Facebook Says Humans Won't Write Its Trending Topic Descriptions Anymore (recode.net) 76
Following a former Facebook journalist's report that the company's workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network's Trending Topics section, the company has been in damage control mode. First, the company announced it would tweak its Trending Topics section and revamp how editors find trending stories. Specifically, they will train the human editors who work on Facebook's trending section and abandon several automated tools it used to find and categorize trending news in the past. Most recently, Facebook added political scenarios to its orientation training following the concerns. Now, it appears that Facebook will "end its practice of writing editorial descriptions for topics, replacing them with snippets of text pulled from news stories." Kurt Wagner, writing for Recode: It's been more than three months since Gizmodo first published a story claiming Facebook's human editors were suppressing conservative news content on the site's Trending Topics section. Facebook vehemently denied the report, but has been dealing with the story's aftermath ever since. On Friday, Facebook announced another small but notable change to Trending Topics: Human editors will no longer write the short story descriptions that accompany a trending topic on the site. Instead, Facebook is going to use algorithms to "pull excerpts directly from stories." It is not, however, cutting out humans entirely. In fact, Facebook employees will still select which stories ultimately make it into the trending section. An algorithm will surface popular stories, but Facebook editors will weed out the inappropriate or fake ones. "There are still people involved in this process to ensure that the topics that appear in Trending remain high-quality," the company's blog reads.
humans never did (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm amazed how quickly Facebook bent over & greased up for the rightwingers.
I think they should have told them to get lost and go live a wonderful social media life on Sodahead, which was tailor made for them
Companies fear boycotts (Score:2)
Facebook's real customers are afvertisers. Their product is eyeballs. There is a large number of conservatives in the USA. Losing those eyeballs because of a boycott would hurt Facebook's bottom line. The same thing happens when blacks/women/whatever-victim-du-jour is "offended" by something. Do you think conservatives have fewer rights than other people?
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Whether humans are hand selecting the topics, or algorithms written and tuned by humans are selecting the topics according to a corporate approved prescription - simple fact is: humans are still selecting the topics. Maybe the algorithmic approach is less subject to individual bias, maybe it's not.
What about the rest of us? (Score:1)
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That's largely because being a conservative these days largely seems to involve being mad about something.
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That's largely because being a conservative these days largely seems to involve being mad about something.
If you're not mad at the way this country is going then you're either not sane or a fucking asshole.
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The country is going to hell in a hand basket, just like people have been warning for the last 240 years.
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Oh, there's plenty to be mad about but I'm not sure if we'll agree to be mad at the same things.
For example, I haven't found anything in common with those very angry people who see Donald Trump as the savior
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Oh, there's plenty to be mad about but I'm not sure if we'll agree to be mad at the same things.
Actually, people are mostly mad about the same things. They just don't agree on the solutions.
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You want angry? Go check out the violent savages attacking attendees at Trump rallies. A shining example of the Left's tolerance and acceptance that they so often love to preach about. Hypocrisy on display for all to see. Free speech for me, but not for thee.
Do you see Trump supporters pulling the same stunts at Hillary's rallies? No? Why not? I thought they were hate filled, gun-toting, murder machines?
Hmm!
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Or rich as fuck and can afford to live in any gated community you want to.
Re: What about the rest of us? (Score:2)
The cost of living on the Vinyard is insane - cheap housing would just be a cruel market distortion.
Let the grocery stores all go bare and then see if the employers really can't pay much above minimum-wage. I suspect the customers will pay what it costs. Your plan of taking money from working-class people in Worchester to subsidize the grocery prices on the Vineyard is classic elitist abuse.
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i think the federal government is experimenting on the public, they are trying to see just how awful and corrupt a politician can be before people quit voting at elections, Both Clinton and Trump are terrible and i wont bother to vote because they are just too awful
I don't blame you. Personally I'd vote Trump over Hillary any day. That said I really don't need to vote in my state as it's been a red state for over 40 years. I may be tossing my vote to a third party or just staying home. I'm usually a two or three issue guy. I can happily swing between parties depending on where they stand on my issues but lately, the parties seem to fuck you regardless of what they say at campaign time.
One solid thing about Trump though is he does what he says. I can deal with someone
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Both Clinton and Trump are terrible and i wont bother to vote because they are just too awful
You know there is a third party candidate who's on the ballot in all 50 states? If there's ever been an election more appropriate to "throw your vote away", it's this one. Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate, successful two-term governor and pro legalization of pot.
Re:What about the rest of us? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's largely because being a conservative these days largely seems to involve being mad about something.
Get that idea from Facebook trending stories?
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Fixed it for you.
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Well it's not a new tactic for conservatives and they've fallen a long way down into the fearmongering pit since Reagan's Shining City on a Hill
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Open Pandering (Score:5, Interesting)
The real difference between the USSR's Pravda and the Murdoch/Disney media is that most Russian People were smart enough to know they were being brain washed, and admitted it when needed. People like you on the other hand..
Shows like "The Daily Show", which for years were a better source for an unbiased perspective, are today have turned purely biased. Stewart was left leaning too, especially on things like the 2nd Amendment, but at least it was not the full open bias we have today. He offered the countering position and occasionally made fun of the lefts mistakes in the process. The current media tells you openly that Hillary "deserves" to be President and that the competition is an Ad Hominem of their choosing (without facts to back their position in most cases). This is such an open bias that you should question the Hegelian dialectic on other stations with the same owners. That same media also happen to claim that any opposing positions to the Progressive Left is "angry", "baseless", "Conspiracy", "Outrageous", "Unjust", "bigoted", "Racist", and anything else which can be leveraged to silence opposition. And you believe them? Shame on you. Or perhaps you get paid to make such asinine claims, in which case Shame on YOU!
