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Facebook Dumps Personalized 'Trending Topics' After Backlash (cnet.com)
As the company works to strengthen its reputation as a place for news and curb the spread of misinformation on the site, Facebook announced it has removed the personalized interest-based list of news topics on the right-hand side of your news feed. Now everyone in a geographic region will see the same trending topics. CNET reports: In addition to doing away with the personalized list, there are two other big changes to the trending topics section that will start rolling out today and will take place for everyone in the U.S. "in the coming weeks." First, instead of just seeing a bare-bones topic, like "Saturn" or "X-men," two things that had been trending for me, you'll see a full headline from one of the news stories about that topic. That's the headline that had always popped up when you hovered over the topic. Second, Facebook is changing the way the topics are selected. The topics had been chosen based on how many people on Facebook are engaging with it. With the new changes, Facebook will look at the number of outlets posting stories on a particular topic, and decide its inclusion based on engagement around that group of articles. "This should surface trending topics quicker, be more effective at capturing a broader range of news and events from around the world and also help ensure that topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets," Will Cathcart, vice president of product management, said in a statement.
How about a 'Trending for you' list and a 'Trending in your region' list? Best of both worlds. I can hide which one I don't want to see.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Never used Facebook, never will.
I've been using Facebook Purity for months now. It has a feature that allows you to hide the entire Trending Topics box. I had to install it for sanity's sake during the election to filter certain words (I had hard core friends on both sides of the political spectrum), but I kept it active to hide the dumb crap Facebook keeps foisting on me like Trending Topics, Suggested Posts, 5000 different game requests, etc. It has made using Facebook a lot less painful, I highly suggest it.
This is what Facebook wants. Facebook is Big Brother.
and also help ensure that topics reflect real world events being covered by multiple news outlets
Since most mainstream news outlets have a pretty strong liberal bias, this will also have the practical effect of burying stories with a conservative bent and highlighting those with a liberal bent (even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous "golden showers" story).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I hated the side feed ever since it existed, so I've long been using good ole intuitive AdBlock (getadblock version) to easily filter that crappy pane out of existence. I don't know HTML so I did these two based on desired rendering and it has been awesome.
[code]
www.facebook.com##DIV[id="u_0_r"][class="_64b fixed_elem"]
www.facebook.com##DIV[id="rightCol"]
[/code]
(even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous golden showers
Most (if not all of the real) news organizations did cite the fact that it was an unconfirmed report.
I just think people need to understand that they need to get their news from more than one source, with more than one viewpoint in those sources. Facebook should not be anyone's only method of getting news.
There isn't a single person, company, or product that is indispensable. All can be replaced.
It seemed that facebook intentionally was pushing a certain agenda with the recommended posts that supposedly fit my interests. Almost all of them had nothing to do with my interests and many of them were opposing views.
I ended up deleting all of my account info, leaving the bare bones information. I don't go there as often and I suspect my life will be better once I leave for good.
Citing the fact that it was an unconfirmed report in the middle of an article does nothing when all the people on Facebook see is a trending topic and a headline. Do you really think that they are going to go read the article to see that it's unconfirmed?
they just wanna control what you see
Very few people even read the fake document as well. It outlined HRC as having been "kompromat" for many years.
-]Phreak Out[-
And if it did catch my eye there's no way I would actually click on it.
was to hear what my friend's cat had for breakfast yesterday, and to see the latest profile selfie from that girl who needs daily affirmation that she's still pretty.
Sick of Zuckenberg sticking his corporate penis in your face as you try and web browse?
Drop your Facebook account if you have one, but even if you don't, Facebook will still track you. So use browser add ons like the EFF's Privacy Badger, Disconnect and uBlock Origin to stop them tracking you.
"trending topics" aren't important or useful or important almost all the time.. except for the sheeps.. those bastars love trends
"most mainstream news outlets have a pretty strong liberal bias" compared to far right propaganda "news" that's fucking this country up and led to 25% of registered voters voting in an unqualified, narcissistic, authoritarian product of the same propaganda news.
Be honest, you do not give a shit about truth, you just want your team to win (or to drink liberal tears or see them disappear from the face of the earth and have a far right nationalist country that crushes all opposition) and that means fighting any attempts to combat the disinformation, lies, and hate that have helped lead to the Orwellian government you want.
yah still there are people that sees the world in black anwhite, like "liberal" and "conservatives", poor things can't use their brains
On the other hand, since the right has no shortage of 'news' sites that do nothing but parrot the latest outrage, why do you think that this will turn Facebook's feed liberal?
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
(even when the liberal stories are dubious or "fake news," like with the infamous golden showers
Dont cite what actually happened, that disrupts his world view that all news he doesn't agree with is lying to him.
Most (if not all of the real) news organizations did cite the fact that it was an unconfirmed report.
I just think people need to understand that they need to get their news from more than one source, with more than one viewpoint in those sources. Facebook should not be anyone's only method of getting news.
First off, I overwhelmingly agree. I don't trust anything unless I can verify it. I mean correctly verify it, not just a copy/paste job from various news agencies citing the same sources.
But here's the problem. Not only are people lazy, they also want to be comforted and have their biases confirmed. They dont want their views to be challenged.
This is how organisations like Brietbart and Fox News convince their readership that other agencies are fake news whilst pummelling them with actual fake news. People who get their information from these sources have lost the ability to tell the difference and absolutely no desire to challenge that.
As for Facebook, no-one should be getting their news from there as it's tailors its content without the users knowledge. But again, people are lazy.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I removed mine long ago with Facebook Purity http://www.fbpurity.com/
It wasn't so much "unconfirmed" as the cuckservatives modifying the unconfirmed report that was meant to troll them and then passing it on to intelligence agencies as facts. Even if the original story that was made up on 4chan had been true the significant modification to the story would have been fake news.
Since most mainstream news outlets have a pretty strong liberal bias
This is because life itself indeed has a liberal bias
I want to absolutely, completely, utterly expunge from my FaceBook feed any and all references to (1) Trump (2) Sports (3) Celebrity gossip. This crap is an absolute flood, making any friends and family news impossible to find buried in the bottom of the garbage dump. (Yes, I know, but I'll get my news from an actual news source, thank you; anything on Facebook that mentions Trump is just two armed camps shrieking obscenities at each other, with zero actual information content.)
Sorry Hillary, but posting AC on /. isn't going to change the election results.