Re:Facebook blocks links to B.S. Detector, fake news warning...
by Spivak on Friday December 02, 2016 @04:57PM
(#13092689)
What's your metric for communication platform full of user generated content 'working well'?
I'm not trying to be snarky, I don't see how this can possibly be a failing of Facebook unless you really believe that an algorithm that ranks posts can actually fix the human problems that underlie this issue.
Re:Facebook blocks links to B.S. Detector, fake news warning...
by phailhaus on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @12:42PM
(#13168725)
When I said that it wasn't "working well", I was referring to the epidemic of fake news. It turns out that, for better or worse, a significant amount of the population is using Facebook for its news source. We can say that they're silly and shouldn't be using Facebook for news, but they are and they're not going to stop until a systemic solution is put into place.
The argument is that, whether we like it or not, Facebook has become the hub for millions of people and these people share articles with each other. Media has become decentralized, and although the libertarian approach of do-nothing sounds nice, we just found out that in practice it doesn't work very well. You thought the Reddit fiasco with the marathon bomber was bad? The equivalent is happening a thousand times over with fake news spreading faster than the news that debunks it.