These kinds of headlines—"Here’s How Facebook’s Local News Algorithm Change Led To The Worst Riots Paris Has Seen In 50 Years"—and reporting largely unfounded and irresponsible. What about the evidence here is convincing?pic.twitter.com/3nQHqLVkAG
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @UNC professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter is @insight: http://www.theinsight.org
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These kinds of headlines—"Here’s How Facebook’s Local News Algorithm Change Led To The Worst Riots Paris Has Seen In 50 Years"—and reporting largely unfounded and irresponsible. What about the evidence here is convincing?pic.twitter.com/3nQHqLVkAG
Perhaps an example of bombast & overconfidence in reporting about Facebook @antoniogm
(link: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/france-paris-yellow-jackets-facebook …)
Agree it's overstated but Facebook seemingly played a critical role, no? To me, how much the algorithm change affected the organizing of the groups and the resulting riots is a second order question compared to the role of the platform itself. (cc: @BuzzFeedBen @broderick)
though, granted, the effect of the platform is a much harder one to answer
The reporting in the story is pretty specific and compelling. Nobody is suggesting that it exists outside the context of French history and politics.
So these protests wouldn't be happening if there hadn't been this algorithm change? I don't see any reporting that provides evidence for that, except that there was a recent publicly announced algorithm change.
"Ceteris paribus: these protests would not be happening if not for the algorithm change" is not a possible standard for evaluating human affairs barring multiple universes. How could you ever prove that? Reformation? Maybe happens without the printing press, too.
If they are organizing on Facebook, FB is part of the causal chain—and just like any big affair, it's one contributing factor among multiple dynamics, interacting with them all. Movements live or die by visibility, so if FB group visibility is increased, that's part of the story.
That said, I don't like the title of the piece. Too strong in my view. (I now negotiate title veto on writing contracts, well, partly because the need to go viral on Facebook/Twitter favors edgier and bolder claims in titles
).
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