News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by rich_sasha on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:21AM (#28692306)
One way or the other, Facebook now seems to be a pipeline for spreading propaganda: for ad clicks (marketing), ideological reasons, or worse. It’s social utility seems to have dwindled to almost zero, while its negative effects are worse than ever.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by WallyFunk on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:46AM (#28692459)
> It’s social utility seems to have dwindled to almost zero

Unless you live entirely in their Messenger app, which I do. The timeline is full of contraganda, spam, and things like `Tell me your favorite color without saying it` bullshit

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by corpdronejuly on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @09:37AM (#28693440)
Just hide every content farm I find, and my feed is my old school friends day to day lives, local marketplace ads, and DnD Mini-painting groups. The worst thing I see are ads that are irrelevant, or my uncles deranged rants about his local politics.

Took me about 2 weeks of hitting hide from content farms to train the algo to steer me away from that junk.

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by nonfamous on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @10:41AM (#28694276)
Hmm, I wonder if Facebook could do that automatically? Like, write an algorithm to detect content farms and automatically hide them from your newsfeed.

I wonder why they’ve never done that…

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by corpdronejuly on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @01:31PM (#28697051)
They have that kind of algorithm, but most people want, or at least behave as though they want, outrage bait, and cute content farm affirmations. The moment you take a moment to be proactive and have ownership over your experience the algorithm happily shows you less crap and more people.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by j16sdiz on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @12:33PM (#28696080)
Just like the spam filter, “algorithm” won’t be 100% effective.

Unlike spam, the content farm spreads organically.

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by wizzwizz4 on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @01:52PM (#28697339)
They optimise for engagement. I engage with content farms.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by bluGill on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @09:48AM (#28693596)
I've been doing this for a few days and things are getting better. However I still spend a lot of time hitting hide all from...
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by croon on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @08:52AM (#28692928)
This is 99% of my Facebook use too.

I'd argue that the only meaningful benefit (to me at least) of Facebook is as a contact list and finder. I would delete my Facebook instantly if I felt fairly confident that I wouldn't lose out on any outreach from less-than-weekly acquaintances.

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by mavhc on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @09:51AM (#28693645)
"Reply to this post" things only exist because if lots of people reply, the algorithm thinks you're popular, and thus will show your posts more often without you having to pay.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by nicoburns on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @08:25AM (#28692712)
I’d argue that’s not really Facebook anymore than Instagram or WhatsApp are.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by rich_sasha on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @11:49AM (#28695331)
Yeah Messenger is OK. Another WhatsApp. But really, these are small, self-contained apps. They don't need the rest of Facebook attached to them.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by toyg on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @11:47AM (#28695307)
> social utility seems to have dwindled to almost zero

That's not true. It's actually the most effective grassroots-politics tool out there, for "regular people". Everyone has an account already, so signing up to this or that group takes seconds and you can get down to the business of actually organising.

I saw it recently in my neighbourhood: local authority wanted to push a stupid change in road layout, a couple of guys set up a FB group, and in less than a month it had hundreds of members - the road change was protested so vigorously that it had to be scrapped, something rare around this town.

Am I annoyed by this state of things? Heck yeah, I hate FB, but realistically, it's often a force for good for "normal people".

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by mypastself on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:29AM (#28692358)
Oh, no argument there. And the report does point out potential relationships with political actors. I’m just amused by the irony of these types of articles making exaggerations and unfounded conclusions.
Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by dragonwriter on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @09:52AM (#28693675)
> One way or the other, Facebook now seems to be a pipeline for spreading propaganda:

Facebook's overt business model is to be a platform for advertising (not just via overt ads, but also through paid reach of what looks like organic content). “Advertising” is just another word for “propaganda”.

So, you've noticed that Facebook “now seems to be” exactly what Facebook overtly is.

Re:Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages in 2019 Run ... by rich_sasha on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @11:47AM (#28695312)
I don't mind ads interspersed with content. Like, I google something, I get some outright ads, and some higher-placed, paid-for links. But it's still a useful service for finding things.

Facebook appears to be nothing but clickbaity ads, which if I'm lucky, is trying to get me to buy something I don't need. If I'm unlucky, it's ideological poison for hire fueling culture wars or foreign agents meddling in elections.

I basically never use Facebook now, except if a friend asks me to post something, but whenever I do, and scroll through the timeline, I always end up depressed. Oh and yes, bombarded with all the weird stuff discussed in this thread.