Social Network Algorithms Are Distorting Reality By Boosting Conspiracy Theories

[HuckleB]

Talk of Facebook's anticonservative stance is in the news, but the issue of what news social networks choose to show us is much broader than that. Just ask the anti-vaxxers.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3059742/social-network-algorithms-are-distorting-reality-by-boosting-conspiracy-theories

"After an anonymous source alleged that Facebook's Trending News algorithm (and human staff) was intentionally hiding conservative news from the social network, all hell broke loose. Congressional hearings have been called. Whether the reports are right—and whether hearings are justified—underneath the uproar is a largely unspoken truth: The algorithms that drive social networks are shifting the reality of our political systems—and not for the better.

Algorithms, network effects, and zero-cost publishing are enabling crackpot theories to go viral. The filter bubble—the idea that online recommendation engines learn what we like and thus keep us only reading things we agree with—has evolved. Algorithms, network effects, and zero-cost publishing are enabling crackpot theories to go viral, and—unchecked—these ideas are impacting the decisions of policy makers and shaping public opinion, whether they are verified or not.

...

The problem is that social-web activity is notorious for an asymmetry of passion. On many issues, the most active social media voices are the conspiracist fringe. The majority of people know that vaccines don't cause autism, and that 9/11 was not an inside job. They don't dedicate hours to creating content or tweeting to reinforce the obvious. But passionate truthers and extremists produce copious amounts of content in their commitment to "wake up the sheeple." Last month, for example, a study looked at the relative percentages of pro-vaccine vs. anti-vaccine content on Pinterest and Instagram; 75% of the immunization-related pinned content was opposed to vaccines. This was a dramatic shift from studies of social networks in the early 2000s, when the percentage of negative content was estimated at around 25%.

...

But we have to start somewhere. As Eli Pariser said: "We really need you to make sure that these algorithms have encoded in them a sense of the public life, a sense of civic responsibility. We need you to make sure that they're transparent enough that we can see what the rules are that determine what gets through our filters." The Internet isn’t separate from the real world; building the web we want is building the future we want."

-------------------------------------


This is a much bigger story than the possibility that some fiction-based conservative sites were not promoted at Facebook.

But...

[FLPanhandle]

1. The old saying about Conspriacy loons.

If aliens did suddenly and publicly land on Earth, there would be conspiracy theories that it was all faked by the government.

[HuckleB]

3. Absolutely.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. is a conspiracy theory.

[Fumesucker]

4. We can talk about how they got that way later but now is time to bring the superpredators to heel...

Damn internet, boosting wacky, unscientific ideas into the mainstream, verily unto the point the wife of the President believes them and they are used to set policy that has an effect on millions of lives.

Not to mention that waking up the sheeple is a chancy business.

[HuckleB]

5. One of my favorite toons ever!