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On the subject of "should we blame algorithms", here is some nice new research with an elegant field experiment, which suggests that yes, Facebook's algorithm d
by dash2 6y ago
On the subject of "should we blame algorithms", here is some nice new research with an elegant field experiment, which suggests that yes, Facebook's algorithm does lead to filter bubbles:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3653388 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3653388
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dang 6y agoThat would make a great submission in its own right.
- dash2 6y agoDone! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26411818 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26411818
- Nasrudith 6y agoIsn't that a distraction from the real issue? If people want filter bubbles (for themselves but not others like usual) it doesn't matter who made a particular one. People don't want spam or crap they will never agree with and want stuff they are interested in.
- dash2 6y agoI think it's non-obvious that Facebook's only following consumer demand here. People are on FB for lots of reasons, including network effects that are hard to change, and the company probably has a lot of leeway to alter its bubble without changing that. Indeed, they've already made many changes. There's also a lot of possible variation in the strength of the bubble. Suppose I click on "Fox News". Should FB feed me more right wing news? Probably: as you say, people want news they are interested in, perhaps for good reasons. Should it try feeding me more extreme stuff, to see if I'm interested in QAnon? Maybe not, but it's easy to imagine how recommender algorithms could end up doing that.