Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

Re:Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site le... by AlexandrB on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @01:06PM (#23313631)

Phone companies don't set up incentive structures that encourage a certain kind of content. Facebook has an "algorithmic" feed, likes, and "engagement" metrics that rewards certain behaviours and punish others. They are rightly being pilloried when these incentives encourage and promote constant outrage, conspiracies, and completely fact-free fear mongering.

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Re:Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site le... by dleslie on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @01:11PM (#23313695)

This is a thought-provoking answer, and it shows how Facebook (and others) are straddling the line between publisher and platform.

IMHO, because they do perform curation, both algorithmic and manual, they should be considered publishers.

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Re:Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site le... by sneak on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @06:18PM (#23317103)

Seems to me that their argument against censorship should be even stronger, then, as editorializing is protected expression.

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Re:Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site le... by dleslie on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @01:27AM (#23319637)

It would be, yes, and if Trump acts on his threats to investigate censure on social media then this may be a good position to take.

The problem is that being a publisher brings greater legal liability for the content that they publish; whereas as carrier/platform can wash their hands of the data that they transmit and claim that they have no part of it.

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Re:Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site le... by catalogia on Tuesday May 26, 2020 @03:19PM (#23315340)

> Phone companies don't set up incentive structures that encourage a certain kind of content.

I'm not convinced of that. Through technical and billing means, phones encourage one-on-one conversations while discouraging conversations with multiple participants. By disincentivizing certain kinds of conversations, they disincentivize certain kinds of content. It's hard to say exactly what sort of impact this may have on society, but I doubt it doesn't have any.

This may be a far cry from Facebook's deliberate algorithmic tweaking to manipulate the emotions of their users, but I think it's interesting to consider in it's own right.

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