Slashdot Mirror


Facebook Will Now Ask Users To Rank News Organizations They Trust (recode.net)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Recode: Facebook is doing a very un-Facebooky thing: It's going to start declaring that some news sources you see in your Facebook feed are better than others, and act accordingly. But Facebook being Facebook, it's going about it in the most Facebooky way possible: It's going to rely on users -- not the super-smart people who work at Facebook -- to figure out which of those sources are better. Mark Zuckerberg says the move is part of an effort to prioritize "news that is trustworthy, informative, and local," within the network and suggests that there will be more announcements to come. The one he describes today will prioritize what kind of news sources pop up in your Facebook News Feed, and will reward ones that Facebook thinks are "broadly trusted," based on user polls, so it can "build a sense of common ground." Facebook is also using today's news to refine last week's roll-out: Zuckerberg says the previously announced changes will reduce the amount of news stories people see in their feed to 4 percent, down from 5 percent.

140 comments

  1. Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fox News, InfoWars, Art Bell. That's really all you need right there.

    1. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .. except the news sources you trust won't be on the list, while the fake news you sneer at will be there.

  2. The Daily Show by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    More Americans get their news from the Daily Show than any other nationality.

    1. Re:The Daily Show by cmaurand · · Score: 1

      What could possibly go wrong? The results couldn't possibly get skewed (skewered?) could they? Nah.

    2. Re:The Daily Show by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Is that still true? I think a lot of people quit watching when John Stewart left. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if most people have moved away from televised news altogether in favor of internet sources with sites like Facebook and Reddit serving as aggregators of sorts.

    3. Re:The Daily Show by k6mfw · · Score: 1

      I second that though I haven't watched The Daily Show for some time. Though it was slanted satire and humor, it mentioned more number of news events than regular news which tend to repeat same news over and over. However, having a comedian for host has to deliver different subjects (Jon Stewart would not be successful if he kept repeating the same joke).

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    4. Re:The Daily Show by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Maybe you didn't read the GP post carefully enough. I'm pretty sure that as long as the show remains on a cable network that is available almost exclusively in the U.S., what the GP said will probably always be true.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    5. Re:The Daily Show by scatbomb · · Score: 4, Insightful
      ... that's pretty sad. Also, there's wonderfully circular about Facebook's proposal.

      1. Users read news on network A

      2. Users use information they read on network A to decide which network is "trustworthy" (network A of course)

      3. Network A becomes "trustworthy"

      What could possibly go wrong?

    6. Re:The Daily Show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More Americans get their news from the Daily Show than any other nationality.

      Of course, it's an American show. Most people of other nationalities have never heard of it and the vast majority have never watched it.

    7. Re: The Daily Show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cos it is banned outside the USA, by comedy central, either to save costs or reduce tension with world leaders...

    8. Re: The Daily Show by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Cos it is banned outside the USA...

      Oh, really? I've no trouble accessing the show outside the USA.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    9. Re:The Daily Show by Ian+A.+Shill · · Score: 1

      And some of us went to Reuters, AP, BBC, Al Jazeera, etc.

      --
      For hire.
  3. This won't backfire! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's going to rely on users -- not the super-smart people who work at Facebook

    This doesn't even sound sarcastic.

    GRRR! Not THOSE news orgs you stupid proles!

  4. Dear Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you ever want me back, you'll let me check a box that:

    1) Only shows me content created by friends
    2) Makes it come in chronological order

    Everything else is pointless.

    1. Re:Dear Facebook by ayesnymous · · Score: 1

      Easily done by putting your friends on a custom list.

    2. Re:Dear Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have this option already, but it seems to reset randomly without informing you... making it useless. I also love how if you do click to read something, and then go back to Facebook it's all reordered as if you read the next three posts after the one you clicked on... meh

    3. Re:Dear Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So I won't see any links, videos, or pictures my friends re-share?

      I don't have to click on said custom list when I log in, it's the default view?

    4. Re:Dear Facebook by smbell · · Score: 1

      For chronological order use: ?sk=h_chr

  5. abuse by PhantomHarlock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This will in no way be abused by ideologues asking their millions of flunkies to upvote their favorite extremist 'news' organizations without a second thought.

    1. Re: abuse by javaman235 · · Score: 2

      I think the bigger danger is what "broadly trusted" means. It means more penetration to the media players who are already rich, with independent voices pushed out. I'll take free speech anyday.

      --
      -The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
    2. Re:abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMHO, these big incorporated social media organizations should simply stop trying to police the news world - factual or fake - and stop trying to influence their customers politics. I didn't sign up to FB or Google to be fed a bunch of political ideology left, right, or whatever, and I can generally figure out if some piece of news is factual or not.

    3. Re:abuse by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 1

      ...or the Russian trolls being paid to do so.

