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Given the history of propaganda and how we got into the Iraq war, this is an area of real major concern for me. On two different occasions I've noticed a simil
by salimmadjd 10y ago
Given the history of propaganda and how we got into the Iraq war, this is an area of real major concern for me.
On two different occasions I've noticed a similar behavior on a "trending" news topic that was not trending anywhere.
Both cases (surprisingly) that caught my eyes, had to do with vilification of Iran. The first time, I assumed a certain organized PR effort or perhaps it was naturally trending.
However, the second time (May 9th) [0] it coincided with the Gizmodo's article coming out.
That prompted me to search all major news sites (with the logic that if it was on some major news sites it will then circulate within FB and will explain why it was trend).
So I decided to document this, I checked CNN, HuffingtonPost, NYTimes, WashingtonPost...no mention of an "Iranian missile test" but there was a small blurb at the bottom of the FoxNew site [1]. Not enough exposure for it to get the kind of volume to be the top-3 trending story.
[0] http://imgur.com/UNRBrRu http://imgur.com/UNRBrRu
[1] http://imgur.com/1f13R80 http://imgur.com/1f13R80
- spenvo 10y agoFacebook's opaque blend of personalized algos and editorial decision-making means it can never be truly pinned down on what it shows you
- arcticfox 10y agoHow are you so sure [1] is promoted? That would be a HUGE scandal if it was. IMO, bigger than this trending topics issue.
- spenvo 10y agoHey, there isn't any way for me to be sure -- after some digging -- looks like a "sponsored" label is necessary [0] -- i've amended my comment. [0] - https://www.facebook.com/business/help/community/question/?id=1060144240714352 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/community/question/?i...
- ProAm 10y ago> Given the history of propaganda and how we got into the Iraq war, this is an area of real major concern for me. This is how the news media has operated in the US for almost all of its existence. I wouldnt be too concerned about it, just take news you read with a grain of salt.
- scholia 10y agoFacebook says: "The list of Trending Topics is then personalized for each user via an algorithm that relies on a number of factors, including the importance of the topic, Pages a person has liked, location (e.g.. home state sports news), feedback provided by the user about previous Trending Topics and what’s trending across Facebook overall. Not everyone sees the same topics at the same time." (My italics.) If you're interested in Iran, you will probably see stuff about Iran that hardly anyone else sees. I have zero interest in Iran and have never seen anything about it.
- salimmadjd 10y agoIf you look at the image I posted [0] there is trending topic of Justin Bieber. I have zero interest in him, in fact I've never or rarely can I recall have mentioned anything about the pop culture, music or anything else (I like classical music and some classical rock). Given all the different topic I post on FB and Justin Bieber popping up, I can image this is not all personalized news. I also follow many people who posts news and information on Iran, and it's surprising none of them showed up on trending, except an article with intent of vilification. Seems unlikely. Even if FB news is personalized, FB guideline indicates they can inject any news they want into this. I noticed the same thing with the Yahoo News showing up on Yahoo email years ago and last time I checked continuing today. That source also rapidly became hawkish on foreign policy issues.
- dimino 10y agoWhat you're trying to do is draw conclusions based on very small sets of data. Sure, the article submitted agrees with your conclusion, but there's simply no way to tell if the conclusion you're drawing (and what's stated in the article) is related to your observations. Your very small anecdotal evidence does not provide additional confirmation of the reported behavior.
- nimblegorilla 10y agoNot everything has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt before people provide anecdotes.
- exclusiv 10y agoAre you saying news about Iran's military actions is not important to the US and its allies? Perhaps users on FB find it more interesting and they surface it. Why does news on FB have to mimic the mainstream media? Many times we have to read the stories about the US as reported from other countries because the MSM misses them or decides they aren't important enough.
- onewaystreet 10y agoWhether a story trends isn't contingent on it being placed on the front page of major news sites. Most people don't get their news that way. A story is more likely to trend because someone notable talked about it or linked to it.
- guelo 10y agoFacebook didn't exist in 2002 and we still went to war in Iraq.
- spinlock 10y agoAre you claiming that Facebook was responsible for the "free speech zones" that silenced our protest against the march to war in Iraq?