Facebook, I’m Begging You, Please Make Yourself Better

theintercept.com

19 pointsseycombi3 comments

This article is pretty much an excellent synopsis of an old man who doesn't understand anything about technology who thinks "Hey, they have all this money and smart people, how hard could this thing I want be?"

As it turns out, accurately fact checking articles for truthfulness is very very hard. Of course, he glosses over the technical details and talk about how Facebook "has" to do this.

It's not their duty to fact-check articles for truthfulness... but they could apply some basic vetting to sources they put in people's feeds.

A majority of Facebook-inserted content (ads and Suggested Posts) in my feed is either phony clickbait (complete with blatant copyright violations, e.g. claiming to come from ESPN, People, etc.) or sports merchandise ads from fake fan entities pushing counterfeit goods. Facebook clearly makes a great deal of money from these phonies and feels no incentive to inhibit them in the slightest.

Dear IT overlords please alleviate the burden of critical thinking of my fellow people as thinking is too hard for them and they might stray from the golden path.

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