The Left/Right Skew of Facebook could make the platform even worse in the future
The question Ted Cruz just asked Mark Zuckerberg is the one question I want to know the answer to....
Does Zuckerberg know, or care about, the political leanings "of the 15-20,000 Facebook employees dedicated to content review"?
Because the thing is, that skew matters.
I have no doubt that Zuckerberg and Facebook don't ask people what their political views are in the hiring process. That's not normally how hiring works. When I applied to work at the CATO Institute i had zero questions about my political leanings. Zero.
But that's not necessary for bias to emerge.
What actually happens is that people self-select into particular industries and companies for a host of reasons, the corporate values and tone of the working environment weeds out a lot, hiring managers tend to hire people generally like themselves so even if they don't ask any particular questions, they're looking for people they can work with so obviously finding points of agreement around interests and values help people get jobs in the first place.
And Facebook is located in the Bay Area in California, which has its own skew.
The problem, though, is that if 18,000 of their 20,000 content reviewers all lean a certain way, then the content they flag and the content they review will too.
And that means they're putting more scrutiny on (in this case) conservatives, libertarians, or just non-leftist types, and flagging more right-leaning posts as inappropriate, banning more of those pages.
I see this already in terms of the fact checking system Facebook has implemented.
And the irony of this is that if Facebook does more of the same, the result will be even MORE polarization, which is the very thing they claim they want to prevent.
Zuckerberg said that he believed for the first 10-12 years of running Facebook that their role as a company was to build tools for people to use to connect with each other.
Now he believes the company should have a new mission: To police the user-base and make sure those tools are being used "for good".
Little does he know, he's headed down an authoritarian path. Did he not take Dystopian Lit at Harvard?
What are your thoughts on how this can turn? Are you already off Facebook completely?
I feel like, to some extent, they're a victim of their own success.
Gauging the political leanings of your employees surely isn't something that becomes important until you become that big.
I don't think it's a coincidence that lately I've been getting "suggested" content from Facebook to the effect of how wonderful Japan and the Scandinavian countries are. Both of which the progressives and cultural Marxists have been drooling over because of gun control and socialism, respectively. Even
propagandaan ad by Bank of Sweden (or Norway, I forget which) on the gender pay gap showed up in my feed?!?! I guess because they're so superior in their "socialism" that they've fixed it.Like seriously Facebook, your algorithms had to have shown you that I've plastered eye rolling emojis all over that subject, yet there it is in my feed anyway, along with all the other far left nonsense. Pretty clear indication of the leanings of Facebook employees if you ask me.
Maybe we need to roll back our excessive FB Messenger conversations... Or EXTEND THEM!
I'm super-close to starting this podcast. Let's look at collaborating once I get www.Liberty.Wiki launched. It's sucking up all my time.
Only a male would think messenging every one or two months is excessive...LOL! And yes! I'll look forward to the podcast updates :)))
I never joined zuckPhuque. I smelled a rat back in '08. But who cares? Free Market Capitalism leaves plenty of room for competition... So on that note: Do you believe the company that runs Steemit (and I guess, DTube) has been providing a good alternative to FB and YT?
So far, I'm still a bit confused about how to make more money while doing just this, but I didn't come in here for that, so it hasn't bothered me just yet. When I find a millennial who wants to create another blogsite and make it "All Libertarian; All 24/7" I'll worry about it. I'm 62 and I have given up trying to keep with the techy advances which flow about every 3 weeks. ...uh, what's a "Discord"? LOL
Good article. Resteeming.
I’m not sure Steemit is a perfect replacement for Facebook. It’s. Lee of just a blog only site. There’s no way that grandma can come to Steemit and see the pictures I’m posting of my kids here.
LOL They are not interested in censoring gramma. LOL. And frankly, I'm glad gramma isn't clogging things up here in Steemit with her recipes for life. They didn't work!!! LOL In fact, if we are considering the women who went through high school between '55 and '65..... They made things WAAAAAAAY worse. And still remain CLUELESS. Just watch the glaze in their eyes when you bring a Red Pill to the dinner table!
When I applied to work at the CATO Institute
What are your thoughts on how this can turn?
Are you already off Facebook completely?
I’m still on Facebook and use it for two things, keeping in touch with friends and family and following some libertarian groups to see what the big news of the day is.
No Cato, here :P
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Excellent idea. Have you been following "the adventures of Adam Kokesh" yet? Former Marine... running for President in 2020; seeking the Libertarian Party nomination. Check this out:
Give it at least until the 8:05 mark to decide whether it's not worth a poop, or good enough to finish the presentation. Let us know what you think. Just "followed" you.
Oh... And I KNOW you will love what he intends to do about the VA problem!!!!
Yes Adam Kokesh is on our list.
hmmm. Why isn't he more active pursuing y'all's support? He could use your "army" to help put his solution to the communist VA system to rest. No? You could really benefit from using his mobility and ability. What a win-win situation! The GOP and Dems are just going to continue piling porkyPoop on the Vets. Even Trump, who campaigned on fixing the VA and Vet homeless problem is FAILING. Do you realize how easy it would be to "build that wall" in the form of apartments where retired homeless vets could be put to good use for the cost of 200 sq. feet and 3 squares delivered by some cute babes? Boom. Border guarded. (at least in the new nations which want this mass invasion of "illegals" halted!)