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A few years back it started showing me obvious political ragebait. I ignored it and then it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously sh

A few years back it started showing me obvious political ragebait. I ignored it and then it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing through their clothing, which was an improvement, but still not the reason I signed up for Facebook. I've always understood it as the algorithm is looking for engagement and will try some lowest common denominator tactics to engage in it. As someone who just wanted to see the odd picture of a friend or relative, I don't have much use for Facebook these days.

Gud 2y ago
That Facebook would turn into a soft core porn site was pretty unexpected, at least for me.
- ainiriand 2y ago
  Makes sense financially!
- jasonjayr 2y ago
  Isn't that the winning formula on Instagram?
- rollcat 2y ago
  Not surprising at all, considering the origins.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- lispisok 2y ago
  That seems to be what every social platform eventually turns into
  - infamouscow 2y ago
    Like all other physical systems, social networks are subject to entropy.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Instagram is {in}famous for its bikini babes, a not insignificant fraction of which advertise their "availability" in various cities. How this has never come up in the various congressional hearings about protecting children mystifies me, reddit, twitter and instagram all have a culture of onboarding young women into sex work.
  - ianhawes 2y ago
    What exactly is there to protect children against? Instagram forbids nudity and regularly cracks down on it by banning accounts. I don't recall seeing any advertisements for prostitution on Instagram either. And of course, young women have been recruited into sex work long before social media or the internet.
    - jazzyjackson 2y ago
      You may not have experienced this but as soon as you're cute online you get direct messaged solicitations for photos, some offering hundreds of dollars for nudes. Once you've quit your job because your OnlyFans page took off you're stressed about keeping your numbers up so you start asking strangers to "collaborate" with to produce more content. I know its progressive to consider sex work a perfectly good career choice but some of us still think its worth encouraging children to have some degree of modesty and keep sex a taboo topic to be explored with someone you trust. And if you haven't noticed prostitution on instagram and twitter you just don't know the lingo, but basically city names + dates in the bio is a solicitation to DM for rates. "NYC 9/12-9/22, Miami 10/20-31", that kind of thing. Actually the one thing that impressed me about twitter is how much of a bubble this is, you don't stumble upon porn accounts in general, but once you follow a couple of accounts that promote sex work even politically (which I think people totally have the right to do, I do prefer the nordic model to whatever america is doing) you'll see hundreds of these.
    - rixed 2y ago
      We must not have used the same Instagram. Every time i post a picture it is "liked" by several robots trying to sell sex under fake accounts which name would look suspicious to a 3 lines long perl script. I used to report and block them, now i just have all notifications permanently off.
- jdswain 2y ago
  The trouble is there is no way to turn it off. I've nothing against that kind of thing in the right place, but for me Facebook is not that place, and it sneaks in no matter how hard you try and prevent it. Here's some funny fail videos...of girls in bikinis. Here's some sport images for the sport you are interested in, with far too revealing angles/images. So I don't use Facebook any more, and feel much better for it.
rnd0 2y ago
>A few years back it started showing me obvious political ragebait. I ignored it and then it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing through their clothing, which was an improvement, but still not the reason I signed up for Facebook. Same experience. Then, after ignoring that, I've started getting posts from mystery people who seem like they could be aquaintences (because hobbies) but aren't -an improvement, but still off the mark. I just want to go back to where you could use facebook to share what you're up to and see what other folks you know are up to; but apparently that's too 00's to hope for.
- vineyardmike 2y ago
  > I just want to go back to where you could use facebook to share what you're up to and see what other folks you know are up to; but apparently that's too 00's to hope for. But do folks you know post? I’m under the impression that the slop churned out for clicks are all that’s left.
  - hunter2_ 2y ago
    The answer can be found by clicking Feeds > Friends [0] and it's an overwhelming "Yes, this is great! Wait, 90% is 'shared' from someone I don't know anyway, not written by my friend, so it's only a slight improvement." [0] https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr (this URL seems to work on a desktop browser only; use the menu items in other situations)