    4. Re: abuse by aliquis · · Score: 1

      This is what they want.

      But I'd say that's already the case. Only it will become worse. But it's definitely not free and at equal means as is.

      More limited and monoton? Yes.

      Remove some illusionary freedom we already have? We don't have it as is (In Europe, in the US you don't necessary have it either but you're at-least better off.)

    5. Re:abuse by aliquis · · Score: 1

      ...or the Russian trolls being paid to do so.

      Why does it matter where they are from?

      For USA vs Russia maybe, as humans or from an ideological stand-point not at all.

      Our Swedish government already pay interest groups to act on social media and in society and support media and try to shut down opinions they don't like and jail people of the wrong opinions and their private thought police make people lose their jobs and threaten people and so on.

      So so fucking what that Russia try to spread their agenda too? Pretty sure Israel and USA is pretty good at it too.

      Possibly not the best music ever made:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      Somewhat better I guess:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    6. Re:abuse by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      abused by ideologues asking their millions of flunkies to upvote . . . without a second thought

      Abuse? Usually we call that an "election."

    7. Re:abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tore likely, Zuck is trying to get you to believe that the approved news sources are "trusted" while harvesting more information to sell you.

    8. Re:abuse by jvkjvk · · Score: 1

      Who cares?

      People are being asked to rate their own preference, if I read it right.

      At worst, their feed becomes an echo chamber.

      You are free to do the same.

      How is asking your followers to follow you abuse?

  6. what an opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for trolls and astro-turfing...

  7. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fox News, InfoWars, Art Bell. That's really all you need right there.

    Indeed. The alt-right ditto-heads are going to crowdsource these rankings into an echo-chamber in the first 10 minutes. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good idea.

  8. lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    $(news group that doesn't support my political views)=fake

  9. Wave goodbye to Fox News and Breitbart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is step one in banning our conservative media, under the guise of it being the choice of the masses

    "Oh no, we didn't ban Infowars, YOU all did"

    1. Re:Wave goodbye to Fox News and Breitbart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only it was that easy

      I do take heart in Fox splitting off Fox News and selling the studios to Disney. From a business perspective I would think that they are trying to firewall assets from an ongoing investigation.

      Funny about Murdoch's ex being ID'd as a suspected foreign agent. Breitbart and the conspiracy theorists would be going ape over this stuff if it wasn't in their own back yard.

    2. Re: Wave goodbye to Fox News and Breitbart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's quite foolish to group Breitbart and Fox News together. Beyond annoying certain kinds of snob, they have little in common.

    3. Re:Wave goodbye to Fox News and Breitbart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny about Murdoch's ex being ID'd as a suspected foreign agent. Breitbart and the conspiracy theorists would be going ape over this stuff if it wasn't in their own back yard.

      This is a woman who got a US couple to sponsor her for a student visa, then--once she arrived--promptly started fucking the husband, pried him away from his wife, married him, and stayed married to him just long enough to get that green card.

      Meanwhile, the visa people are giving me an extra hard time with my wife's green card because I'd been previously married, despite the fact that she and I have been together for well over a decade and have plenty of supporting evidence that this is indeed the case.

  10. Very bad idea by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    Many people out there don't use the space between their ears for an by kind of critical thinking. So they're apt to believe anything they read and rank something that is blatantly false as trusted ... The old I read it on the internet so it must be true syndrome.

    1. Re:Very bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Facebook has already decided what the vote will be on the more common news sources. If the actual vote doesn't agree they'll scrap this plan and try something else.

    2. Re:Very bad idea by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      I don't even think it goes that far. Instead people will rank news based on how well it conforms to their existing beliefs and that's true of anyone regardless of political leanings or level of intelligence. There are very few people capable of being as skeptical about their own beliefs as they are about somebody else's.

      I don't see why Facebook wants to do this as it doesn't give them any information (political leanings) that they don't already know and they probably risk pissing off whichever groups have their favorite news sources rated as unreliable. Even if they wanted to try to be nefarious and shape public opinion, they'll scrap this as soon as the users start whining.

    3. Re:Very bad idea by aliquis · · Score: 1

      But they don't want people to be skeptical.

      They want to encourage group-think and follow the stream. Obviously it should be THEIR stream but ..

      The sad part is that they call it democracy and working against fake news and made up stories and lies.

    4. Re:Very bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      kek, you really are a funny one there boy-o

      You claim 'other' people don't want to be skeptical, but the only thing that you are skeptical about is reality because you live in the alternate universe of right-wing media whilst calling reality fake news

      You ass-clowns never cease to amuse me

  11. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by nospam007 · · Score: 0

    "Fox News, InfoWars, Art Bell. That's really all you need right there."

    And the Aryan 2 White Noise machine, so that you can sleep at night without having to think about equality.

