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How do you solve the problem of displaying information equally? There is already so much noise out there anyway; Facebook recognized the need for a filter like

How do you solve the problem of displaying information equally? There is already so much noise out there anyway; Facebook recognized the need for a filter like a newsfeed. Facebook is incentivized to keep people on their platform and, therefore, the filter is not designed for the end-user. But that is still Facebook playing by the rules. If enough people are not happy with that, then they should switch to another platform with a better filter.

the_snooze 6y ago
>Facebook recognized the need for a filter like a newsfeed. Typical Facebook: there's a problem of their own making and try to solve it by introducing more Facebook. I think Facebook is rotten because they keep dancing around the root of their problems: scale. If Facebook were to scale down connections by increasing the friction between people and groups so that individuals were nudged into interacting nearly exclusively with real-world personal contacts, then there would be little need for a technical filter. People's own social filters would take care of that for them. But you're right. That would be against Facebook's financial incentives because that would make them less valuable to advertisers. They wouldn't have the power to move audiences anymore if the audience is moving itself.
Nextgrid 6y ago
> There is already so much noise out there anyway Discourage the production of noise, or don't include it in the user's newsfeed unless he explicitly followed that source? Keep in mind that most "noise" and clickbait is produced because it is itself funded by advertising and "engagement". Have some rules that ban publicly posting clickbait or any kind of commercial, for-profit content (that will not be an issue for a network that supposedly wants to connect you with your friends), enforce them and watch the problem disappear by itself. Keep in mind that a large chunk of the content being posted on Facebook with total impunity would've quickly earned you a ban on most forums back in the day and this is how those forums kept spam, hate & off-topic content at bay during their existence and nobody made a big deal out of it. The problem is that obviously Facebook will not do that, not because of any kind of moral/ethical concerns about "free speech" or anything but because clickbait being around keeps the people spending more time on Facebook, generating more revenue for Facebook. The algorithm recognizes that and will keep giving more of such content to the user since it's continuously being rewarded with the resulting engagement. Forcing Facebook to change its rules by law could work but is impractical, but a better solution would be to change the law so that while the current Facebook rules are legal per-se, the consequences of those (and the content they allow people to post) would hold Facebook liable (any illegal post automatically considers Facebook as an accomplice of the underlying crime, whether it's scams, drug deals/resale of stolen property or hate speech). This would quickly force Facebook to clean up their act and discourage their users from posting such content.

the_snooze 6y ago

>Facebook recognized the need for a filter like a newsfeed. Typical Facebook: there's a problem of their own making and try to solve it by introducing more Facebook. I think Facebook is rotten because they keep dancing around the root of their problems: scale. If Facebook were to scale down connections by increasing the friction between people and groups so that individuals were nudged into interacting nearly exclusively with real-world personal contacts, then there would be little need for a technical filter. People's own social filters would take care of that for them. But you're right. That would be against Facebook's financial incentives because that would make them less valuable to advertisers. They wouldn't have the power to move audiences anymore if the audience is moving itself.

Nextgrid 6y ago

> There is already so much noise out there anyway Discourage the production of noise, or don't include it in the user's newsfeed unless he explicitly followed that source? Keep in mind that most "noise" and clickbait is produced because it is itself funded by advertising and "engagement". Have some rules that ban publicly posting clickbait or any kind of commercial, for-profit content (that will not be an issue for a network that supposedly wants to connect you with your friends), enforce them and watch the problem disappear by itself. Keep in mind that a large chunk of the content being posted on Facebook with total impunity would've quickly earned you a ban on most forums back in the day and this is how those forums kept spam, hate & off-topic content at bay during their existence and nobody made a big deal out of it. The problem is that obviously Facebook will not do that, not because of any kind of moral/ethical concerns about "free speech" or anything but because clickbait being around keeps the people spending more time on Facebook, generating more revenue for Facebook. The algorithm recognizes that and will keep giving more of such content to the user since it's continuously being rewarded with the resulting engagement. Forcing Facebook to change its rules by law could work but is impractical, but a better solution would be to change the law so that while the current Facebook rules are legal per-se, the consequences of those (and the content they allow people to post) would hold Facebook liable (any illegal post automatically considers Facebook as an accomplice of the underlying crime, whether it's scams, drug deals/resale of stolen property or hate speech). This would quickly force Facebook to clean up their act and discourage their users from posting such content.