  - rnd0 2y ago
    If they do, I'd probably be the last to know -because slop.
  - Nursie 2y ago
    Over time, fewer and fewer of them post, and they post less and less. I post a lot less than I used to as well. At least in part this is because my feed is drowning in unwanted noise. Facebook's desparate attempts to wave stuff in my face 'for engagement' drive me away from posting more, so it becomes a vicious circle, driving down engagement, making people post less, round and round we go. Maybe I'm weird, but if my friends aren't posting much, that's OK, that's what I came here to check. Instead I'm assaulted by noise, quite a lot of it either scammy or offensive.
glatisaint 2y ago
Facebook showing me political ragebait was the reason I uninstalled the app and stopped using Facebook.
graemep 2y ago
Its all about engagement. Personalised ragebait is obviously works well for that. never click on anything on FB unless you see a lot more of it, including really rubbish variants. Read or post about history, and get conspiracy theories. An interest in science will get you pseudo-science.
code_duck 2y ago
Same here. There was nothing I could do to get my feed to not be full of provocatively insulting and irritating political posts. I’d unfollow, unfriend, block, say “show me less of this” and so on. But when I’d unfriend some person, very next thing on my feed would be political content I didn’t like from some totally random person on my friend list who I’d never interacted with. Meanwhile I’d notice that people I actually knew in person had life events I’d want to know about - got married, took a nice vacation, had children even, and FB had never showed me stuff like that! So I just stopped using it entirely. Then when I went back after a few years, the site demanded my driver’s license. So guess I will just never sign in again.
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  >some totally random person on my friend list who I’d never interacted with. While the Algorithm(tm) is complete garbage, you could also probably add less Totally Random Persons(tm) to your "friends" list. If Totally Random Persons(tm) are getting added automagically, we have bigger problems.
  - stavros 2y ago
    But that would be the wrong solution to the problem. I should be able to add whomever I want, and then be able to mute them permanently.
    - Dalewyn 2y ago
      I think if you add not-friends to your friends list, the Algorithm(tm) perhaps justifiably recommends things from your friends list, and you get junk recommendations, the problem isn't entirely the Algorithm(tm)'s fault. You feed the Algorithm(tm) garbage and it returns you garbage, and somehow it's all the Algorithm(tm)'s fault.
      - stavros 2y ago
        It's the algorithm's fault for not listening to my "mute this person". I had my feed muted so I didn't see any posts (which is how I wanted it), but now I see random "recommended" content, with no way I can see to opt out. That's not my fault.
mgiampapa 2y ago
There is actually a reasonable way to fix this as currently implemented. Engage with the platform in some popular areas that have their own targeted advertising. My feed is filled with STEM projects and gardening with a spritz of actual content from friends. When the product is used as intended, it does a lot better than with zero engagement passively. The product is very tuned to people actually using it, which the average hacker news reader isn't.
- RoyalHenOil 2y ago
  At least for me, this is even worse. I would rather have a clear separation between the content being foisted on me and the content I'm there to actually see.
  - mgiampapa 2y ago
    If you give no signals, you get the lowest denominator content... boobies and click/ragebait.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- pdntspa 2y ago
  Many of us don't want any outside content. Just our friends. There is no way to engage with the platform to produce that sort of feed without hacking something. Besides, even for my interests, I don't want to see a bunch of random if topical chaff. It's extremely rare for the algorithm to pick up on the kind of advanced, nuanced, and obscure discussions that I want to see, simply because they are invisible to it by their very nature. Plus for whatever reason the algorithm thinks I'm super big on some things that make absolutely no sense... for example one recurring topic seems to be posts about various corporate logos and how they are constructed, yet I have never willingly engaged with anything on FB having to do with logos or graphic design. Another favorite topic it likes to show is really bad humor, like jokes so basic and elementary that I have a hard time understanding how anyone finds them funny. Oh and the obligatory horny bait. It's nice that you've somehow managed to cajole your feed into something you can tolerate, but your post strikes me as suffering from the same kind of myopia common amongst tech workers who have never stepped outside their bubble. We as a group need to be pushing back much harder against the algorithmic slop that seems to dominate pretty much all popular social watering holes.