  12. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, we should force people to read things they don't want to.. Because we're smarter and know what's best. And also white liberals.

  13. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Dailykoz.com, snopes, thehill, huffpo, and goatse is all the wokeness you need.

  14. Democracy is the new system for fact selection by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We now can select our facts by majority opinion.

    Next we can take down science as it is a social construct with a bias toward western culture and straight white men specifically. We instead can have a plurality of accepted "facts" and have equally valid viewpoints that we label as science. Instead of logical arguments, a western concept that reeks of colonialism, we can operate based on consensus building and equal time for all sides. Democratic science and culturally sensitive "facts".

    Total bullshit of course, and perhaps an early signal that society is descending into madness.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      It's certainly looking like the trend is heading there. It will be really scary once enough people vote against the holocaust ever happening that it becomes mainstream thought. That's when we will be supremely fucked.

    2. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now we have a feedback loop that guarantees that we divide into echo chambers. This is as facebooky a thing as possible.

    3. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      perhaps an early signal that society is descending into madness.

      I think social media in general exchanges rational behavior for attention seeking narcissism. The more extreme your behavior, the more attention you get which is normal but social media exploits to provide dopamine feedback for attention. If you aren't convinced then just look at the Tide Pod Challenge.

      Social media is highly exploitative.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We now can select our facts by majority opinion.

      This is already how we decide which publishers of printed news live and which die, excluding state funded ones, and that cannot be what you suggest as an improvement?

      The Internet makes "publishing" so cheap, we HAVE to have systems of ranking and filtering it. We used to vote with our wallets, and now we vote with cheap things likes, links, referrals, etc. Neither way is perfect. In other words, the sky is blue, water is wet, and the Earth is round. Ranking online news publishers with clicks is as natural and boring as white on snow.

    5. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Hey what a great idea! While we're at it, can we vote on making 'Pi' exactly 3? All those pesky decimals are just too hard to deal with and really don't matter anyway.

    6. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Why would that ever happen?
      Especially considering what agenda those in charge want to push.

      But ANY such scenario is scary. Not just the ones the globalists & socialists doesn't like.

    7. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      You're free to identify Pi with as many decimal places as you find comfortable. Like opinions, all values of Pi are equally valid.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    8. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Don't you just love sarcasm? :-)

    9. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if I can get about 2-4 tide pods free I'll try them the next time I do laundry

    10. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by scatbomb · · Score: 1

      Yes, society is decending into madness. Science has been on the chopping block for a long while. It's too inconvenient with all that "falsifiability" and "evidence." The new world demands sound bytes and headlines that imply things without saying anything definitive so that readers' biases can take over and fill in the rest. Anything nuanced or complicated is useless since nobody reads anything but headlines anyway.

      If ones' identity is not founded in any verifiable information (what you do, your physical body, your behaviors etc) then identity is completely arbitrary ("a social construct"). If identity is a social construct, maybe morality is also a social construct. It seems to follow logically from this (grossly incorrect) train of thought and doesn't take much imagination to see how terribly the results would be of a society founded without any constant moral foundation. If morality is a social construct, then nothing is really right or wrong from an objective viewer and must be interpreted individually by every person. Going from there, maybe facts are social constructs too [we are here now, thanks Facebook].

    11. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was with you until you tried to link science to straight white men. There is nothing scientific about a fake social construct that classifies diverse groups of people as White.Now go back to neonazi Breitbart training little Ivan, your propaganda bullshit has failed.

    12. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      I think social media in general exchanges rational behavior for attention seeking narcissism. The more extreme your behavior, the more attention you get which is normal but social media exploits to provide dopamine feedback for attention.

      I honestly have no idea where to find all these "attention seeking narcissists" that /.ers are always talking about. Maybe you're thinking of YouTube? On Facebook, all I ever see are:

      1. News stories people post
      2. Announcements of shows, events, etc.
      3. Reviews of the same
      4. Memes and joke videos
      5. Pictures of people's pets
      6. Pictures of food

      If all that adds up to hideous narcissism to you, all I can say is you must be fun at parties.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    13. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      It's OK if you didn't understand the reference, but it's not necessary for you to go into personal attacks and false accusations of my political views.

      Reading list for you (summary/abstract/cliffsnotes are fine, I don't expect you to invest a lot of time):
      The Two Cultures - C. P. Snow
      The Science Wars
      Sokal Affair - very funny and kind of depressing. Hoax paper proposed that quantum gravity has progressive political implications. And goes on to link ZF set theory and axiom of choice to feminism. Real hilarious garbage and right up there on what I consider great culture jamming.
      And a perhaps easier to digest is a YouTube video that asks Is Science a Social Construct? with a bias towards the answer being "No" and "those people are stupid" (my words, but that's the feel I got. I don't remember the exact insults they used)

      And once you absorb a bit of The Two Cultures, you can find all sorts of nonsense from the humanities trying to make sense of science. Or at least pull it into a context they understand, even if it is not the context that science understand itself.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    14. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sokal's paper claimed that quantum gravity was a social and linguistic construct. You are trying to paper some sort of 'liberals don't do science' commentary over it that never existed.