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Hillary isn't "progressive left". She is, at best, a little left of center. The media also isn't saying she "deserves" to be president. If they are, they certainly have a funny way of showing it. Typically you don't devote air time to trying to tear down the candidate you think "deserves" to be president.
The media also isn't labeling the right as angry/bigoted/racist/etc. They've earned those titles through their actions and what they've said. Now granted, those most vocal on the right may only represent a
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Hillary isn't "progressive left". She is, at best, a little left of center.
She pays lip service to the "progressive" left.
The media also isn't labeling the right as angry/bigoted/racist/etc. They've earned those titles through their actions and what they've said.
And you don't think that's there on the left? Either you choose to ignore it or you haven't been paying any attention.
They now suck (Score:2)
Example: iOS 9 1K people talking about this
Previously it would give you a little more about what is trending like iOS 9 Root Exploit Bug Discover, etc
Remind me again (Score:1)
Yeah, my main access to my kid's and grandkid's vacations are via FB
I'm perfectly happy to wait till they're home, unpacked, clothes washed, next weekend they're off to find out how things went.
Call me neanderthal, at least FB has no way to track me.
/ I also do all I can to ensure google can't track me
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Then get a facebook account that has zero info but allows you to view their accounts.
Then make your account not searchable, opt out of every tracking thing they have, only have the grandkids as friends, and never post.
For about 20 minutes of work, you can see the stories of their vacations, special events, etc. Unless they live (or have enough money) where them coming over every few weeks is feasible.
If you don't care enough to be that involved, that's no problem.
Of course, on the flip side, maybe not havi
Privacy? On Facebook? Fuggedaboutit. (Score:1)
> Then make your account not searchable...
That feature died almost 3 years ago... http://www.csmonitor.com/Techn... [csmonitor.com]
> Facebook announced Thursday the social network it is getting rid of the
> âoeWho can look up your Timeline by name?â privacy feature, meaning
> any user can be found when searched by name. Facebook says this provides
> users more autonomy over individual posts, but privacy advocates
> say this opens social networkers up to unprecedented exposure.
What else did you get w
How does the algorithm decide? (Score:2)
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exactly.
some dumb mammal has to program the thing
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Bias in algorithms is from human action...conscious or not.
There is no debate on the point above. All software is made by humans, even software generated by other software...humans originated the commands and instructions.
Let's just repeat that last part for you, guy: *humans originated the commands and instructions*
Here's an example you can understand: Which 'fact checking site' will you use?
Politifact.com - which is bullshit but has some factual information
or
Factcheck.org - not as flashy as Politifact and
Self-inflicted (Score:2)
Anybody that relies on sites like Facebook as their primary news source deserves all they get.
Re:Self-inflicted (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, and those idiot's votes count the same as yours and mind. It is amazing how many people "me too" jump on some bullshit I've already proven to be false a few times before. Hoax is the poisoning of the mind for people too stupid to do their own thinking and prefer their news in a 600x600 image square. Whoever controls these drones, controls the vote, because they are half the population.
Or to paraphrase George Carlin, think about how stupid the average person is, then remember that half the population is dumber than they are.
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Those?
Humans still do it (Score:2)
**Algorithms written by humans.**
Every choice is dictated by software written by humans. All the choices are aspects of 'learning' and the developer chooses what that is...things are given weight based on criteria decided upon completely by a human.
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exactly...it gets "automated" by humans choosing methods and processes which define every aspect of what the automation produces
it boggles my mind that some people cannot comprehend this...humans made everything about this system including defining every aspect of how the system decides and learns
Facebook; for adults with "invisible friends" (Score:2)
Facebook is for adults who still have "invisible friends".
Just like socialism is for adults who still believe in Santa Claus.
You will not comprehend what occurred subsequently (Score:2)
This unitary basic deception may alter your continued existence.
what those idiots at facebook dont realize is (Score:2)
so what aliens are allowed on FaceBook (Score:2)
Klimgons?
Vogons?
Wookiees?
Minbari?
Can we just get rid of it? (Score:5, Interesting)
The only bias I see is that for some reason, Facebook seems to think I'm in any way interested in celebrity gossip, because that's about all that ever shows up in the "Trending" section for me.
I'm interested in science and technology, but every "trending" topic I seem to see is something about what Britney Spears ate for breakfast, or whose dress Catelyn Jenner wore to the mall, or some other equally banal and useless piece of "news" about some celebrity that I don't give a crap about.
I'm not even exaggerating. My current "trending" topics include:
As you can see, my "trending" doesn't have a Liberal or Conservative slant -- it just has a inanely stupid slant.
"Trending" is the least useful part of Facebook, and personally I wish they'd just get rid of it altogether.
Yaz
The final missing piece... (Score:2)
For all of the naysaying and doom-predicting around AI, what I always wondered about was this: if AI suddenly becomes more capable than we are, how does that automatically translate into AI wanting to wipe us out? What would cause that kind of motivation...such hatred and disdain for humankind that it provokes a genocidal rage?
I bet making AI write trending topics on Facebook will do the trick. We're fucked now.
On the other hand, maybe we'll be able to see it coming because of this. I'm going to keep my
Epic (Score:2)
This is vintage Facebook: (Score:2)
The response is vintage Facebook. The descriptions weren't what was being complained about. It was the method of choosing which articles to highlight. So, they go to an algorithm for choosing them and say that it's now unbiased (ignoring the obvious fact that I can write an algorithm that's just as biased. It's just a set of rules and I can make the rule set whatever I want.)
But, they also removed the human written descriptions which is something separate from the matter of choosing what is displayed as tre