SoftTalker 2y ago
What if they had shown you pictures of men whose penises were obviously showing through their pants? Why was Facebook not being gender-neutral with this tactic?
- Fatnino 2y ago
  Because fb knows the user is male and odds are this would attract a click.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    True. They probably know if you're gay also, so in that case they might do it.
  - LightBug1 2y ago
    click looks remarkably like dick when set in this context.
- numpad0 2y ago
  This is generally because softcore pornography for women do not concern penises. Women seem to prefer exposed male chests.
- pjc50 2y ago
  At one point people were playing a game with the Tumblr terms of service, which explicitly banned "female presenting nipples". Subjective standards of offence always result in ridiculous cases.
nradov 2y ago
It's funny how different users can have such opposite experiences on the same platform. My Facebook feed contains zero political rage bait or soft-core porn. Mostly I see pictures of kids, pets, and vacations. I assume the difference comes down to who you follow and which posts you like, but the algorithm is totally opaque so who knows?
beefnugs 2y ago
"..friend or relative.." "..nipples.." damn it, so you were the one that triggered years of the worst porn titles
tomcam 2y ago
> it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing through their clothing, I’m using Facebook wrong
EnigmaFlare 2y ago
You're probably using it wrong. I never see the stuff people complain about. When one of my half-dozen Facebook friends posts something, Facebook emails me and I click the link for that specific post and don't see any other crap. I also occasionally participate in some local-only groups which don't have political ragebait or soft porn, just local people posting silly things they saw in the street or local marketplace groups where people sell their household junk. I don't even know how to find this feed people keep talking about.
- Nursie 2y ago
  > I don't even know how to find this feed people keep talking about. You go to https://www.facebook.com https://www.facebook.com That's literally it. If you don't have a suite of adblockers and extensions like FB Purity installed, you'll probably see a ton of crap. If you don't see a ton of crap, I would love to know what sort of wizard spell you have cast to ward it off.
  - EnigmaFlare 2y ago
    Oh, I see now that if I scroll down it starts to include short videos and ads and random crap. I don't pay attention to that, probably because it's clearly nothing personally relevant to me and just lowest-common-denominator internet drivel. If I'm typing in facebook.com, the first thing I do is click on one of the groups I'm in, marketplace, or messages.
hojinkoh 2y ago
I get similar things on Facebook too. The problem is, my Facebook profile clearly stated that I'm an asexual female, but the recommendation engine obviously didn't pick that up...
IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago
Question. Did you ever try Facebook purity (FBP) ? If yes, did the forcing of chronological content into the feed, not work? Or did Facebook finally kill the widget? FBP was the only thing that made FB bearable for a while, but im curious to other peoples experience with it
rightbyte 2y ago
I get those booty and nipple pics too. I think the algorithm might take 'hover time' in consideration. So it pumps posts that annoys you or otherwise makes you look a fraction of a sec longer.
complianceowl 2y ago
> "which was an improvement" I needed to laugh this morning. Thank you.
yadaeno 2y ago
People talk about “the algorithm” but most of it is content creators hyper optimizing their content to make as much money as possible. TikTok split screen slop is a xx million dollar business at this point so you can expect a huge investment to pump out even more slop YoY
xnx 2y ago
Infrastructure is so cheap now. How is there not an ad-free social network? If you eliminate ads and the "intelligent" feed, that must save 95% of the administrative costs.
- JackMorgan 2y ago
  Lemmy exists. Lemmy.world is fine social media site. One could just host their own private instance for friends and family.
commandlinefan 2y ago
> pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing Oh man, my wife would get so mad at me when she saw me scrolling through Facebook and I'd tell her I didn't pick this feed. I did finally get it to stop.
fennecbutt 2y ago
Yes lowest common denominator but also the average I guess. You see scantily clad women promoted cause many slavering str8 guys actually do frequently click on stuff like that. Definitely you'll see that our baser instincts and emotions are taken advantage of way more often; sex, anger/outrage, desire/jealousy. It's no wonder that "watch this super wealthy person show off their wife/cars/house/yacht" is so damn popular.

