Are you bothered by fake news, systematic misinformation campaigns and Facebook “dark posts” — micro-targeted ads not visible to the public — aimed at African-Americans to discourage them from voting? You must be one of those people “upset about ideas” you disagree with.
Are you troubled when agents of a foreign power pose online as American Muslims and post incendiary content that right-wing commentators can cite as evidence that all American Muslims are sympathizers of terrorist groups like the Islamic State? Sounds like you can’t handle a healthy debate.
Does it bother you that Russian actors bought advertisements aimed at swing states to sow political discord during the 2016 presidential campaign, and that it took eight months after the election to uncover any of this? Well, the marketplace of ideas isn’t for everyone.
.. bias in the digital sphere is structurally different from that in mass media, and a lot more complicated than what programmers believe.
.. what matters most is not the political beliefs of the employees but the structures, algorithms and incentives they set up, as well as what oversight, if any, they employ to guard against deception, misinformation and illegitimate meddling.
.. by design, business model and algorithm, Facebook has made it easy for it to be weaponized to spread misinformation and fraudulent content.
.. this business model is also lucrative, especially during elections. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, called the 2016 election “a big deal in terms of ad spend” for the company
.. Facebook responds to such pressure as much of the traditional media do: by caving and hiding behind flimsy “there are two sides to everything” arguments.
.. Even the conservative pundit and wild-eyed conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck, of all people, has expressed befuddlement at the charge that Facebook censored conservative content.
.. He has correctly pointed out that Facebook had been a boon for right-wing groups, especially of the alt-right and Breitbart variety
Will Mark Zuckerberg ‘Like’ This Column?
Some lawmakers suspect that the Russians had help in figuring out which women and blacks to target in precincts in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee looking into Russia’s intervention in 2016, has a suspect in mind. “Paul Manafort made an awful lot of money coming up with a game plan for how Russian interests could be pushed in Western countries and Western elections,” Heinrich told Vanity Fair.
.. Zuckerberg, whose project last year was building a Jarvis-style A.I. butler for his home, likes to paint himself as an optimist and Musk as a doomsday prophet
.. Vladimir Putin has denied digital meddling in the U.S. elections. But he understands the possibilities and threat of A.I. In a recent address, the Russian president told schoolchildren, “Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.” Musk agreed on Twitter that competition for A.I. superiority would be the “most likely cause of WW3.”
Facebook Abandons Plans to Change Share Structure, Avoiding Lawsuit
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured here at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 14, said a recent rise in Facebook’s stock price allows him to retain control for at least 20 years with the current two-class share structure
.. The share restructuring was aimed at ensuring Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued control of Facebook even as he planned to give away 99% of his family’s wealth over his lifetime.
Made You Click: How Facebook Fed You Political Ads for Less Than a Penny
Russian-backed messages in the 2016 election cycle had outsize reach, ad buyers say, because of the way Facebook rewards content that gets a reaction
.. On Facebook, a little ad spending goes a long way—and the more contentious the ads are, the farther they may go.Facebook Inc. disclosed last week that Russian entities spent some $150,000 for ads about “divisive” topics during a two-year period that included the U.S. presidential race.
.. the Russian-backed messages may have had outsize reach, ad buyers say, because Facebook favors ads that grab users’ attention and make them click, whether the content is political or otherwise, sensational or not.
.. In all, the Russians’ ads could have reached 3 million to 20 million or more people on the social network
.. Facebook has said little about the approximately 5,200 ads, which mostly centered on hot-button social and political issues like immigration and race relations.
.. In Facebook’s internal ad-auction system, ads compete in billions of auctions a day for slots in users’ news feeds. The system tends to reward ads that spark engagement—by getting users to click, share or otherwise spend time viewing—and sometimes it picks such ads over less-engaging ads that have a higher bid, advertisers say.
.. “When you put out an ad and Facebook sees that relative to other ads this is one is getting a lot of shares, that really seems to drive the cost down,” said Anthony Astolfi, creative director at IVC Media, who led digital advertising for Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign.
.. The day before the campaign, 32,500 Facebook users had engaged with the client’s ads. The client spent only a fraction of a penny, or 0.024 cent, for each user its ads were intended to reach. After the video launched, 55,000 users engaged, and the cost of reaching a single user dropped 30% to 0.017 cent, he said.