Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of misinformation

Re:Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of mis... by ThrustVectoring on Thursday November 10, 2016 @03:32PM (#12924048)

That, or a public reaction to their product (ie, clickbait fatigue - Facebook gets really good at local optimization for the most engaging news posts but creates a news feed that convinces people that Facebook as a whole isn't worthwhile).

It basically needs to be serious enough to overwhelm the internal incentives of maximizing key performance indicators.

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Re:Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of mis... by ethbro on Thursday November 10, 2016 @03:39PM (#12924101)

I think there's the global maximum vs local maxima argument in favor of doing something too. Why do people ultimately spend time on Facebook?

I would say they don't do so because of micro-optimized KPI targeting: they do so because they feel time on Facebook is valuable and makes them happy. If Facebook can't deliver increases in that, then optimizations only take them so far.

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Re:Facebook admits it must do more to stop the spread of mis... by ThrustVectoring on Thursday November 10, 2016 @03:52PM (#12924228)

Yup. There's definitely some Goodhart's Law going on here as well. Micro-optimized KPI targeting is an inexact measure of feeling like ones time on Facebook is valuable.

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