Gud 2y ago

That Facebook would turn into a soft core porn site was pretty unexpected, at least for me.

ainiriand 2y ago
Makes sense financially!
jasonjayr 2y ago
Isn't that the winning formula on Instagram?
rollcat 2y ago
Not surprising at all, considering the origins.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
lispisok 2y ago
That seems to be what every social platform eventually turns into
- infamouscow 2y ago
  Like all other physical systems, social networks are subject to entropy.
jazzyjackson 2y ago
Instagram is {in}famous for its bikini babes, a not insignificant fraction of which advertise their "availability" in various cities. How this has never come up in the various congressional hearings about protecting children mystifies me, reddit, twitter and instagram all have a culture of onboarding young women into sex work.
- ianhawes 2y ago
  What exactly is there to protect children against? Instagram forbids nudity and regularly cracks down on it by banning accounts. I don't recall seeing any advertisements for prostitution on Instagram either. And of course, young women have been recruited into sex work long before social media or the internet.
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    You may not have experienced this but as soon as you're cute online you get direct messaged solicitations for photos, some offering hundreds of dollars for nudes. Once you've quit your job because your OnlyFans page took off you're stressed about keeping your numbers up so you start asking strangers to "collaborate" with to produce more content. I know its progressive to consider sex work a perfectly good career choice but some of us still think its worth encouraging children to have some degree of modesty and keep sex a taboo topic to be explored with someone you trust. And if you haven't noticed prostitution on instagram and twitter you just don't know the lingo, but basically city names + dates in the bio is a solicitation to DM for rates. "NYC 9/12-9/22, Miami 10/20-31", that kind of thing. Actually the one thing that impressed me about twitter is how much of a bubble this is, you don't stumble upon porn accounts in general, but once you follow a couple of accounts that promote sex work even politically (which I think people totally have the right to do, I do prefer the nordic model to whatever america is doing) you'll see hundreds of these.
  - rixed 2y ago
    We must not have used the same Instagram. Every time i post a picture it is "liked" by several robots trying to sell sex under fake accounts which name would look suspicious to a 3 lines long perl script. I used to report and block them, now i just have all notifications permanently off.
jdswain 2y ago
The trouble is there is no way to turn it off. I've nothing against that kind of thing in the right place, but for me Facebook is not that place, and it sneaks in no matter how hard you try and prevent it. Here's some funny fail videos...of girls in bikinis. Here's some sport images for the sport you are interested in, with far too revealing angles/images. So I don't use Facebook any more, and feel much better for it.

rnd0 2y ago

>A few years back it started showing me obvious political ragebait. I ignored it and then it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing through their clothing, which was an improvement, but still not the reason I signed up for Facebook. Same experience. Then, after ignoring that, I've started getting posts from mystery people who seem like they could be aquaintences (because hobbies) but aren't -an improvement, but still off the mark. I just want to go back to where you could use facebook to share what you're up to and see what other folks you know are up to; but apparently that's too 00's to hope for.

vineyardmike 2y ago
> I just want to go back to where you could use facebook to share what you're up to and see what other folks you know are up to; but apparently that's too 00's to hope for. But do folks you know post? I’m under the impression that the slop churned out for clicks are all that’s left.
- hunter2_ 2y ago
  The answer can be found by clicking Feeds > Friends [0] and it's an overwhelming "Yes, this is great! Wait, 90% is 'shared' from someone I don't know anyway, not written by my friend, so it's only a slight improvement." [0] https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr (this URL seems to work on a desktop browser only; use the menu items in other situations)
- rnd0 2y ago
  If they do, I'd probably be the last to know -because slop.
- Nursie 2y ago
  Over time, fewer and fewer of them post, and they post less and less. I post a lot less than I used to as well. At least in part this is because my feed is drowning in unwanted noise. Facebook's desparate attempts to wave stuff in my face 'for engagement' drive me away from posting more, so it becomes a vicious circle, driving down engagement, making people post less, round and round we go. Maybe I'm weird, but if my friends aren't posting much, that's OK, that's what I came here to check. Instead I'm assaulted by noise, quite a lot of it either scammy or offensive.

