5 ms·

Because there are perverse incentives to ban news that don't vibe with a company's/CEO's political goals.

• vinhboy 10y ago
  Isn't there a bigger incentive to keep fake news since it attract eyeballs and make them money?
  • dictum 10y ago
    There's an even bigger incentive to control the narrative (political, cultural, economic etc.) which could greatly benefit an enterprise in the long term. Running ads for shady publications improves your quarterly results, but in the long term worsens the public perception of your company and drives off high quality advertisers/publishers. Disclaimer: I don't think this new policy from Google/FB is an attempt to control the narrative.
    • vinhboy 10y ago
      You're asking me to believe that companies think about long term benefits over quarterly results. You may be absolute correct, but I have a time hard believing it.
      • dictum 10y ago
        Google and Facebook are a bit more future-oriented than most other BigCos, perhaps because their valuations (especially for FB) take into account future growth.
• candiodari 10y ago
  If you refuse to accept the notion that anyone can be neutral, even if they want to, that's not just a case of incentives. It would happen, even if there were explicit policies to prevent it. Clearly this action is being taken because people don't like who and which party got elected, and of course that must have happened because of "lies". So clearly it's now OK. Unfortunately what's going to happen is exactly what you fear : the republicans/Trump control congress, the Senate and the presidency. They can do a lot to bend these sorts of rules their way, and of course this puts them in a corner with a gun aimed at their head. Of course they will react. So how do we get non-free press in America ? Well bay area overwhelmingly democratic private sector companies introduce it, in reaction to losing an election, to thunderous applause.
  • untog 10y ago
    Interestingly, Facebook apparently had worked on a fix to fake news months ago, but it was cancelled as it would disproportionately hit right-leaning sites, and they were afraid of outrage from it. Doesn't sound like the Bay area dictating anything to me. It sounds overdue.
    • candiodari 10y ago
      Clearly that was behavior when democrats were dead sure they were going to win the election. Now is very different.