    15. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a natural result of the teaching that whatever you believe to be true is your truth at the individual level. It is just being moved up to the societal level.

    16. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      I was pretty specific about Sokal's paper and what was in it. I'm not wrong in the literal sense. I also didn't state that it was about "liberals don't do science", I only stated it was a form of culture jamming. Feel free to interpret the paper to be more about the submission and review process of papers than about the claptrap that come out of some small minority of humanities academics. (I make the distinction rather than use your term liberal, because I don't think you know what that word means)

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    17. Re: Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see that plus a constant stream of sponsored right wing hate ...

    18. Re: Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A functioning Democracy requires an informed electorate. We don't have that here.

      Money will end up ruling this equation, same as it ever was.

    19. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      It's more like you allowed yourself to be triggered by the first sentence of his post and didn't bother reading the rest of it.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    20. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congratulations!

      You have spent more time responding to something the OP didn't say than you would have spent in reading what was actually said.

      Bet you're feeling really smart now.

    21. Re:Democracy is the new system for fact selection by jvkjvk · · Score: 1

      I want pi to be 0 because pie is round.

  15. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by nospam007 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "The alt-right ditto-heads are going to crowdsource these rankings into an echo-chamber in the first 10 minutes."

    So it's good that there are 2 billion alt-left people there too.

  16. Will alternative news sources be included? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    Bernie Sanders had to turn to alternative news to get coverage for his Medicare for All push. Once in the while MSNBC will have him on to bash Trump but they don't let him get too far into the weeds on substantive policy. CNN just pretends he doesn't exist.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  17. I'd rather be able to rank/filter by journalist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of these jokers hop from media outlet to media outlet, tainting whatever they touch along the way.

  18. They had better include by oldgraybeard · · Score: 1

    None Of The Above!!!!!

    I won't answer any poll that does not provide a none of the above option on all of their questions.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

    1. Re:They had better include by oldgraybeard · · Score: 1

      Oh that is right! I don't have a Facebook account ;) In fact the thought that any Actual News could be on that site is kinda Duh!!!

      Just my 2 cents ;)

    2. Re:They had better include by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't there be an option for Cowboy Neal in all the polls?

    3. Re:They had better include by oldgraybeard · · Score: 1

      Funny ;) and yes ;)

  19. Why is Facebook so stupid? by shanen · · Score: 1

    I think it's because the objective of Facebook is so stupid. NOT the objectives of the people who want to use Facebook. It's the mismatch between their objectives and what Facebook wants that is creating such stupidity.

    Facebook just wants your time and phuck you if you care about good time versus wasted time.

    The OBVIOUS (ttMCO) countermeasure to this stupid idea is to create fake news sources more quickly. It also leaves the trolls and their sock puppets in place so that they can quickly link to the new fake news sources.

    It needs to work the OTHER way around. Do you want to waste YOUR time studying news sources to determine if they are crap? Me neither.

    I also think it should be approached from the OTHER side, by considering the EARNED reputation of the entity that is telling me to "Look over here!" If that entity is a REAL person who has earned a REAL reputation, only then would I be willing to invest some of my precious time to look over there. If the EARNED reputation is high enough, I might even be eager to look.

    If the entity in question has NO reputation or an EARNED NEGATIVE reputation, then I don't want to see the entity in the first place. You might want to adjust your filters differently. Maybe you want to see neutral reputations? If the system was that sophisticated, I actually want to see certain negative reputations if they are offset by other aspects. For example, I'd accept a certain amount of negative "politeness" if the reputation for "thought-provoking" (AKA "interesting" in Slashdot-speak) is positive.

    Actually the same idea could apply on Slashdot. Details available upon polite (and sincere) request. Or you can just look over some of my old comments. Look for "public reputation" and "dual icon system". Sometimes I've described it using "avatar".

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:Why is Facebook so stupid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fwiw, I think that "public reputation" is worth little. What I work off of is behavior.

      Take this AC status. I could use a six-digit userid (an even shorter one if I had the foresight to keep an aol email account active), but I would rather be an AC.

      This started when Dice bought /. and we were all commoditized. Instead of just abandoning /. I decided to post my same old karma-whoring spew with no name tied to it (and yes, I am aware that my IPs are known, etc).

      Some people recognize me by tone, but for the most part I'm just another AC and it is better that way

  20. Pay for ranks by sqorbit · · Score: 1

    So how long will it take for major news organizations to figure out a way they can use the built in advertising to boost their ranks and better position themselves? Facebook relies on advertising money. If suddenly major advertisers are being ranked low do you really think Facebook will allow that? How long till companies are paying for better ranking?

