Facebook deliberately made people sad. This ought to be the final straw (2012)

Re:Facebook deliberately made people sad. This ought to be t... by slver on Sunday April 18, 2021 @03:05AM (#26850411)

Maybe it's unethical in academic context, but in public service context, you have an existing service, and you're in charge of improving it.

When you have an improved algorithm, would you change your algorithm all at once for everybody, or would you test your change on small % of users, before you go full-scale? You'd do the latter. There's no better option. Because if you're wrong, your impact is much more devastating.

In other words, there's always an algorithm filtering your feed. If that was unethical, it makes Facebook unethical by merely existing.

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Re:Facebook deliberately made people sad. This ought to be t... by TomSwirly on Sunday April 18, 2021 @10:37AM (#26852850)

> in public service context

This is not a "public service" - it's a for-profit company.

> When you have an improved algorithm,

This is not an "improved algorithm". They deliberately removed almost all positive news from some people's feeds for a week.

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Re:Facebook deliberately made people sad. This ought to be t... by slver on Sunday April 18, 2021 @11:37AM (#26853376)

I meant public service as in it's a service, and it's providing itself to the public. Not as in government service.

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