: post #7
threeseed wrote: post #4

During the recent Australian election there were a number of Facebook advertisements by political figures which were completely false e.g. Labor party imposing a death tax. And given that the election result was pretty close it could've easily have made a difference. So I couldn't care less whether Facebook culled 3 billion profiles or not. What I need is for Facebook to make the hard choice and stop allowing politic…

Even without political advertising, the amount of fake news spread in Groups in the form of memes and images is absolutely fracking staggering. If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda, and nothing real (for one ex: see the horribly faked Nancy Pelosi video that spread like wildfire yesterday, despite it's obvious fakeness)…

>> If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda,

There are no lies or fake memes for the left?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#42

Post by Loughla »

A2017U1 wrote: post #33
Kurtz79 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Press can be made accountable for what it reports to a large extent, outright lies can be called out and the newspaper or whoever signs the byline can be sued in extreme cases. An anonymous fake news article has no risk or accountability for its author, that's the main difference.

When was the last time a journalist lost their jobs for printing blatantly false information?

When was the last time a major journalist printed blatantly false information?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#43

Post by chiefalchemist »

> "During that six-month period, Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before.

More than seven million "hate speech" posts were removed, also a record high."

Any sense of context here? For example, seven million might be a raw record high, but of how many total posts would be far more telling.

Same for fake accounts. Is that rate up? Down? Was there a time when FB wasn't as vigilant (perhaps to inflate its user base figures)? Is there a smoking gun for the SEC here?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#44

Post by Loughla »

threeseed wrote: post #24
fredley wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean what's to prevent me putting up ads that I say aren't political, but are? By the time they've been reported and taken down it's already too late?

In your case just use the same approach as spam. Ask all users to report political advertising. If it reaches a certain threshold take down the ad. Manually review it. If it is political then ban the user, payment method and IP address.

If it's hyper-targeted political ads to folks who you can tell via their profiles will absolutely agree with you, what is their incentive to hit that report button?

Not to blow this up too much, but honestly, these aren't ads for shoe polish or a scammy mobile game or some other bullshit. These are ads that make people feel valuable. These are ads that make people feel like their thoughts and opinions, and therefore their entire being is validated.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#45

Post by zlakb »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #40
zlakb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, let's go back to when only the press could lie.

With press, at least everyone is reading the same lies. Hyper-targeted fake news makes it impossible to discuss anything, because across groups, everyone has their own set of "facts", making people talk past each other.

Yes, because there's only one TV channel and one newspaper.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#46

Post by chiefalchemist »

criley2 wrote: post #7
threeseed wrote: post #4

During the recent Australian election there were a number of Facebook advertisements by political figures which were completely false e.g. Labor party imposing a death tax. And given that the election result was pretty close it could've easily have made a difference. So I couldn't care less whether Facebook culled 3 billion profiles or not. What I need is for Facebook to make the hard choice and stop allowing politic…

Even without political advertising, the amount of fake news spread in Groups in the form of memes and images is absolutely fracking staggering. If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda, and nothing real (for one ex: see the horribly faked Nancy Pelosi video that spread like wildfire yesterday, despite it's obvious fakeness)…

Fake news is the symptom. The disease is confirmation bias.

The internet, and particularly social media, has become the most efficient and effective confirmation bias machine ever. People gladly (read: voluntarily) crawl into their self-fulfilling echo chamber and instantly become the master of their own universe. They get to believe whatever it is they want to believe. No assumption too strange. No "belief fetish" too bizarre.

I'm not sure what the answer is (aside from a mass education in critical thinking and self-awareness), but I do know that deleting FB is a balloon grab. That is, the disease will simply manifest itself somewhere else sooner or later.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#47

Post by 54635124gddd »

A2017U1 wrote: post #33
Kurtz79 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Press can be made accountable for what it reports to a large extent, outright lies can be called out and the newspaper or whoever signs the byline can be sued in extreme cases. An anonymous fake news article has no risk or accountability for its author, that's the main difference.

When was the last time a journalist lost their jobs for printing blatantly false information?

It happens regularly.

https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/26/media/cnn-announcement-retr...

https://www.foxnews.com/us/reporter-resigns-after-false-twee...

These were on the first page of results when I duckducko'ed (duckduckwent?) "journalist resigned false"

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#48

Post by cblades »

bluedino wrote: post #41
criley2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without political advertising, the amount of fake news spread in Groups in the form of memes and images is absolutely fracking staggering. If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda, and nothing real (for one ex: see the horribly faked Nancy Pelosi video that spread like wildfire yesterday, despite it's obvious fakeness)…

>> If you go through the facebook feed of a conservative facebook user in their 50s+, you quite literally will see all lies and propaganda, There are no lies or fake memes for the left?

The person you're responding to didn't say that.

I'll go out on a limb and say this though: right-focused news organizations have conditioned the US conservative base to believe highly editorialized articles that aren't fact-based (wether or not the actual assertions of the articles are true or not). I believe that style has seeped into other news outlets as well, but those right-leaning news sources have a head start and at this point their audience is more susceptible.

Maybe in a few years the difference will be negligible, but right now it's not.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#49

Post by threeseed »

dexen wrote: post #29
threeseed wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple really. 1) Ban any political figure who buys a political ad. If you set an example others will follow. 2) Facebook/Twitter/etc already have a verification mechanism and so anyone who isn't verified and using words like tax, election, vote etc can be sent to a moderation queue.

>anyone who isn't verified and using words like tax, election, vote etc can be sent to a moderation queue chuckle Do you propose that in earnest in order to save the democracy[1]? Or are you being ironic and it's simply lost on me...? What other words would you put on the moderation graylist? "Death penalty", "whistleblower", "sexual assault", "guns", "public education", "welfare", "war", "weapons of mass destruction…

No I am quite serious.

Send any ads with politically charged words to a moderation queue where someone reviews the ad. And if it takes weeks to review it then so be it. The status quo is simply not acceptable.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#50

Post by threeseed »

Loughla wrote: post #44
threeseed wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your case just use the same approach as spam. Ask all users to report political advertising. If it reaches a certain threshold take down the ad. Manually review it. If it is political then ban the user, payment method and IP address.

If it's hyper-targeted political ads to folks who you can tell via their profiles will absolutely agree with you, what is their incentive to hit that report button? Not to blow this up too much, but honestly, these aren't ads for shoe polish or a scammy mobile game or some other bullshit. These are ads that make people feel valuable. These are ads that make people feel like their thoughts and opinions, and therefore…

I've seen many of these ads. Mostly they are scare campaigns.

And in the US it maybe a case that they are targeting their base voters. But in other countries with compulsory voting they are targeting swing voters. And those people absolutely will hit the report button.

Post reply on HN