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If they can’t responsibly provide a facility then they shouldn’t provide it. I don’t even mean just accidental issues. In this case they were warned over many
by dagmx 3y ago
If they can’t responsibly provide a facility then they shouldn’t provide it.
I don’t even mean just accidental issues. In this case they were warned over many years and were negligent.
They do not care to provide a responsible service, because a responsible service reduces engagement.
Their older algorithm was much more scalable with a void of moderation. It used to favor recent shares among your most interacted with friends.
While that doesn’t prevent group think, it does reduce amplification of emotionally charged posts. Today, a post that has a lot of engagement, even across a wider social network, is higher on your feed. That means that if I have some crazy acquaintance that I never really talk to, the second they start posting anything high engagement, it’ll come to me. Previously it would understand that I don’t care about them.
Meta chased the tail of engagement and don’t care what the second order effects are.
- spongebobstoes 3y agoI don't think it's correct to assert that a different algorithm would be less harmful, and it could even be the opposite. In the article, it says that Wirathu used multiple personal accounts to "friend" at least thousands of people. I don't know to what extent his reach would be diminished by favoring "friends" -- and it might even increase his reach.
- dagmx 3y agoThat’s why I specified their older algorithm where it prioritized people you actively engaged with. Even if Wirathu sent me a friend request that was accepted, unless I actively engaged with him, his content would fall off my feed. So it wouldn’t eliminate his reach but it would have reduced amplification. Today, because he’s popular, Facebook would prioritize him on my feed. In essence, Facebook went from saying I should care about my close friends at school to caring about the most popular cliques. (As an analogy, I’m not in school of course) I do agree with you that it’s not as trivial as any of us are writing here, but it’s also clear imho that facebooks current algorithms have harmful incentives in the face of inadequate moderation.