Comment by notliketherest | Hacker News Reader

Comment by notliketherest | Hacker News Reader

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Exactly. The problem is, as a private company, should Facebook choose to manipulate it's news feed algorithm to promote one candidate or the other, or for whatever reason, this would be its prerogative under the First Amendment.

I personally choose to not use Facebook specifically for these reasons. Even though I know many Facebook employees personally, I don't trust it's employees to divorce their own interests and their powerful position as Facebook's curators.

This isn't a new problem. Old media has been doing this for centuries.

Old media usually has had opposition, like there is Fox but there is also MSNBC. Facebook is THE social network, even Twitter is a joke in terms of size against it.

Indeed. It's not like there is the LA facebook or the NY facebook or the Chicago centinal facebook, etc... This is more like a "Global Times", let alone a "US times".

So anything they might do which appears to be editorialisitc in nature regarding politics would be of concern.

  They were also discouraged from mentioning Twitter by name in headlines and summaries, and instead asked to refer to social media in a broader context.

Hah!

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