glatisaint 2y ago

Facebook showing me political ragebait was the reason I uninstalled the app and stopped using Facebook.

graemep 2y ago

Its all about engagement. Personalised ragebait is obviously works well for that. never click on anything on FB unless you see a lot more of it, including really rubbish variants. Read or post about history, and get conspiracy theories. An interest in science will get you pseudo-science.

code_duck 2y ago

Same here. There was nothing I could do to get my feed to not be full of provocatively insulting and irritating political posts. I’d unfollow, unfriend, block, say “show me less of this” and so on. But when I’d unfriend some person, very next thing on my feed would be political content I didn’t like from some totally random person on my friend list who I’d never interacted with. Meanwhile I’d notice that people I actually knew in person had life events I’d want to know about - got married, took a nice vacation, had children even, and FB had never showed me stuff like that! So I just stopped using it entirely. Then when I went back after a few years, the site demanded my driver’s license. So guess I will just never sign in again.

Dalewyn 2y ago
>some totally random person on my friend list who I’d never interacted with. While the Algorithm(tm) is complete garbage, you could also probably add less Totally Random Persons(tm) to your "friends" list. If Totally Random Persons(tm) are getting added automagically, we have bigger problems.
- stavros 2y ago
  But that would be the wrong solution to the problem. I should be able to add whomever I want, and then be able to mute them permanently.
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    I think if you add not-friends to your friends list, the Algorithm(tm) perhaps justifiably recommends things from your friends list, and you get junk recommendations, the problem isn't entirely the Algorithm(tm)'s fault. You feed the Algorithm(tm) garbage and it returns you garbage, and somehow it's all the Algorithm(tm)'s fault.
    - stavros 2y ago
      It's the algorithm's fault for not listening to my "mute this person". I had my feed muted so I didn't see any posts (which is how I wanted it), but now I see random "recommended" content, with no way I can see to opt out. That's not my fault.

mgiampapa 2y ago

There is actually a reasonable way to fix this as currently implemented. Engage with the platform in some popular areas that have their own targeted advertising. My feed is filled with STEM projects and gardening with a spritz of actual content from friends. When the product is used as intended, it does a lot better than with zero engagement passively. The product is very tuned to people actually using it, which the average hacker news reader isn't.

RoyalHenOil 2y ago
At least for me, this is even worse. I would rather have a clear separation between the content being foisted on me and the content I'm there to actually see.
- mgiampapa 2y ago
  If you give no signals, you get the lowest denominator content... boobies and click/ragebait.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
pdntspa 2y ago
Many of us don't want any outside content. Just our friends. There is no way to engage with the platform to produce that sort of feed without hacking something. Besides, even for my interests, I don't want to see a bunch of random if topical chaff. It's extremely rare for the algorithm to pick up on the kind of advanced, nuanced, and obscure discussions that I want to see, simply because they are invisible to it by their very nature. Plus for whatever reason the algorithm thinks I'm super big on some things that make absolutely no sense... for example one recurring topic seems to be posts about various corporate logos and how they are constructed, yet I have never willingly engaged with anything on FB having to do with logos or graphic design. Another favorite topic it likes to show is really bad humor, like jokes so basic and elementary that I have a hard time understanding how anyone finds them funny. Oh and the obligatory horny bait. It's nice that you've somehow managed to cajole your feed into something you can tolerate, but your post strikes me as suffering from the same kind of myopia common amongst tech workers who have never stepped outside their bubble. We as a group need to be pushing back much harder against the algorithmic slop that seems to dominate pretty much all popular social watering holes.

SoftTalker 2y ago

What if they had shown you pictures of men whose penises were obviously showing through their pants? Why was Facebook not being gender-neutral with this tactic?

