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> like a user who posted an image of a chimpanzee with the caption, "Here's one of Michelle Obama." Anecdotally, I’ve seen these sort of images shared across F

> like a user who posted an image of a chimpanzee with the caption, "Here's one of Michelle Obama." Anecdotally, I’ve seen these sort of images shared across Facebook many times and it was a large part of a decision to step back my usage of the product around 2016, including having my account deactivated for several years This topic is commonly viewed in a political lens (free speech, etc) but I view it in a free market lens: Facebook.com is full of garbage and Meta can ignore user experience issues, such as flamebait and hate speech, to their own detriment. It’s actively difficult, from my experience, to use their product in just about any way without running into heaps of inflammatory garbage.

ohhhhhh 5y ago
and you survived to tell the story. the "hate speech" didnt kill you
- afavour 5y ago
  The OP is talking about this from Facebook's perspective, not their own, hence the "free market" angle. A user deactivating their account is a negative for Facebook. Anecdotally I've long felt the same way: I have an active account still but very rarely log in because whenever I do my news feed is largely filled with nonsense I have little interest in seeing, rather than actual updates from friends and family. I see it as similar to an e-mail provider that doesn't try to tackle spam: it's a difficult problem to solve and they're welcome to ignore it. But if they do they'll find more and more users abandoning their service.
- helen___keller 5y ago
  If you’re trying to make a point, please state it clearly instead of providing a snarky one liner, which is against HN guidelines
- Lucasoato 5y ago
  There are a lot of people suffering of depression, I don't think that what you implied there is valid.
nradov 5y ago
I don't see any inflammatory garbage. It's all a matter of which friends and pages you follow.
- helen___keller 5y ago
  This is true. Admittedly my usage of Facebook I can only suspect is typical of other “casual” users, started with a period of active use in which I heavily curated and added content streams, then a long tail of passive use where I primarily just consumed content already on my home page. During this long tail I wasn’t looking to curate (especially considering that unfriending is sometimes visible and noticed), so I’d just scroll past bad content; eventually the bad content wore me out and I quit.
- helen___keller 5y ago
  An example in case you’re curious: I once learned about a train meme group from a friend. I’m a transit enthusiast, so I joined and I loved this group. for a while it was one of the highlights of Facebook.com for me. I’m lib-left politically, which fit with the lefty slant of the group, but still there came to be frequent shitstorm threads all within the scope of lefty discourse. for example, upzoning vs gentrification, should we ban cars, should we eat the rich, things like that. Eventually it got to the point where I hated seeing a post from that group on my timeline because I knew it was going to be another comment shitstorm, and so I left the group. Was it a moderation issue? Was it FB optimizing for engagement? Could algorithmic moderation of inflammatory content have even helped? I don’t know, but what was one of the few things I stayed on FB for, instead became a heap of garbage with the occasional scattered gem.
  - lostmsu 5y ago
    This is a moderation issue. Also the issue of Facebook as a product vs classic forums. A forum dedicated to transit would have subforums for political discussions, and a subforum for free for all. On Facebook I am not even sure that is possible in the same way. But implementing a whole site filtering mechanism for derogatory art sounds like an extreme measure.
at_a_remove 5y ago
Part of the grand tradition since "Bush or Chimp?" which was quite popular for a while. How soon we forget!
david38 5y ago
Maybe you should follow different people. I fail to see how this is Facebook’s fault. Unfriend or unfollow people who don’t post what you want to see. Join groups you like. This is like blaming Netflix for a random show they showed you when you actively give them indications you would like it. All you have to do is add shows you want to your queue.
- ryandrake 5y ago
  How does Facebook make the leap from "I am friends with Bob" to "I want to see inflammatory right-wing hate"? Is it because Bob occasionally interacts with inflammatory right-wing hate? Is it because Bob has second-order friends who like inflammatory right-wing hate? Is it because Bob himself likes inflammatory right-wing hate? Why should one have to change their friend list, simply to stop a social media algorithm from shoveling content that that person repeatedly expresses they don't like? Wouldn't it be better to just have a check-box: "I don't want to see right-wing hate" and have Facebook honor that, regardless of what the person's friends' activity is?

ohhhhhh 5y ago

and you survived to tell the story. the "hate speech" didnt kill you

afavour 5y ago
The OP is talking about this from Facebook's perspective, not their own, hence the "free market" angle. A user deactivating their account is a negative for Facebook. Anecdotally I've long felt the same way: I have an active account still but very rarely log in because whenever I do my news feed is largely filled with nonsense I have little interest in seeing, rather than actual updates from friends and family. I see it as similar to an e-mail provider that doesn't try to tackle spam: it's a difficult problem to solve and they're welcome to ignore it. But if they do they'll find more and more users abandoning their service.
helen___keller 5y ago
If you’re trying to make a point, please state it clearly instead of providing a snarky one liner, which is against HN guidelines
Lucasoato 5y ago
There are a lot of people suffering of depression, I don't think that what you implied there is valid.

nradov 5y ago

I don't see any inflammatory garbage. It's all a matter of which friends and pages you follow.

helen___keller 5y ago
This is true. Admittedly my usage of Facebook I can only suspect is typical of other “casual” users, started with a period of active use in which I heavily curated and added content streams, then a long tail of passive use where I primarily just consumed content already on my home page. During this long tail I wasn’t looking to curate (especially considering that unfriending is sometimes visible and noticed), so I’d just scroll past bad content; eventually the bad content wore me out and I quit.
helen___keller 5y ago
An example in case you’re curious: I once learned about a train meme group from a friend. I’m a transit enthusiast, so I joined and I loved this group. for a while it was one of the highlights of Facebook.com for me. I’m lib-left politically, which fit with the lefty slant of the group, but still there came to be frequent shitstorm threads all within the scope of lefty discourse. for example, upzoning vs gentrification, should we ban cars, should we eat the rich, things like that. Eventually it got to the point where I hated seeing a post from that group on my timeline because I knew it was going to be another comment shitstorm, and so I left the group. Was it a moderation issue? Was it FB optimizing for engagement? Could algorithmic moderation of inflammatory content have even helped? I don’t know, but what was one of the few things I stayed on FB for, instead became a heap of garbage with the occasional scattered gem.
- lostmsu 5y ago
  This is a moderation issue. Also the issue of Facebook as a product vs classic forums. A forum dedicated to transit would have subforums for political discussions, and a subforum for free for all. On Facebook I am not even sure that is possible in the same way. But implementing a whole site filtering mechanism for derogatory art sounds like an extreme measure.

at_a_remove 5y ago

Part of the grand tradition since "Bush or Chimp?" which was quite popular for a while. How soon we forget!

david38 5y ago

Maybe you should follow different people. I fail to see how this is Facebook’s fault. Unfriend or unfollow people who don’t post what you want to see. Join groups you like. This is like blaming Netflix for a random show they showed you when you actively give them indications you would like it. All you have to do is add shows you want to your queue.

ryandrake 5y ago
How does Facebook make the leap from "I am friends with Bob" to "I want to see inflammatory right-wing hate"? Is it because Bob occasionally interacts with inflammatory right-wing hate? Is it because Bob has second-order friends who like inflammatory right-wing hate? Is it because Bob himself likes inflammatory right-wing hate? Why should one have to change their friend list, simply to stop a social media algorithm from shoveling content that that person repeatedly expresses they don't like? Wouldn't it be better to just have a check-box: "I don't want to see right-wing hate" and have Facebook honor that, regardless of what the person's friends' activity is?