    --
    Sent from my TARDIS
    1. Re:Pay for ranks by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      So how long will it take for major news organizations to figure out a way they can use the built in advertising to boost their ranks and better position themselves? Facebook relies on advertising money. If suddenly major advertisers are being ranked low do you really think Facebook will allow that? How long till companies are paying for better ranking?

      Facebook may find a way to charge news outlets for *verified* status and thus another stream of revenue.

    2. Re:Pay for ranks by supremebob · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that the Russian trolls will just hire troll armies and click farms to upvote all of their fake news posts just enough to insure that their feeds do not get shut down.

      If that doesn't work, they'll just use those same people to promote new legitimate sounding news organizations to popularity every few weeks.

  21. Re:The problem for Facebook by Required+Snark · · Score: 1

    Where do you have your swastika tattoo?

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  22. Can we DOWN vote Facebook trustworthyness? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So truth is now a popularity contest....they who shout loudest must be correct.
    I'd thought a company ran by a college dropout would be smarter than that!

  23. Re:The problem for Facebook by aliquis · · Score: 1

    Where do you have your swastika tattoo?

    Nowhere since that would be illegal. Otherwise I may have had one on the hand or something, but more likely I would just wear it on clothes or as pin or use it on paper slips or put it up on places with a pen or what not.

  24. A few things by Jfetjunky · · Score: 1

    1: If Facebook had done it themselves, they'd be lambasted by wailing from certain groups that they are "biasing" the news. Regardless of whether not it was true, many people these days seem to believe that being presented with viewpoints you don't agree with automatically constitutes unethical bias.

    2: If it only shows you news sources that you select as "trustworthy", well, then many people will be enjoying their own personal echo chamber. Neat.

    3: If it uses mass aggregate results to select the "trustworthy" ones, then I can't help but think this is going to come out as a split down the middle between the top contested ones anyway. Mostly because of point #1.

  25. Re:The problem for Facebook by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    Wow. Just wow. There's a plague of downright-insane SJWs like AmiMoJo or serviscope_minor, but you just managed to beat them all the other way. That's kind of rare for something that's not a throw-away troll spam account.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  26. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by aliquis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Indeed. The alt-right ditto-heads are going to crowdsource these rankings into an echo-chamber in the first 10 minutes. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good idea.

    Everyone else does it and we're even forced to it. We're not allowed in the other medias so .. what's the obvious and only solution?

    It's so fucking sad, mental and hillariously non-hillariously destructive that the freedom-hating socialists get away with making claims like "we need to start treating each other with respect!" as an answer to arguments with a harsh tone (note: It's not a counter-argument) after having called us racists and nazis for decades. Yeah.. About that: No. They should be called socialist-bastards, freedom-haters, communists, all of it the whole time and in a negative fashion and easily fend of just because their anti-individual enforced collectivism ideas isn't acceptable whatsoever.

    It's just another way of trying to shut people up. Like always. And then they will be like "our opinion is that of the majority, haven't you noticed? You don't see or hear any other now do you?!" - as if.

  27. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "The alt-right ditto-heads are going to crowdsource these rankings into an echo-chamber in the first 10 minutes"

    Might as well add the Huffington Post, MSNBC, Slate, and others to that list. Echo-chambers exist on both sides and are equally stupid no matter what their political leanings.

  28. Can't trust ANY of them anymore. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Just rate them all as ZERO, and non-news agencies as "-1".

  29. Next up by Arzaboa · · Score: 1

    Facebook will next offer a product that uses Venn diagrams to best show the similarities and differences between the people and products on their site. Oh the humanity.

    --
    You said it.

  30. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Huffington Post, MSNBC and Slate are not politically biased and certainly not echo chambers.

  31. CNN is fucked by supercell · · Score: 1

    If they even are slightly honest with the feedback they get from the users.

  32. The Guardian by k6mfw · · Score: 1

    Seems to me that news agency from the United Kingdom that we revolted against back in the days gives better news coverage than those agencies here in the colonies.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
  33. Echo Chamber by Templer421 · · Score: 1

    I don't want to hear anything that might not confirm my bias!

  34. Re:The problem for Facebook by aliquis · · Score: 1

    Thanks.

    I'm always right though.

    For instance you don't see people like me modding down the communists posts into non-existance whereas they do it.

    They always blame the other / our side but it's themselves who are in power, themselves who remove freedom and democracy, themselves who want to destroy identity and nurture it at the same time (depending on whose identity it is of course, destroy all white/european people but keep racism for their own socialist agendas by grouping all other ethnicities together and measure their outcome and falsly claim they are discriminated against and need the stealing authoritorian socialists as their saviors.)

