Don’t Be Fooled: Facebook Is Taking Power Away from Users – IOTW Report

Don’t Be Fooled: Facebook Is Taking Power Away from Users

Breitbart Tech: Facebook has announced plans to rank the visibility of news sources based on whether they are “broadly trusted.” The mainstream media is reporting this as a win for users, and an abdication of responsibility on Facebook’s part. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

If Facebook really wanted to let users determine what news sources they trust, they already have a perfectly functioning system for doing that. It’s called “likes.” If the platform were truly giving power back to the users, they would let them see news from sources that they choose, via the liking system.

Instead, Facebook is going to rank and de-rank news sites based on complicated user surveys aimed at discovering “broadly trusted” sources. Here’s how Mark Zuckerberg explained it:

We decided that having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.

Here’s how this will work. As part of our ongoing quality surveys, we will now ask people whether they’re familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The idea is that some news organizations are only trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don’t follow them directly. (We eliminate from the sample those who aren’t familiar with a source, so the output is a ratio of those who trust the source to those who are familiar with it.)

Of course, if Zuckerberg really wanted to let “the community determine” what news sources they want to read, their “like” system already serves as a daily multi-billion user survey. What Facebook is subtly telling users is, they don’t care what you like.

In his announcement, Zuckerberg was transparent about his objectives. He wants to socially engineer his users away from “polarization” and “misinformation.”  read more

28 Comments on Don’t Be Fooled: Facebook Is Taking Power Away from Users

  1. YOU are the product that Facebook is selling, they make money off of you and abuse the hell out of you besides. Facebook is a distraction from the people in your life that you should be spending time with.

  2. OK FB cowards, here’s the deal. They can’t keep up with the censoring. Jokes on them. EVERYONE should join FB. If you are caught they put you in FB jail for a week. You guys are looking at this the wrong way. Go piss on their playground. And Instagram is even more out of control. It’s a blast.

  3. “Bad_Brad, do you also have a Twitch account to livestream your Facebook game?”

    I’m smelling a smart ass comment. I don’t twitter. Logic tells me theirs not enough traffic there not to be censored. Totally different story on FB. They are over whelmed. Even a bigger problem for them on Instagram. Stop being a pussy eternal. Get on their battle field.

  4. Uncle Al

    I had to get on FB for the Gun sales. My FB identity is Jack MeHoff. I’m sure your getting the picture. You non FB old Ladies need to figure your shit out. That’s a battle ground we should all be on.

  5. I’m sure Facebook has hired an entire building of purple-haired melennials who are unsure of what gender they are this week to decide what is a “legitimate” source of news and what is not.

  6. I enjoy trolling all stupid posts from my lib friends and family. Some of them became unhinged and I don’t see their posts anymore.

    I post articles there all the time. I bet there are more than a few that didn’t know about this site, and other sites, until they saw my posts.

  7. Did you ever really study Mark Zuckerberg’s face? It’s all over the Internet.

    Most of us guys who’ve ever had ‘visceral reactions’ to other men know where I’m going with this…

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