Slashdot Mirror
Facebook's Fight Against Fake News Was Undercut by Fear of Conservative Backlash (gizmodo.com)
Facebook has been concerned about fake news stories that circulate on its social platform and how often such incidents occur. The company has had high-level internal debates over the matter since May, discussing different options to curb movements of hoax and false stories. Gizmodo reports Monday that Facebook executives conducted a wide-ranging review of products and policies earlier this year with "the goal of eliminating any appearance of political bias." The company even had a major update for the News Feed planned which could have supposedly filtered fake stories, but the update never saw the light of the day because it was afraid to use it. From the report:One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people's feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It's unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed. "They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous citing fear of retribution from the company. The source added, "there was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after Trending Topics," and that "a lot of product decisions got caught up in that." In an emailed statement, Facebook did not answer Gizmodo's direct questions about whether the company built a News Feed update that was capable of identifying fake or hoax news stories, nor whether such an update would disproportionately impact right-wing or conservative-leaning sites. Instead, Facebook said it "did not build and withhold any News Feed changes based on their potential impact on any one political party."
Liberals think that reality doesn't affect them. Just ask the UCSD student who was run over while protesting Trump on I5. You can't fix stupid.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Something only a liberal would think. Reality has a fascist bias. All your feely-good hugbox ideas don't mean a thing when the Islamist comes to saw off your head.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
A good many people do not like racist and sexist comments, or comments that greatly sound like such, and feel they don't deserve airing on large privately-run news organization/service. They find them rude and offensive.
Whether that's "right" or not is a long and involved debate. A good many people feel the same way, and why it's often banned in Europe. They had to live under Hitler and his horrible racist-lead destruction, we haven't (yet).
People who believe "social justice" censorship is legitimate are not going way. Battling against it will just further inflame the culture wars. Maybe that's what you want, I don't know.
Table-ized A.I.
Well, it is shit like the GP posted that is why Clinton lost. It is the stuff that is resonating around the echo chamber causing harmonic amplification. The idiots on the left not only believe that their shit doesn't stink, they think they are immune to reality and physics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
You can't fix stupid.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.