Meta to get rid of factcheckers

HermitHogan said:
Facebook is going to become a total cesspool. I might take a look at BlueSky social media, (I think that's what it's called) which is an alternative to Facebook. Or is it an alternative to X? One of those.
Click to expand...
Facebook can be configured to your liking, but yea, there are a lot of garbage posters(everywhere on the internet, really) that you just have to filter out. Bluesky is still growing, but if you want to argue with morons then "X" is your best bet. "X" claims to be "free speech" but that's only if you agree with the owner's bias.
 

Nathan said:
Facebook can be configured to your liking, but yea, there are a lot of garbage posters(everywhere on the internet, really) that you just have to filter out. Bluesky is still growing, but if you want to argue with morons then "X" is your best bet. "X" claims to be "free speech" but that's only if you agree with the owner's bias.
Click to expand...
X is a good breaking news source but I agree with you about not disagreeing with the owner so it's really not free speech at all.
 
I use Facebook to keep connected to family only, except for a few FB Groups. Facebook is going downhill, but not as much as Twitter. Facebook recently started using AI characters (bots) to interact with people on one section of the site. Then there was a backlash because the bots lied too much. And then strangely enough, the bots admitted they were told to lie. Well, I think bots were created to lie, so no surprise there.
I don't like to communicate with bots or Siri or such, so avoid them as much as humanly possible. Also, Z Is selling off large chunks of the business to right wing people and businesses. I haven't noticed any censorship or propaganda lately and prefer as little politics on either side as possible, so that part is okay now, but it will likely get worse. I am on Reddit, which seems okay right now. Bluesky has a lot of refugees from Twitter censorship and propaganda, as far as I can tell. I joined lately to check it out...a bit early to know yet.
 
dilettante said:
It's a positive move. Something else desperately needed is to boot out the "curating" done to Wikipedia articles.
Click to expand...

I hate that Wikipedia has become politically biased. Even as an Independent who has viewpoints that don’t fit neatly into ideological boxes, I find the spin irritating. Can’t imagine how off putting it is to those to the right of me. The fact that it’s user generated content is glaringly obvious.

I use it for basic things like historical dates but the liberal bias has gotten blatant the last few years.
 
HermitHogan said:
Mark Zuckerberg says company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across Facebook, Instagram and Threads

Meta will get rid of factcheckers and “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced.
Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content

More reasons to stay away from Facebook, and I have no idea what Instagram and Threads are.
Click to expand...

Master of Library and Information Science degree holder here who abhors censorship (with a very few exceptions) so I don’t see this as a bad thing.

Meta is replacing censorship with community notes which will allow users to mark posts they find to be in error which will greatly open up more honest discourse than has been allowed in recent years.

Meta is moving its censorship focus to criminal posts which I’m guessing refers to, or at least includes, child pornography… content Zuckerberg has not policed seriously enough in the past.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad they are going to stop doing that. I think it's automated because I posted a clean joke on there and they said it was not true and said they would be watching my posts. It was a silly joke.
 
AnnieA said:
I hate that Wikipedia has become politically biased. Even as an Independent who has viewpoints that don’t fit neatly into ideological boxes, I find the spin irritating. Can’t imagine how off putting it is to those to the right of me. The fact that it’s user generated content is glaringly obvious.

I use it for basic things like historical dates but the liberal bias has gotten blatant the last few years.
Click to expand...
Wikipedia struggles to keep those with politically biased agendas from posting propaganda laden articles.
 
LoveTulips said:
Never check any news on FB or anything important on FB. I'm just in a number of art/crafts FB groups. I don't even use my real name.
Click to expand...
Canada removed all news taken from legitimate News sites years ago. There was lots of bellyaching by folks who said they had no longer had a source for news. 😂

There are some medical discussion groups that I wished I’d found a few years ago.

My family and friends groups won’t care about the fact checking. We’ll still be able to chat.
 
One day facebook will decide I want to watch John Wayne movies, then the next day show me Kung Fu movies, then the next day who knows. I can understand new Netflix shows trying to get people interested, but not old stuff. I have learned that if you scroll and pause, at all, facebook knows, and decides they found an interest.
 
AnnieA said:
I hate that Wikipedia has become politically biased. Even as an Independent who has viewpoints that don’t fit neatly into ideological boxes, I find the spin irritating. Can’t imagine how off putting it is to those to the right of me. The fact that it’s user generated content is glaringly obvious.

I use it for basic things like historical dates but the liberal bias has gotten blatant the last few years.
Click to expand...
Can you provide an example of their bias? If it's that "blatant," it should be too hard.
 
