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Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#921

Post by gadders »

guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Why does "polarisation" always mean clamping down on right-wing people and content? Can you give examples of left-wing content you have removed?

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#922

Post by fogetti »

alex_young wrote: post #881
guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Why does Facebook need a VP of Integrity? Isn’t that the CEO’s job?

Maybe that's how Facebook builds their organization: VP of Integrity, VP of Honesty, VP of Sincerity. So that Zuckerberg doesn't have to take on any of those roles.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#923

Post by tripzilch »

guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

> What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundamentally changing News Feed ranking to favor content from friends and family over public content (even if this meant people would use our products less).

Emphasis added.

What is that supposed to mean? Would you like a sticker for doing the right thing?

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#924

Post by titzer »

guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Respectfully, to a top brass executive at Facebook: I respect the hard work and innovation that has gone into building Facebook. It's allowed billions of people to connect worldwide in ways that were never possible before. It is truly a billion dollar platform.

The problem is that your entire executive leadership believes it is a five hundred billion dollar platform. They have to, because the investors demand it.

This is the source of all your failings.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#925

Post by tripzilch »

2019-nCoV wrote: post #908
creato wrote: post #898

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are knowingly missing the point. Nutritional experts disagreed among themselves, and probably still do. Is there even a single 5G engineer that will take up the cause of 5G causing coronavirus? How about an immunologist that will claim Bill Gates is trying to inject people with microchips delivered in vaccines?

Which is why it's a non-sequitur. Any well-adjusted adult with a modicum of common sense can see through such claims. Cults and conspiracies flourished long before FB's existence, as they will after. Removing such content just validates it in their minds — it must be true that's why "the corporations" insist on covering it up! Most of the west has learnt that we should not penalise drug addicts. We treat the underlyi…

> Cults and conspiracies flourished long before FB's existence, as they will after.

Similarly, rats and mold flourished long before we started keeping open trash bags in the kitchen.

It's pretty clear that FB is an incredibly fertile breeding ground for such ideas, and that is on them. Not on the ideas.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#926

Post by mrgill »

commoner wrote: post #863
pwdisswordfish2 wrote: post #851

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that VPN app that Apple pulled from the app store, the one that Facebook was using to spy on users' internet usage to gain intel about potential competitors. When Facebook acquired the VPN app this guy came with the purchase. VP of Inegrity. Oh, the irony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo Another commenter noticed this first but the comment is buried at the bottom of the thread. You have to enable showdea…

Facebook's "VP of Integrity" Guy Rosen (guy_ro) co-founded Onavo, a spyware company that Facebook acquired in 2013. Onavo's flagship app was Onavo Protect, a VPN service that Facebook used to monitor the activity of its competitors, including Snapchat. Facebook acquired WhatsApp and copied features from Houseparty based on the data it harvested from Onavo users. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-copycats-how-faceb…

Jesus christ... and they got the courage to call themselves VP of Integrity.

FFS

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#927

Post by mrgill »

ponker wrote: post #819
guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Potentially useful context: the parent here was the Co-Founder and CEO of Onavo which he sold to Facebook for $120 million. If the name "Onavo" doesn't trigger any bells: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo . It was ostensibly a VPN but tracked its users' behavior and Facebook used the data from Onavo to judge how much traffic various startups had when deciding whether to acquire them. I think that the fact that the…

And now calls himself VP of Integrity.

Amazing..

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#928

Post by dr-detroit »

throwaway77665 wrote: post #797
guy_ro wrote: post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

This may come off as condescending, but I'm honestly just curious. From the outside looking in, it seems as though you are paid to drink cool-aid and paint FB in a positive light. How does one get to be in your position? What are the qualifications for your job?

No soul and a background check performed by Russian intelligence

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#929

Post by dr-detroit »

mola wrote: post #874
guy_ro wrote: post #831

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A counter-point to this is that studies show polarization has also fallen in some countries over the past years - including ones where social media (Facebook or otherwise) is popular. Studies also show some of the most polarized segments in the US to be the older population, which uses social media less. We definitely have work to do, but this suggests there are many factors at play.

You have an interest in the outcome of the research, why should we trust you to conduct or fund it properly? Your track record is terrible. The fact you are throwing around dubious research as facts is crazy. I'm sorry, but really, there's no reason to believe a word a you say. You get paid from Facebook, Facebook lied again and again, how on earth do you expect people to take you seriously? Your job and title is to…

FB is backed by CIA even if you had a billion dollars they could easily squash your tiny voice

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#930

Post by tripzilch »

guy_ro wrote: post #831
beachy wrote: post #783

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to cherry-pick from your reply here, if $2M is the biggest ticket item you have to show for independent research on this topic - then you're woefully short given Facebook's revenues and size. 10 short years ago, nobody could have imagined that huge swathes of the population could have been swayed to accept non-scientific statements as fact because of social media. Now we're struggling to deal with existential th…

A counter-point to this is that studies show polarization has also fallen in some countries over the past years - including ones where social media (Facebook or otherwise) is popular. Studies also show some of the most polarized segments in the US to be the older population, which uses social media less. We definitely have work to do, but this suggests there are many factors at play.

I'm really curious which countries these are. Please do provide a reference to these studies.
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