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Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#2
"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before."

Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa?

Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#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 political advertising on their platform. It's almost single handedly undermining democracy around the world.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#5

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 if it is banned, how on earth are you going to enforce it in any meaningful way? Truth, lies, boots, World...

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#7

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). I'm not being hyperbolic, it's literally all "fake news". It's a completely shocking problem to have but the current state of politics is that there are a lot of people whose media diet consists of mainly of fake facebook group posts.

There is no viable solution either. If you democratize the printing press/mass media so far that every single person can print whatever they want whenever they want to, you will get this race to the bottom where absolute bullshit beats out hard truths every time. Lies getting around the world before the truth is out the door and all that. (Also the reality that this is clickbait x 1000, it's not a business picking articles that drive revenue, it's bad political actors picking stories that drive unrest).

Facebook isn't salvageable. It's destroying democracy around the world and there is nothing that can be done to fix it. I see not just correlation but causation between the rise of facebook and the rise of the fake news fueled far-right that is destroying modern democracy around the world.

(And it's no surprise that with each declassified DoJ report, we learn of yet-another-nation-state running these fake news groups with the explicit intention to subvert democracy and increase civil unrest).

Please delete Facebook before it's too late.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#8
post #2

"Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts - more than ever before." Oy. How do you justify letting this issue fester that long / to that degree? How is that not an unprecedented mea culpa? Edit: I'll risk the HN "downvoting not discussed mantra" for this. BILLIONS of active fake accounts is a core competency failure, full stop. World population is single digit billions...give me a break.

What’s the difference between a dual account and a fake account? Is it activism? Is it when the accounts are bought and sold, is it politics?

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#9
0.02% of content viewed is terrorist propaganda or child sexual abuse. Multiply that by 100 pieces of content per day, and 365 days per year and you get 7 pieces of terrorist propaganda and child sex abuse per year. I wonder how focused it is on specific individuals or if it’s broadly random. I also wonder if rates of terrorist propaganda are much higher among individuals the propaganda is trying to target.

Edit: that is, the base rate of 2 / 10000 pieces of content being terrorist propaganda is perhaps 0 / 10000 for 99% of users and 200 / 10000 for 1% of users.

Re: Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

#10
post #5

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 if it is banned, how on earth are you going to enforce it in any meaningful way? Truth, lies, boots, World...

Same way you enforce any other rule. Same way they already enforce the rules they have?

I hope you weren't hoping for an argument about slippery slopes. And yes, of course that means they may have to hire more moderators and of course that means more expenses. Who ever said Facebook should get away with no moderation just because they're successful?

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