AnnieA said:
Master of Library and Information Science degree holder here who abhors censorship (with a very few exceptions) so I don’t see this as a bad thing.

Meta is replacing censorship with community notes which will allow users to mark posts they find to be in error which will greatly open up more honest discourse than has been allowed in recent years.
Click to expand...
Sure it will. :rolleyes:
 
HermitHogan said:
Mark Zuckerberg says company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across Facebook, Instagram and Threads

Meta will get rid of factcheckers and “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads, founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced.
Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content

More reasons to stay away from Facebook, and I have no idea what Instagram and Threads are.
Click to expand...

I can barely believe how ass-backwards this is.

Stating, and verifying FACTS, is never censorship. Holding people to an accurate representation of facts and what they mean is what I'd call an adult conversation. So, they appear to be encouraging the propagation of nonsense rather than have a (virtual) societal norm.

Now, when he says he's getting rid of "factcheckers" most likely means that the role is being moved to an AI model, putting humans out of work.

As for the politics - what is recommended on the platform is done by an algorythm. So quite what he means here I don't know. It's not like they publish the details of how their algorythm works. But let's be perfectly honest here - the algorythm on most sites (if not all) is simply pushing more of them same at you. If you're right wing politically, then it'll push more right wing material to you. If left, then left.

This can become an issue if what you're looking at is suspect. For example, this is why groups like Flat Earthers think their belief is more widespread than it actually is - most of what they see is supporting their own belief. It's a virtual echo chamber.
 
The United States is moving to an oligarchy. Misinformation and confusion is part of the plan. Zuckerberg an oligarch, Revolution of the Super Rich. The crushed 99% have hope to one day join them, so this delusion helps to help those stepping on their throats.
 
Pepper said:
The United States is moving to an oligarchy. Misinformation and confusion is part of the plan. Zuckerberg an oligarch, Revolution of the Super Rich. The crushed 99% have hope to one day join them, so this delusion helps to help those stepping on their throats.
Click to expand...

Tbf, this is happening all over the globe. Social Media has poisoned the well, all under the guise of being well informed.

The world is in a very bad place right now and one can only hope it's part of a cycle. In more recent times, those in control/power have realized that there is more money to be had from the stone, and they continue to squeeze. It's a sad state of affairs.
 
I never considered Facebook as an accurate source of any information.The “fact checkers” they had were certainly not doing much of a job as there are so many postings and even PAID ads with absolute lies. For example, I would sometimes see an ad claiming a famous LIVING celebrity just died. And many other Click-bait promotions and videos posting outrageously false or ridiculous information for the sake of generating a lot of views and comments.

Facebook is good for keeping up with family and your own special interest groups. For everything else it is a garbage pit.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I’m not concerned about this because I was taught to think for myself and be a bit skeptical.

I am concerned that we haven’t done a good job in passing those basic skills on to the generations that follow us.

“Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation.” - Arthur Conan Doyle
Click to expand...
You have a point there.
After I had an 18 year old college student, member of a family in education from faculty to board members of well established secondary institutions, throw a temper fit when she claimed the Statue of Liberty has chains around her ankles. But UTube ... .
 
Aunt Bea said:
I’m not concerned about this because I was taught to think for myself and be a bit skeptical.
Click to expand...
That's not really the point.

Anything that didn't fit the narrative on FB got replaced by a blob-blurb saying it was false. You never saw the contents.

As far as I know the only "algorithm" might have been ranking the "infractions" to decide when your social media score became too low and you were blocked from posting for a time.
 
dilettante said:
That's not really the point.

Anything that didn't fit the narrative on FB got replaced by a blob-blurb saying it was false. You never saw the contents.

As far as I know the only "algorithm" might have been ranking the "infractions" to decide when your social media score became too low and you were blocked from posting for a time.
Click to expand...
Agree. If you didn't fit into the "group think" you were excluded or punished. Zero freedom of speech, unless it was what they want YOU to conform to.
 
It’s a business, we are free to ‘enjoy’ FB or go our own way.

I’ve been able to interact with family and friends without any attempts to censure or silence me.

My only complaint is FB’s efforts to feed me things that they have decided will be of interest to me.

So far, I’ve been able to flush out the irrelevant content every so often.
 
I'm sure it is tough, but students are finding ways to deprogram themselves from the toxic thinking they were indoctrinated in:


Shockingly, the same thing seems to have been done to many adults through overexposure to mass media and social media echo chambers.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top