Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Facebook Social Networks Politics

After Repeatedly Promising Not To, Facebook Keeps Recommending Political Groups To Its Users (themarkup.org) 32

Posted by msmash from the of-course dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Four days after the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, a member of the "Not My President" Facebook group wrote in a post, "remember, our founding fathers were seen as terrorist [sic] and traitors." A fellow group member commented, "I'll fight for what's right, this corruption has to be stopped immediately." Three months later, Facebook recommended the group to at least three people, despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's repeated promise to permanently end political group recommendations on the social network specifically to stop amplifying divisive content.

The group was one of hundreds of political groups the company recommended to its users in The Markup's Citizen Browser project over the past five months, several of which promoted unfounded election fraud claims in their descriptions or through posts on their pages. Citizen Browser consists of a paid nationwide panel of Facebook users who automatically send us data from their Facebook feeds. In a four month period, from Feb. 1 to June 1, the 2,315 members of the Citizen Browser panel received hundreds of recommendations for groups that promoted political organizations (e.g., "Progressive Democrats of Nevada," "Michigan Republicans") or supported individual political figures (e.g., "Bernie Sanders for President 2020," "Liberty lovers for Ted Cruz," "Philly for Elizabeth Warren"). In total, just under one-third of all panelists received a recommendation to join at least one group in this category.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

After Repeatedly Promising Not To, Facebook Keeps Recommending Political Groups To Its Users More

After Repeatedly Promising Not To, Facebook Keeps Recommending Political Groups To Its Users

Comments Filter:

  • If you are still using facebook, you are doing it by choice.

    At this point everybody knows what that company is all about.

    • Re:Recommended to at least 3 users? Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

      by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:22PM (#61521556)

      At this point everybody knows what that company is all about.

      Well what IS IT about? I'm not trying to take you to task. But there's no point in being shy about something. But I do think, that people will start thinking, "liberal conspiracy" or "place for all the crackpot conservatives" and the reality is, "both" because I've seen both sides of toxic being promoted there in several examples I've been shared via email uninvited by friends and coworkers.

      So I'll be less shy about it, and I let the community be the judge on the accuracy of my opinion. But I think I'm close to getting all the words required to explain it when I say, "They just want to stir shit because that makes them money. It could be liberal tears or the Y'all-qaeda, if it gets people angry it gets them engaged, if it gets them engaged then it means they're on the site, and if it keeps them on the site it makes them money."

      At least that's what I feel is the main thing Facebook et al are going after. But I'm open to any other points anyone wants to make. I just wanted to share my unabashed opinion on the subject. And that said yes, people should leave Facebook, it's garbage based on what I've seen and what I saw when I briefly was on the site in 2014-2015.

  • is anyone surprised? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by f00zbll ( 526151 )
    Zuckerborg is an immoral, unethical, greedy and pathological jerk. Why would anyone believe what he says. Just delete your facebook account and be done with it.

    • But but... How will I stay abreast of my favorite influencers' bowel movements? I already failed to keep up with the Kardashians, I'm not about to drop the ball on this one too!

    • The sister-in-law of a close friend of mine is a banker in Europe. Apparently, she inadvertently got mixed up with the Russian mafia, and now regularly does financial work for them (alongside her normal corporate work). Her husband (my friend's brother) is a higher up in Morocco, and a couple years ago was a liason for Zuckerberg when he was vacationing there. Long story short, the sister-in-law banker ended up dining with Zuckerberg one night. She told my friend that he was the biggest psychopath she'd eve

  • It was obviously a scummy, evil, intrusive company 8 years ago.
    In fact, it was probably obvious to some before then but I was slow on the uptake.

  • to get the site to stop "recommending" Praguer U (there's a misnomer if there ever was one) or Ben Shapiro's various channels. Pay enough and you'll get eyeballs no matter what. Money talks.

  • Privacy Raspists not keeping their promises!?! (Score:3)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @04:57PM (#61521486)

    I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

  • Not my president? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @04:57PM (#61521488) Journal

    Huh *checks calendar*

    Yup, Joe Biden is the president.

    Remember when all these snowflakes were saying the exact same thing to people who said the con artist wasn't their president? Remember when there were huge questions surrounding the 2016 election and how when a recount was asked for in three states these same snowflakes were up in arms because there was no hint of vote fraud or corruption, and even went to court to stop states from doing recounts?

