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Agreed. A lot of the criticism against facebook is warranted, but a cynical part of me also thinks the timing on all this not coincidental to the Algorithm chan

by imjk 9y ago

Agreed. A lot of the criticism against facebook is warranted, but a cynical part of me also thinks the timing on all this not coincidental to the Algorithm changes FB rolled out last month. In fact, I can't believe I haven't heard this from anyone else. Facebook's shutting down of organic reach was devastating for publishers: http://www.adweek.com/digital/after-facebooks-algorithm-change-devastated-organic-reach-how-are-publishers-coping/ http://www.adweek.com/digital/after-facebooks-algorithm-chan.... Now, just weeks later, it seems like all of media has turned on Facebook. We've known about the Cambridge Analytica scandal for over a year, but suddenly it's cover story material again. This is an article on it from last May: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great.... It just seems like the media is dumping on whatever it can at this point. My cynical view on how this ends would be that FB comes to some compromise on organic reach and the media begins to cool down on all the FB hoopla. FB gets some sort of slap on the wrist fine from the FTC or some other governing agency, and nothing genuinely changes in terms of consumer privacy.

smt88 9y ago
Publishers have hated FB for years. The algorithm update didn't move the needle much.
lambda_lover 9y ago
Oh absolutely -- Facebook pissed off somebody with a lot of influence, and now they're paying the price. That doesn't change the fact that Facebook is a cancer on society that sucks every piece of data it can get from its victims in exchange for an, at this point, poor end-user experience. I'd welcome a world where people have given up on Facebook, so I'm all for this push. Something something the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Facebook's shutting down of organic reach was devastating for publishers: Facebook makes algorithm changes to reduce unpaid reach and squeeze more money out of business entities on the platform regularly, almost as soon as the complaints from the last round of changed have died down; it may be a contributor to background frustration especially by small businesses (for big businesses with established brands, its a barrier to their competition) but it'd probably not as big of a contribution to the present controversy as direct political features of that controversy, where the left is upset at the impact and therefore everyone involved, the right wants the political focus on Facebook rather than the other parties, and privacy advocates are angry at everyone involved, but particularly Facebook as the direct custodian of the data, about the mechanisms which allowed it to happen, which leaves everyone mad at Facebook for one reason or another.
- imjk 9y ago
  You're correct in that FB has made these changes in the past that have hurt publishers, but the degree and severity of this last update is unprecedented. Media companies that had $100MM+ valuations months ago have shuttered over night: https://digiday.com/media/live-algorithm-die-algorithm-littlethings-went-social-publishing-darling-shutting/ https://digiday.com/media/live-algorithm-die-algorithm-littl.... Unless you're close to someone in the industry, you wouldn't realize the severity of the situation. I personally know of two separate companies that lost 80% of their traffic overnight and had to shutdown almost immediately. There are much larger companies, with significant VC and private equity backing that are able to stay afloat through this, but they're definitely feeling the impact. This is across the board to all traditional media companies as well, and a lot of people with significant influence and money are not happy.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    The fact that I've seen stories like that with previous FB algorithm changes (and with virtually every one of Google's algorithm changes, too) make me doubt that this is really that unprecedented.

by imjk 9y ago

smt88 9y ago

Publishers have hated FB for years. The algorithm update didn't move the needle much.

lambda_lover 9y ago

Oh absolutely -- Facebook pissed off somebody with a lot of influence, and now they're paying the price. That doesn't change the fact that Facebook is a cancer on society that sucks every piece of data it can get from its victims in exchange for an, at this point, poor end-user experience. I'd welcome a world where people have given up on Facebook, so I'm all for this push. Something something the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> Facebook's shutting down of organic reach was devastating for publishers: Facebook makes algorithm changes to reduce unpaid reach and squeeze more money out of business entities on the platform regularly, almost as soon as the complaints from the last round of changed have died down; it may be a contributor to background frustration especially by small businesses (for big businesses with established brands, its a barrier to their competition) but it'd probably not as big of a contribution to the present controversy as direct political features of that controversy, where the left is upset at the impact and therefore everyone involved, the right wants the political focus on Facebook rather than the other parties, and privacy advocates are angry at everyone involved, but particularly Facebook as the direct custodian of the data, about the mechanisms which allowed it to happen, which leaves everyone mad at Facebook for one reason or another.

imjk 9y ago
You're correct in that FB has made these changes in the past that have hurt publishers, but the degree and severity of this last update is unprecedented. Media companies that had $100MM+ valuations months ago have shuttered over night: https://digiday.com/media/live-algorithm-die-algorithm-littlethings-went-social-publishing-darling-shutting/ https://digiday.com/media/live-algorithm-die-algorithm-littl.... Unless you're close to someone in the industry, you wouldn't realize the severity of the situation. I personally know of two separate companies that lost 80% of their traffic overnight and had to shutdown almost immediately. There are much larger companies, with significant VC and private equity backing that are able to stay afloat through this, but they're definitely feeling the impact. This is across the board to all traditional media companies as well, and a lot of people with significant influence and money are not happy.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  The fact that I've seen stories like that with previous FB algorithm changes (and with virtually every one of Google's algorithm changes, too) make me doubt that this is really that unprecedented.