    They are the true 100% never hesitating or appologizing fascists and racists. Except their non-free anti-individualistic society is constructed on their stupid idea just like with Islamism rather than on ethnicity. The threat and outcome is the same. Yet you're supposed to apploud it and be fine with it because it's their creation rather than someone else's.

    Why would I use a throw-away account? I've got nothing to be ashamed of. I have four Facebook accounts of which three I remember but they are all in variations of my real name and are only there because like for instance two of them are banned (always for 30 days.) My good real / active twitter account is kinda gone. I registered a pair of others but haven't bothered with them because nowadays twitter is an echo-chamber of friends posts so you get no reach anyway. The account is closed for "suspecious activity" but I don't seem to be able to unlock it one way or the other (it may have been hacked inbetween, I don't care, it had awful security by design.)

  35. Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think Mark is going to discover how much common ground we do NOT have.

  36. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As will the left with fake news CNN, MSNBC, etc

  37. Re:The problem for Facebook by aliquis · · Score: 1

    I actually kinda want to have my passwords and a request to have all my accounts changed to my real name and all my posts turned to public as a testament.

    Maybe there's some individual post for privacy reasons which shouldn't be so but .. Yeah. To spread the real thoughts and information rather than the false stuff society/rulers claim is the one which exist when they have tidied away all the stuff they didn't liked.

  38. Re:The problem for Facebook by x0ra · · Score: 1

    Nowhere since that would be illegal.

    I'm assuming you are living in a regressive country without 1st Amendment protection... Europe ?

  39. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by shanen · · Score: 1

    Just so, but why nothing approximating a constructive solution? If I ever saw a mod point, I wouldn't "invest" an insightful mod in such a trivial observation.

    So now I should bet that my longer and more substantive comment below will never see the light of a mod point, except perhaps negative ones from some of the angry and threatened sock puppets? If my constructive suggestion were actually implemented, they would certainly be invisible and dead to me.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  40. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People are already split into camps as to which sources they trust. They're not going to start believing CNN or Fox just because Facebook tells them to.

  41. Comments are missing the real issue. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Facebook just found a way to collect more user data while offering them exactly what they want.

    CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. will be begging for this information and pouring the $$$ at Mark's feet.

  42. Politicians, faiths, nations and SJW get clicking by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Time to educate their followers, citizens start about clicking on social media.
    Up vote the national broadcaster with the good news about the nation.
    Down vote the negative international press about corruption, trade deals, pollution.
    Up vote for tourism and happy news.
    SJW can ban news about any political topic they don't like. No more news about illegal migrants.

    Got a new movie? Up vote the good reviews. Ban the negative reviews and remove the accounts of the negative reviewers.
    Every movie review thats linked and still searchable will be great.
    Faith groups will present their faith in the best way. Want to change your faith? No links, news, support to find anything on that. All that gets deranked by cult and faith members. Report blasphemy and have all faith members report that user so their ip can be discovered by their government.

    Political questions? Get the party faithful to rank the good news. Remove the bad new links. Never happened No links, no news.
    No links to decades of newspaper stories about the past of a candidate. Its only positive, good new news about the campaign today thats on message and will be approved by party "users".
    A big brand memory hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... for anyone with enough support or who can buy enough clicks in the needed ip ranges.

    Freedom of speech and freedom after speech is now been sold to any gov, mil, faith, theocracy , kingdom, dictatorship, NGO, brand, studio, state gov, city gov, politician, person who can afford to click a lot.
    Should have just followed the US Constitution and kept free speech for all.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  43. Paid ideologically driven abuse? by shanen · · Score: 1

    Moderately insightful branch of the discussion. I can actually answer in terms of my longer suggestion below:

    The earned public reputation should be based on several dimensions, but the dimensions should NOT be related to ideology or positions on specific issues. Or if there are some dimensions of that sort, then I think they should be discounted in the default settings and people would have to enable them if they really want to. (I'm imagining a "Trump" dimension that assesses positive or negative sentiments towards #PresidentTweety, and I admit that I would be sorely tempted to enable it and filter in favor of negative scores on that dimension...)

    As regards the trolls, sock puppets, and idiots: It doesn't matter if they are sincerely stupid, proudly ignorant, mindlessly fanatical, or just paid to fake it. No sense in wasting time on them. Until an entity has EARNED a positive reputation, I don't need to see it. (And when I say earned, that includes network-based verification of the evidence of that reputation, unless you can come up with something stronger.)

    As the ancient joke goes, detailed suggestions available upon polite request.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:Paid ideologically driven abuse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would suggest that simply ignoring trolls, sock puppets and idiots is a stunningly bad idea. This is based on my understanding of history and how some stunningly horrible people rose to power in the past century.

