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Local and state governments in the US build most roads and are responsible for them. When the roads are built in a way that causes lots of accidents at a partic
by wslack 8y ago
Local and state governments in the US build most roads and are responsible for them. When the roads are built in a way that causes lots of accidents at a particular intersection (even though the people "at fault" in these accidents are the drivers themselves) people expect the government to improve the roads and reduce the harm.
So likewise, Facebook's choices in how it presented content (giving equal weight to the NYTimes and fake news generated for profit in North Macedonia) and mechanisms for maximizing likes, views, and engagement, allowed lies and nonsense to blossom on its platforms.
This isn't an issue that's restricted to any individual political party or cause, though the people in North Macedonia have been clear that "right" fake news sold much better than "left" fake news in 2016.
Facebook build the roads here and made decisions about the tools to navigate those. Users are using those tools as designed to get maximum engagement and profit, causing the propagation of memes, trolling, and lies over quality content that doesn't generate the same metrics but costs much more to produce and fact-check. That people lie isn't Facebook's fault, but like any local government, now that they know their design is contributing to problems, some expect them to address that. Same would go for the owner of an event venue that's being used weekly to promote a violent cause, even though that owner isn't responsible for the tenants, they do choose to give them space to organize.
I'm not taking a position on what exactly they should do, but I want to be clear: regardless of if there is a scapegoat effect or not, claims of Facebook's degree of measured responsibility have clear precedent.
- chillacy 8y ago> So likewise, Facebook's choices in how it presented content (giving equal weight to the NYTimes and fake news generated for profit in North Macedonia) and mechanisms for maximizing likes, views, and engagement, allowed lies and nonsense to blossom on its platforms. Isn't that the default choice everywhere? On HN links from NYT and trash sites look the same. On Youtube videos from ABC and conspiracy theorists look the same.
- CaptainZapp 8y agoIt's far more profitable to promote outrage and that's exactly what Facebook's algorithms have done and are doing. And that's what you find in your news feed. Youtube has pretty much the same problem on a different level. That's despite the mealy mouthed bullshit that the dear leader spouts those days.
- Yaa101 8y agoOutrage leads to mob rule and genocide, which indeed happened and is happening currently. That is the main reason why FB should be regulated and stripped of it's outrage algorithms. And the main reason why Mark Zuckerberg should be brought to a large war tribune to be procecuted of enabeling and abetting genocide.
- cirgue 8y agoHN’s culture is pretty good at sniffing out and giving appropriate context to bullshit in ways Facebook emphatically isn’t, and I don’t think it’s true to say that people aren’t also taking YouTube to task for the same kind of malfeasance.