Saturday, May 21, 2016

Facebook and politics: Censors and sensibility

The social network’s power has made it controversial with conservatives. But its importance to politics will continue to grow


Facebook can transform people’s moods and political behaviour. One study, published in 2014, showed that users’ moods could be influenced by whether the posts they saw on Facebook were joyful or depressing. Another study, published in Nature in 2012, determined that around 340,000 people probably turned up to vote in the congressional elections of 2010 because of a message they saw on Facebook, and were especially likely to do so if a friend shared the call-to-action.

Whereas regulations stipulate that television networks cannot discriminate against advertisers (and have to offer the lowest rate to all candidates), no similar rules apply to Facebook or its digital peers. Facebook’s opacity about how it ranks content and posts will continue to enrage those who suspect foul play. Politicians may put pressure on Facebook to reveal more about how its algorithms work. The firm is not required to do so. Users will have to take on faith—as they do with Google—that the company’s business model limits the opportunities for bias.

Facebook and platforms like it may make it even easier for campaigns to say different things to different voter groups, without anyone noticing. And as more people spend time on networks that feed them only news that confirms their world-view, it furthers the ideological fragmentation America already suffers from. “The paradox of social media”, says Don Baer of Burson-Marsteller, a communications firm, “is that we are able to reach more and more people in ways that appeal to each of them individually, but less able to reach people as citizens of one country.”  


http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21699119-social-networks-power-has-made-it-controversial-conservatives-its-importance

Do you have a Facebook account? Do you like how posts are chosen for you to see? 
Should there be regulation for Facebook and other social networks?

6 comments:

  1. I think it's interesting the difference between Facebook and Twitter. Twitter shows you every single thing posted by one of the people you follow (although they are moving away from it), whereas Facebook has this complicated formula to try to avoid conflict. On the one hand sheltering people from opposing views and controversial news stories doesn't seem like a good alternative to free and open debate, on the other I've never seen an argument on Facebook go well for either side so maybe we should avoid them. I don't know.

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  2. Advertisment and politics have been expanding heavily on the internet and more particularly, social media. With all the complicated algorithms that companies like Facebook, Amazon, etc. (basically every modern website) create, it's easy to immediately notice the convience and simplifications, however, the negatives aren't often discussed. These websites have the power to steer millions, even billions of people in any direction and potentially choose what to expose them to.
    I don't like or subscribe to many things on Facebook, but a particular frustration I've had has been with the New York Times. Their bias, as well as most of the media, against Bernie Sanders often leads to me seeing either negative arcticles about him or a pethora of positive coverage towards Hillary Clinton. Of course there are many alternative options in terms of content, but large, established news centers like NYT will have inherent advantages against other media outlets, especially as these ventures become more lucrative.

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  3. Very interesting article. I had heard about this situation a little while back and I found it to be a bit concerning. Facebook has access to a source of power that few outlets have, they can help control what we see and don't see in our lives. Facebook is ever-present in people's lives, whether you're republican or democrat, and the ability to influence what people are reading and the news they are seeing is a useful tool in influencing people's political preferences. Let's hope dark money hasn't made its way into Facebook.

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  4. I have also heard about this story. I guess my 2 cents is that I always approach news stories with caution, and if it seems a little biased or sketchy I look around at other sources to verify. I don't think one source can ever be perfect, so I don't expect perfection from Facebook. However, it is a little concerning because I know there's a lot of people out there for whom Facebook is the only source of their information. There's a lot of people that just read the catchy, click-bait headlines without even reading further into the story. That can definitely lead to some problems with people forming their opinions.

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  5. I have also heard of this story. I also heard a story this morning on the radio concerning privacy rights of facebook users being compromised and using private messages to make shopping suggestions. It is incredible how much social media has an effect on everything we do in our lives, especially during this election cycle. I am very interested to see how it is utilized in the years to come and is this the future of our world? Who knows!

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  6. I wonder how many people actually pay attention to the trending topics on Facebook. I hardly notice the specific topics when I search for something. I would say that there is a lot of liberal bias on my newsfeed, but I think that largely is a result of my friends who post the most being more liberal. And I also wonder how the age of users influences this argument. Younger people are mostly likely to be more liberal so it isn't all that surprising to see less conservative news on Facebook.

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