Fatnino 2y ago
Because fb knows the user is male and odds are this would attract a click.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  True. They probably know if you're gay also, so in that case they might do it.
- LightBug1 2y ago
  click looks remarkably like dick when set in this context.
numpad0 2y ago
This is generally because softcore pornography for women do not concern penises. Women seem to prefer exposed male chests.
pjc50 2y ago
At one point people were playing a game with the Tumblr terms of service, which explicitly banned "female presenting nipples". Subjective standards of offence always result in ridiculous cases.

nradov 2y ago

It's funny how different users can have such opposite experiences on the same platform. My Facebook feed contains zero political rage bait or soft-core porn. Mostly I see pictures of kids, pets, and vacations. I assume the difference comes down to who you follow and which posts you like, but the algorithm is totally opaque so who knows?

beefnugs 2y ago

"..friend or relative.." "..nipples.." damn it, so you were the one that triggered years of the worst porn titles

tomcam 2y ago

> it started showing me pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing through their clothing, I’m using Facebook wrong

EnigmaFlare 2y ago

You're probably using it wrong. I never see the stuff people complain about. When one of my half-dozen Facebook friends posts something, Facebook emails me and I click the link for that specific post and don't see any other crap. I also occasionally participate in some local-only groups which don't have political ragebait or soft porn, just local people posting silly things they saw in the street or local marketplace groups where people sell their household junk. I don't even know how to find this feed people keep talking about.

Nursie 2y ago
> I don't even know how to find this feed people keep talking about. You go to https://www.facebook.com https://www.facebook.com That's literally it. If you don't have a suite of adblockers and extensions like FB Purity installed, you'll probably see a ton of crap. If you don't see a ton of crap, I would love to know what sort of wizard spell you have cast to ward it off.
- EnigmaFlare 2y ago
  Oh, I see now that if I scroll down it starts to include short videos and ads and random crap. I don't pay attention to that, probably because it's clearly nothing personally relevant to me and just lowest-common-denominator internet drivel. If I'm typing in facebook.com, the first thing I do is click on one of the groups I'm in, marketplace, or messages.

hojinkoh 2y ago

I get similar things on Facebook too. The problem is, my Facebook profile clearly stated that I'm an asexual female, but the recommendation engine obviously didn't pick that up...

IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago

Question. Did you ever try Facebook purity (FBP) ? If yes, did the forcing of chronological content into the feed, not work? Or did Facebook finally kill the widget? FBP was the only thing that made FB bearable for a while, but im curious to other peoples experience with it

rightbyte 2y ago

I get those booty and nipple pics too. I think the algorithm might take 'hover time' in consideration. So it pumps posts that annoys you or otherwise makes you look a fraction of a sec longer.

complianceowl 2y ago

> "which was an improvement" I needed to laugh this morning. Thank you.

yadaeno 2y ago

People talk about “the algorithm” but most of it is content creators hyper optimizing their content to make as much money as possible. TikTok split screen slop is a xx million dollar business at this point so you can expect a huge investment to pump out even more slop YoY

xnx 2y ago

Infrastructure is so cheap now. How is there not an ad-free social network? If you eliminate ads and the "intelligent" feed, that must save 95% of the administrative costs.

JackMorgan 2y ago
Lemmy exists. Lemmy.world is fine social media site. One could just host their own private instance for friends and family.

commandlinefan 2y ago

> pictures of women whose nipples were obviously showing Oh man, my wife would get so mad at me when she saw me scrolling through Facebook and I'd tell her I didn't pick this feed. I did finally get it to stop.

fennecbutt 2y ago

Yes lowest common denominator but also the average I guess. You see scantily clad women promoted cause many slavering str8 guys actually do frequently click on stuff like that. Definitely you'll see that our baser instincts and emotions are taken advantage of way more often; sex, anger/outrage, desire/jealousy. It's no wonder that "watch this super wealthy person show off their wife/cars/house/yacht" is so damn popular.