Hacker News Reader

> Nothing the whistleblower has revealed is shocking or previously unknown. Yes facebook tweaks an algorithm on your news feed to drive engagement and make money.

Can you provide a citation here? People have suspected these things externally. Facebook has always denied. The news here is that an insider has provided documentation that Facebook knew. And I'm not talking strictly about the algorithm, but the harm to teenagers, and the other bits.

View on HN

My partner and I rolled our eyes at the 'harm to teenagers' bits when we heard NPR talking about it forever. How can anyone be surprised at this? Before instagram everyone bitched about teen-magazines harming teens, is this really surprising or that different? And IIRC the % was incredibly small. It's not like Instagram is leading teenagers off a cliff, it's unhealthy for teenagers who are already unhealthy. SHOCKER!

The difference between engagement algorithms and magazines when it comes to potential risk is in the orders of magnitude.

It's well known that engagement algorithms create a feedback loop to trigger negative emotions as they are the easiest way to increase engagement.

This is possible with traditional media, but nowhere near the immediacy or effect of an engagement algorithm.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com