      Their playbook usually consists of:
            lie big
            repeat the lie
            never back down from a lie
            always give the true believers another lie that they can hang on to

      And people buy into it, they love it and they will consume as many lies that reinforce (or at least reference) their existing beliefs as you can shove down their throats.

      So, then if it works, what is wrong about it? The big problem is that these lies, and willing dependence on lies allow people and societies to diverge from reality and into scenarios where killing a few million people seems like a great idea.

      I will leave the methods to confront these playbooks as an exercise to the gentle reader.

  44. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have to make sure you violent alt-left brainwashed libtard kids have something to attack and call racist.

    Keeps you busy and not out fucking up the real world.

  45. Got Fermi? by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

    Maybe this explains the Fermi Paradox. Advanced civilizations eventually invent Social Media and rot from the inside before they can develop interstellar travel.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  46. Re:The problem for Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lol, you really do follow your master's training well

  47. Tech before Society by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    I think my main complaint is that individuals haven't improved their bullshit filters as quickly as technology has ramped up content distribution and flow rate of said bullshit. Not an easy problem to solve either. But I'm well in my right to demand improvements even if I don't wish to be the architect of a new society.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  48. Better method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I've got a much better method to make it more neutral.

    Let me note what sources I trust and what sources I don't trust. Let me make that decision, not piles of others from who knows where, and likely gaming the system. Or at least offer me the option of using my own trust scores instead of the default, probably tilted to the far left (but yes, maybe titled to the alt-right Infowars types as well if the system gets gamed).

  49. SO obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We all need to just go vote for The Onion and Slashdot.

  50. Trust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People now seek out news that will validate their beliefs.

    How are you going to deal with this?

  51. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep. Fix things by making them worse.

  52. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by supremebob · · Score: 1

    Yep... the Trump fans will all give Fox News and Breitbart top rankings, while slamming NPR and the New York Times.

    Democrats will do the exact opposite, basically insuring that most major news sites will have a "Neutral" rating.

  53. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by iamhassi · · Score: 1

    Equality like the alt-left's Islamic version of equality? How did the alt-left get both Muslims *and* LGBTQ to support them? Muslims literally kill LGBTQ, it's like the sheep supporting the wolves.

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone
  54. Excuse me while I go fuck with their algorithm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trustworthy: Pravda, Islamic Republic News Agency, Agencia Venezolana de Nocitas.
    Untrustworthy: CNN, Fox, NY Times

  55. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The same way they got the blacks to support them even though the democrats started slavery, defended it to the bitter end, and then created the KKK and went on to support an anti-black racist agenda for the next 100 years.

  56. Swell. Another echo chamber. by WHExeter · · Score: 1

    I suppose you have to give Facebook credit for being honest about slanting the "news". Spoon-feeding people news from sources they are comfortable with is exactly the WRONG thing to do if your goal is informed, enlightened subscribers. Facebook's goal SHOULD be to provide the best balance it's algorithms can generate of opposing, or at least differently slanted, versions of the same news story or topic. That way if you're a lefty you can read the news versions you like but you might elect to read how the right is reporting the same story (and vice versa of course). Facebook can still do some version of the "trust" thing to cull relatively unreliable news sources across the political spectrum. Making it easier for people to consider points of view other than their own is a much more worthy goal than just automatically parroting any one version of "truth".

  57. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry, facebook will "Correct" this problem. If they do not like the news source it will be marked as untrusted even if it gets 2 million "Trusted" votes. The comment about users voting and facebook having "no" influence is just window dressing and will be proven a lie. I predict that CNN and MSNBC will still be marketed as "Trusted" sources regardless of the number of negative votes.

  58. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most Oblivious Post of the Year awards are cancelled, we have a winner here people.

  59. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they ask you what sources you think are legit to better manipulate you, not because they don't already know what sources they like best....

  60. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Terribly misleading, and you know it.

  61. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by aliquis · · Score: 0

    No. Snowflakes are your kind. Also the racist, the anti-democrats, the freedom haters, the socialists, the dictators, the assholes, the dehumanizers, the authoritorian assholes, ..

    No I don't need a safe-space but I would like to have a space where I can tell you idiots how wrong and nasty you are.

    I'm not free and I don't have any guns. I'm a Swede you see. I can't shoot stuff. Right now at-least. Of course you can get guns in Sweden too but the legal guns aren't all that great for taking down lots of people you don't like. There's of course a bunch of illegal guns in Sweden which work better for that purpose but those who have access to those are more likely the kind of people you associate with instead.

    I grew up in a communist country and ran away - people with your mentality were our oppressors..

