Tuesday, May 10, 2016

"Facebook MADE Black Lives Matter ‘Trend’ By Inserting It Into News Feeds"

Gizmodo:  Sometimes, breaking news would be injected because it wasn’t attaining critical mass on Facebook quickly enough to be deemed “trending” by the algorithm. Former curators cited the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris as two instances in which non-trending stories were forced into the module. Facebook has struggled to compete with Twitter when it comes to delivering real-time news to users; the injection tool may have been designed to artificially correct for that deficiency in the network. “We would get yelled at if it was all over Twitter and not on Facebook,” one former curator said.

In other instances, curators would inject a story—even if it wasn’t being widely discussed on Facebook—because it was deemed important for making the network look like a place where people talked about hard news. “People stopped caring about Syria,” one former curator said. “[And] if it wasn’t trending on Facebook, it would make Facebook look bad.” That same curator said the Black Lives Matter movement was also injected into Facebook’s trending news module. “Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter,” the individual said. “They realized it was a problem, and they boosted it in the ordering. They gave it preference over other topics. When we injected it, everyone started saying, ‘Yeah, now I’m seeing it as number one’.” This particular injection is especially noteworthy because the #BlackLivesMatter movement originated on Facebook, and the ensuing media coverage of the movement often noted its powerful social media presence.

Via Daily Caller

12 comments:

The Dude said...

Duh!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

That 'injection' metaphor can go in so many directions.

There was a post on Reddit relating how is possible to taste injected medicine when you are getting a serum.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Facebook hearts corruptocrats and the corrutocrat liar message?

No way.

* Way.

edutcher said...

This is why you don't go there.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yahoo News is corruptocrat.

It's all corruptocrat.

Then we get to listen to the corruptocrats whine about Fox News.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Yet another reason that I never used Facebook. Too intrusive into your life. Too controlling. Watching your every move.

virgil xenophon said...

@DBQ/

Agree. I"VE NEVER used it, but my son does--mainly in minimal way to keep track of family and friends--about the only thing it's good for.

Jim in St Louis said...

Personally I really like FB. It’s fun. But I don’t treat it like a news source.

ampersand said...

Facebook is a pretty crappy outlet for information. AFAIK You can't do a search unless you scroll though to the bottom of a page,bringing up the next block.
If you make the mistake of liking a business you'll be rewarded with tons of twaddle from that business.
Their search engine is pretty bad too. I tried looking for a couple of people with name and location and either get "not found" or reams of names not spelled the same or in different locations. One of the people "not found" was on the friends list of someone else.

Is the reward on investment worth it for a business?

Trooper York said...

Last night I was flipping the channels and put on Megyn Kelly because she was pimping her interview with Trump. In the segment before they were discussing the photo of the West Point graduates making the black power receipt. She was talking with some black conservative dude. Never saw he before but he was playing his part in Konservative Cuckservative Kabuki Theater.

He was talking about "Black Lives Matter" and said it was based on a lie. Megyn jumped down his throat and said that was not true. As if Michael Brown and the Hands Up bullshit was correct. She said that blacks were being murdered by the police. Not that there were isolated incidents or mistakes or tragic accidents. Just flatly that Black Lives Matters was correct in that the police are killing blacks.

How does she have a job on FOX News.

Trooper York said...

FOX News has jumped the shark.

Trooper York said...

I need to stick to Hallmark and Bravo.