4 ms·

Facebook would rather do no moderation, it's an expense for them. They do it to make the platform more pleasant so that people stay on it

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
No they do it to support their owners’ and employees’ biases. It doesn’t make the platform more pleasant for the half that gets censored. That’s leaving aside the feed not remembering the choice to view chronologically ordered posts, the inability to easily track actual people in my life, the addictive algorithms, the clickbait that causes mental health issues for teens, etc.
- creato 2y ago
  99% of FB's moderation has nothing to do with "biases", unless you think FB is biased against spam, scams, and all the other dregs of the internet that incessantly pops up anywhere users can post content.
  - TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
    Quite a few people left Threads for Bluesky because progressive posts were being removed while far-right, antivax, etc content was allowed to stand even though it was reported. At best the algo is imperfect. At worst it really does seem oddly selective.
  - dudeinjapan 2y ago
    I am a humble Cialis salesman, like my father and grandfather before me. I confirm Facebook is biased against our profession. (My grandfather also moonlighted as a Barrister representing the estates of deceased African royalty—it was always so difficult to track down their heirs.)
- roywiggins 2y ago
  The stuff that Facebook moderators are actually tasked with removing is really awful, bad enough to produce severe psychological effects in the moderators. Facebook pays people to look at and remove this stuff because the platform would not survive if it wasn't removed before you or I saw it. Do they also enforce other corporate values? Yeah, probably. That doesn't seem to be the main job though, they have their hands full dealing with the worst content in the world. https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/kenya-facebook-moderators-sue-after-diagnoses-of-severe-ptsd https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.thegu... > The images and videos including necrophilia, bestiality and self-harm caused some moderators to faint, vomit, scream and run away from their desks... > Some reported marriage breakdown and the collapse of desire for sexual intimacy, and losing connection with their families. Some whose job was to remove videos uploaded by terrorist and rebel groups were afraid they were being watched and targeted, and that if they returned home they would be hunted and killed.
graemep 2y ago
> They do it to make the platform more pleasant so that people stay on it Almost everything unpleasant I see on FB is stuff that the FB algorithm shows me - not things posted by FB friends, or pages I follow or groups I am in.
- nightski 2y ago
  Everything you see on FB is what the algorithm shows you, unpleasant or not. So it's a tautology that everything unpleasant would be from the algorithm.
cess11 2y ago
It's more likely they do it to keep their people from being coerced to visit the Hague. What they did in Myanmar got a lot of press and a case at the ICJ, and similar launches of 'free internet' elsewhere had similar results.
rlupi 2y ago
(tongue in cheek comment) I wonder if FB moderation now or eventually will be just a prompt to a sufficiently evolved and unhinged AI model: > FB or 4chan?

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

No they do it to support their owners’ and employees’ biases. It doesn’t make the platform more pleasant for the half that gets censored. That’s leaving aside the feed not remembering the choice to view chronologically ordered posts, the inability to easily track actual people in my life, the addictive algorithms, the clickbait that causes mental health issues for teens, etc.

creato 2y ago
99% of FB's moderation has nothing to do with "biases", unless you think FB is biased against spam, scams, and all the other dregs of the internet that incessantly pops up anywhere users can post content.
- TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
  Quite a few people left Threads for Bluesky because progressive posts were being removed while far-right, antivax, etc content was allowed to stand even though it was reported. At best the algo is imperfect. At worst it really does seem oddly selective.
- dudeinjapan 2y ago
  I am a humble Cialis salesman, like my father and grandfather before me. I confirm Facebook is biased against our profession. (My grandfather also moonlighted as a Barrister representing the estates of deceased African royalty—it was always so difficult to track down their heirs.)
roywiggins 2y ago
The stuff that Facebook moderators are actually tasked with removing is really awful, bad enough to produce severe psychological effects in the moderators. Facebook pays people to look at and remove this stuff because the platform would not survive if it wasn't removed before you or I saw it. Do they also enforce other corporate values? Yeah, probably. That doesn't seem to be the main job though, they have their hands full dealing with the worst content in the world. https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/kenya-facebook-moderators-sue-after-diagnoses-of-severe-ptsd https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.thegu... > The images and videos including necrophilia, bestiality and self-harm caused some moderators to faint, vomit, scream and run away from their desks... > Some reported marriage breakdown and the collapse of desire for sexual intimacy, and losing connection with their families. Some whose job was to remove videos uploaded by terrorist and rebel groups were afraid they were being watched and targeted, and that if they returned home they would be hunted and killed.

graemep 2y ago

> They do it to make the platform more pleasant so that people stay on it Almost everything unpleasant I see on FB is stuff that the FB algorithm shows me - not things posted by FB friends, or pages I follow or groups I am in.

nightski 2y ago
Everything you see on FB is what the algorithm shows you, unpleasant or not. So it's a tautology that everything unpleasant would be from the algorithm.

cess11 2y ago

It's more likely they do it to keep their people from being coerced to visit the Hague. What they did in Myanmar got a lot of press and a case at the ICJ, and similar launches of 'free internet' elsewhere had similar results.

rlupi 2y ago

(tongue in cheek comment) I wonder if FB moderation now or eventually will be just a prompt to a sufficiently evolved and unhinged AI model: > FB or 4chan?