    That make no sense.

    media is plural already; what IS the obvious and only solution? spam on facebook?? nobody wants to treat you with respect - may be they start that way, but then you prove them wrong very fast

    Social media is basically Facebook or Google. There's not really much alternatives to that. They own a bunch of other companies too and Twitter behaves just the same. Of course there _IS_ alternatives too but there you won't have any audience anyway. Also the governments control the media and support them and direct them anyway and alternatively the private companies running those media platforms have their own agendas and put even further limitations on... the lack of freedom of speech and take away even more of it. And of course beyond that you've got the moderators in whatever group on those pages or people who just sort what they want to see in their own feeds as well.

    Spamming on Facebook isn't much of a solution if you get banned each time. Or?

    Respect got nothing to do with it. People don't need to agree with me. But the problem is we aren't allowed to express our opinion in these socialist-globalist democratures/plutocracies/psychopath "elite" rule.

    Wrong about what?

    also nobody wants to argue with you

    They don't want to argue because then they can be proven wrong and don't get things there way. They are anti-democratic and don't care. The "fascists." Just not nationalists, because idiots.

    you are racists and nazis

    Racist and racist. I don't really care whatever I'm racist or not. I care about being right. If I'm right but being right make you a racist then I'm a racist and the anti-racists are wrong. So be it. I'm no Nazi, or well, at-least not originally.. I don't like socialism and authoritarian rule. Then again considering the enemy and the lack of democracy and solutions we're not left with much of an alternative. But it's not really an ideological determination by then but rather self-defense and the better of two evils.

    the minute you have enough crowd to disappear in you make your voice pretty clear

    Where's that crowd really? And how is it made clear when it's always shut down? It's more of a myth than an actual thing ..

    communists kept me imprisoned in eastern europe - for many years - you know nothing about socialism or communism or marks or lenin or stalin or any of it

    Good for you. What does it have to do with me?

    there's opinions that make people welcome at parties and sought in conversation and there's opinions that make you repulsive. yours are the latter....

    I don't care. The goal isn't to be the greatest ass-kisser. I don't know why you figured that. The goal is that I want to speak what's on my mind and reach out with it. I don't give a fuck what you and your stupid buddies think about it. Feel free to dislike it. That's not the problem.

  62. All Your Thoughts Are Belong to Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wonderful, now Facebook will know my news feed preference and from that extrapolate my political and social affiliations and use that to market me with even more targeted advertising.

  63. But but but muh Russians will vote up all the Fake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As if CNN won't hire Brock's astroturfers to boost their ratings.

    Zuck's an ass and an asshole.

  64. Now they can throw out non-pro-American news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with the motivation that "it's what the people wanted". Any users who mistrust American news sources? Well then you're clearly a Russian who is being paid by Putin.

    Another turn of the old censorship and propaganda mill.

  65. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Reverend+Green · · Score: 3, Funny

    The "alt-left" wants nothing to do with liberals, labor unionists, socialists, communists, skeptics, humanists, or New Deal style progressives. That pretty well eliminates their mass support.

    I really doubt the world has even a million self loathing, socially degenerate, openly bigoted running dog stooges of big capital. It's just that the few who do exist get a whole fucking lot of airtime from the propaganda organs.

  66. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't live in Kärrtorp, do you? Because you sound just like some of the assholes who do.

  67. Facebook Will Now Ask Users To Rank News Organizat by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

    Facebook Will Now Ask Users To Rank News Organizations They Trust

    Doublespeak, Facebook looks for the best outlets for propaganda.

    --
    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
  68. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hahah.. exactly!

  69. None of us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is as dumb as all of us.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    #mobrules
    #echochamber

  70. LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're in for a rude awakening.

  71. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indeed. The alt-right ditto-heads are going to crowdsource these rankings into an echo-chamber in the first 10 minutes. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good idea.

    Those sources aren't any less reliable than CNN or the Washington Post. That's not praise for Fox or Infowars, it's an insult to CNN and WaPo. They are unreliable propaganda trash just as much as the others.

  72. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. Sure.

  73. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HuffPo: the outlet run almost exclusively by Jewish women pretending to be white, who's sole mission in life is to explain to you why being white is not OK.

  74. Ok Geeks.. its time we made a new platform by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    one that does not censor, or sell information

  75. Re:The problem for Facebook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, he lives in Sweden and he's a fucking liar. The Nazi Party and its associated regalia were never outlawed here.

  76. Re:Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your hatred and ignorance will be your undoing.

  77. Re: Easy. I'll use all my logins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jewish people aren't white?

  78. Lipstick on a pig... by george14215 · · Score: 1

    what a miserable response to a serious problem...

  79. Past it's prime by gettin2old · · Score: 1

    What do I care about what 10 million facebook users think about what I want to see? They went from being a great way to keep in touch with your friends to the equivalent of an ongoing job interview where you better not say or like the wrong thing. I give them 5 years and they will be joining the ranks of AOL, Yahoo and dozens of other internet giants.