    Funny how that works.

    • Both sides are full of partisan, by definition, hypocrites. In fact the whole cultural zeitgeist has become people trying to make it look like they are fighting for what's "right" when in fact it's just plain old self interest. A million special interests groups, super-woke on the left and contrarian and conspiratorial on the right.

      Anyone who doesn't realize that very, very few people are even partially objective about much of anything is a sucker.

    • Huh *checks calendar*

      Yup, Joe Biden is the president.

      Remember when all these snowflakes were saying the exact same thing to people who said the con artist wasn't their president? Remember when there were huge questions surrounding the 2016 election and how when a recount was asked for in three states these same snowflakes were up in arms because there was no hint of vote fraud or corruption, and even went to court to stop states from doing recounts?

      Funny how that works.

      Um ... you do realize that works both ways, right? You spent four years claiming that 2016 was somehow stolen. But now if somebody suggests that an election might be stolen, we have to line them up and shoot them? Or at least silence them all.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:01PM (#61521500)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • +5 Informative

    • Where did you read banning politics, did you just make that up? That is not something Facebook ever said it would do is it?

      I only read the summary here on Slashdot, but I gathered this is about Facebook's recommendation algorithms. Oh yup, I just checked, it's also in the title. Wow I'm a good guesser.

      So do you know what a recommendation is?
      They're running a complicated global message amplification system with metric butt-tons of users, do you think it SHOULD be involved in politics?

    • I really get tired of hearing about "disinformation". Countless times in history, disinformation was proven correct later down the road. And all of those standing on their pedestals about how they are smarter than everyone else get egg on their face. Yes, there is accepted rational behavior about known information, but don't act like anyone who dissents from that viewpoint is a crazy idiot. It's easier than you think to get that egg smeared on your face.

    • It's not fine to promise not to and then to keep doing it.

      More importantly, though, it's not really fine to promise not to, because everything that affects different people differently is political because The People (for whom politics is named) have different reactions and express different opinions.

      The whole idea that you can stop suggesting political groups to people is ridiculous when all groups are potentially political in their own ways.

  • echo chamber brought to you by Facebook (Score:3)

    by Malays2 bowman ( 6656916 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:02PM (#61521504)

    Nice that they are still recommending spaces where people with the same views can preach to each other and any contradictory opinion is verboten.

  • Limbic Hijack (Score:4, Informative)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:13PM (#61521534) Homepage Journal

    Facebook's job is to hijack your limbic system to show you ads.

    If they ever say they won't then don't believe them.

  • How is anyone surprised that the CEO's mouth was writing checks that the code monkey's fingers couldn't or wouldn't cash?

    Back in my day, skepticism was the default attitude to all claims made counter to obvious incentives, difficulties and motivating or demotivating factors.

    Now we seem to repeat such claims uncritically.

    Perhaps to drive up the potential for publishing rage-bait afterwards when the expected happens? Pump-and-dump, so to speak?

  • Not that I'm particularly surprised by this stunt, it just serves to amplify my disappointment in modern society.

  • Don't look at the "Videos" tab (Score:4)

    by david.emery ( 127135 ) on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:55PM (#61521680)

    It's full of garbage. Ads, pseudo-ads, political videos, celebrity videos (at least I suspect they're celebrities, mostly they're people I never heard of). Perhaps 10% is stuff that is actually from my friends or groups. Plus, you cannot block the "sponsored ad" videos as you can in the main news feed.

    What's clear is that Zuckerberg and his company are totally amoral. That includes lying whenever it might interfere with their ability to server paid garbage.

  • Honestly, the title says it all. You want to lose safe harbor protections, Facebook? Keep removing innocent free speech like "I don't like the president" and "we should vote differently" and "hey, printing money is bad" and "oh no, my taxes just went up. What a shock." None of them are illegal. None of them are ToS violations and while we're at it, people politely walking between velvet ropes and taking selfies while cops hold the doors open is not an insurrection. It's closer to a self-guided tour actually

  • a member of the "Not My President" Facebook group wrote in a post, "remember, our founding fathers were seen as terrorist [sic] and traitors." A fellow group member commented, "I'll fight for what's right, this corruption has to be stopped immediately."

    And ... ?

    Is that supposed to make us clutch our pearls or something?

Slashdot Top Deals

The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone

Close