How Facebook Fought Fake News About Facebook (bloomberg.com) 52
Facebook has built tools to track posts on Facebook and WhatsApp that talk about its executives, products, or moves Bloomberg reported on Monday. The company has been, for years, routinely using these tools to "snuff out" posts that it deems to offer untrue characterization of its services or people. From the report: Many companies monitor social media to learn what customers are saying about them. But Facebook's position is unique. It owns the platform it's watching, an advantage that may help Facebook track and reach users more effectively than other firms. And Facebook has been saddled with so many real problems recently that sometimes misinformation can stick. Stormchaser is just one of multiple tools Facebook has deployed to manage its reputation, which has taken a dramatic hit thanks to its role in spreading Russian misinformation during the U.S. election and numerous privacy scandals. The company employs hundreds of public relations officials and spent $13 million on government lobbying in 2018. Zuckerberg and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg have become so intertwined with the company's image that Facebook routinely collects public survey data to understand how the general public views them -- data that shapes what the executives say and do publicly. Facebook's response: "We didn't use this internal tool to fight false news because that wasn't what it was built for, and it wouldn't have worked," the spokeswoman wrote in an email. "The tool was built with simple technology that helped us detect posts about Facebook based on keywords, so we could consider whether to respond to product confusion on our own platform. Comparing the two is a false equivalence." The New York Times' tech columnist Kevin Roose, writes: You could write a dissertation about this quote, and the difference between what Facebook considers "product confusion" (wrong stuff about us, which must be removed immediately) and "false news" (wrong stuff about other people, which is protected free speech).
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Rather depends on whose ox got gored, eh? (Score:2)
You got me to look at the AC comment. What terrible thing did I ever do to you?
Of course my initial reaction was to the hypocrisy of Facebook propagating so much fake news while needing to protect Facebook's own precious reputation. Whose ox is getting gored here? There is no gawd but profit and Facebook is gawd's profit! Long live shareholder value.
The general topic reminds me of the ol' Paradox of Tolerance. If lies and false news are given parity with truth, then what's the point of anything, eh?
https:// [wikipedia.org]
Yo dawg... (Score:2)
Are we discussing China or Facebook? (Score:3, Funny)
It's really becoming difficult to separate the practices of the two. Zuckerberg is the president of China, right? Pooh bear is Facebook CEO?
By being themselves? (Score:2)
Facebook flooded us with so much genuine news about what Facebook did wrong that the fake news was drowned out.
Every week it was something new. They've done better the last 3 weeks or so. No major debacles. Congrats...?
There is no fake news about FaceBook (Score:2)
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Oh goody (Score:1)
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That's not how you stop nazis, that's how you get nazis.
Tell me, my man, what was Article 118 of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic?
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I wouldn't know,
It's very entertaining that you are loudly bragging about your ignorance and presenting this as a sort of "checkmate" argument.
We in the real world are dealing with a persistent censorship threat and trying desperately to keep it at bay
No you ain't. You're more interested in scoring cheap shots. If you actually cared you'd check your facts not brag about your ignorance.
Even the far left doesn't want to live in a far left society.
They think they do, but they wouldn't like it.
Motivation (Score:2)
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Can't have that (Score:2)
Even if the company gets fined billions, Zuck jailed, FB users will never know.
Strangely enough, to save their own hide it's apparently possible to filter, even if they always denied it.
It's just expensive.
Not to defend Facebook, but their point is (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook didn't write a tool for dealing with fake news about Facebook. Facebook wrote a tool to deal with news about Facebook that Facebook does not like. It doesn't matter to them whether the news is fake or true. The only takeaway here is that Facebook will devote the resources necessary when it's something they actually care a lot about.
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Whats up with WhatsApp ? (Score:1)
Extra censorship for talking (Score:2)
Easy to filter for self, much harder for politics (Score:2)
OK, then what about this???? (Score:2)