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I don't think this is to do with algorithmic filtering. I really doubt Facebook is so good at sentiment analysis it can tell pro vs anti-Brexit posts and separa

I don't think this is to do with algorithmic filtering. I really doubt Facebook is so good at sentiment analysis it can tell pro vs anti-Brexit posts and separate them out (well, maybe they can, modern neural networks seem capable of anything). I think there's a much more obvious cause: the pro-EU side has become incredibly, incredibly nasty and vicious. By posting a constant stream of tirades against people they disagreed with not just attacking arguments but the people themselves, they practically guaranteed their friends would not speak up in case it damaged pre-existing relationships. The echo chamber isn't made of algorithms. It's made of hatred and pseudo-intellectual contempt. And it's been a problem of the left wing for a long, long time. Corbyn leaving Parliament to speak to hard-left protesters with t-shirts like "eliminate the right wing Blairite scum" on them shows just how the supposedly caring left treats anyone who disagrees. edit: seems some people are voting this down, thus rather ironically enacting the problem the article is about ...

pyre 10y ago
At the same time, you're scooping up everyone "on the left" and placing them into the same bucket (a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals filled with hatred).
- sievebrain 10y ago
  I didn't say all left wing people were like that, I said it's been a problem of that part of the political spectrum, with the problem getting more extreme the further left you go. That said, I think left/right wing politics have faded into the background for now. The EU splits people outside of party lines. Lots of Labour supporters voted out, hence the self destruction of the Labour party itself right now. Lots of Tories voted in. The new ideological divide is between globalists and those who value the nation state.
  - thrusong 10y ago
    I would say it's the same either way you go on the spectrum. Look at the people on the far right supporting Trump.
  - tremon 10y ago
    The new ideological divide is between globalists and those who value the nation state. I'd rather say the real divide is between people whose politics are expressed along a single line, and those whose political views are well-rounded.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    > Lots of Labour supporters voted out Nearly 40% of them, which doesn't seem to be part of the narrative at all.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Left/right (aka social liberal/conservative) do not give enough of an resolution. Personally i add a economic liberal/conservative axis as well, and at that point something interesting emerges. those holding socially liberal but economically conservative attitudes seems to have industrial worker backgrounds etc. In earlier days you would find them labeled Marxists, socialists or communists. then you have the socially conservative but economically liberal. In that box you quite often find brownshirts and "self made" men in equal measure. Funny thing is that these two groups, that in other days may well have been in each other throats, have found a common enemy in globalization.
digi_owl 10y ago
I am not sure if it is just me noticing it more, or if there have been a sharp uptick in recent years, but there seems to be a increase in "crime by association" going on. If you have two groups supporting one side of a issue, and one of those groups also holds a criminal or socially unpalatable opinion, then the other side will use that opinion to tar and feather both groups.
lmm 10y ago
> I don't think this is to do with algorithmic filtering. I really doubt Facebook is so good at sentiment analysis it can tell pro vs anti-Brexit posts and separate them out (well, maybe they can, modern neural networks seem capable of anything). Several of my friends who've been making hateful pro-EU posts have been complaining that Facebook is suggesting hateful anti-EU pages to them, so I suspect Facebook is just detecting hateful posts about the EU rather than making a distinction between sides.
yomly 10y ago
I'm pretty sure you can do this with graph analysis without needing sentiment analysis. I don't have the source to hand anymore but Facebook started doing a lot of research into the different types of 'likes' may have applied. Did you like it because it was your friend without reading it? Did you read it but not like it? Did you read it and like it? These are all data points they track. If you assume they have accurate gauges of what you do and don't like, it's then easy to work out whether a post is going to sit well with you based on who did and didn't like it and what you've liked in the past.

pyre 10y ago

At the same time, you're scooping up everyone "on the left" and placing them into the same bucket (a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals filled with hatred).

sievebrain 10y ago
I didn't say all left wing people were like that, I said it's been a problem of that part of the political spectrum, with the problem getting more extreme the further left you go. That said, I think left/right wing politics have faded into the background for now. The EU splits people outside of party lines. Lots of Labour supporters voted out, hence the self destruction of the Labour party itself right now. Lots of Tories voted in. The new ideological divide is between globalists and those who value the nation state.
- thrusong 10y ago
  I would say it's the same either way you go on the spectrum. Look at the people on the far right supporting Trump.
- tremon 10y ago
  The new ideological divide is between globalists and those who value the nation state. I'd rather say the real divide is between people whose politics are expressed along a single line, and those whose political views are well-rounded.
- pessimizer 10y ago
  > Lots of Labour supporters voted out Nearly 40% of them, which doesn't seem to be part of the narrative at all.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Left/right (aka social liberal/conservative) do not give enough of an resolution. Personally i add a economic liberal/conservative axis as well, and at that point something interesting emerges. those holding socially liberal but economically conservative attitudes seems to have industrial worker backgrounds etc. In earlier days you would find them labeled Marxists, socialists or communists. then you have the socially conservative but economically liberal. In that box you quite often find brownshirts and "self made" men in equal measure. Funny thing is that these two groups, that in other days may well have been in each other throats, have found a common enemy in globalization.

digi_owl 10y ago

I am not sure if it is just me noticing it more, or if there have been a sharp uptick in recent years, but there seems to be a increase in "crime by association" going on. If you have two groups supporting one side of a issue, and one of those groups also holds a criminal or socially unpalatable opinion, then the other side will use that opinion to tar and feather both groups.

lmm 10y ago

> I don't think this is to do with algorithmic filtering. I really doubt Facebook is so good at sentiment analysis it can tell pro vs anti-Brexit posts and separate them out (well, maybe they can, modern neural networks seem capable of anything). Several of my friends who've been making hateful pro-EU posts have been complaining that Facebook is suggesting hateful anti-EU pages to them, so I suspect Facebook is just detecting hateful posts about the EU rather than making a distinction between sides.

yomly 10y ago

I'm pretty sure you can do this with graph analysis without needing sentiment analysis. I don't have the source to hand anymore but Facebook started doing a lot of research into the different types of 'likes' may have applied. Did you like it because it was your friend without reading it? Did you read it but not like it? Did you read it and like it? These are all data points they track. If you assume they have accurate gauges of what you do and don't like, it's then easy to work out whether a post is going to sit well with you based on who did and didn't like it and what you've liked in the past.