It’s not a matter of research, but of innovation around new services. Closing off API access makes that harder and was evil, according to all tech advocates. Same for Apple curating the store - closed! Evil! All the advocacy positions have swung around 180°, which is notable.
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Replying to @benedictevans @zeynep
Also seems like you are making a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” argument that is somehow rationalizing fb role that even fb is trying to reconcile (very sloppily).
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Replying to @grubercraft @zeynep
It’s pretty clear one reason FB failed to clamp down on fake news was that the entire community consensus was FB should not make decisions like that. That consensus was wrong. But it wasn’t only FB that was thinking like that.
3 replies 2 retweets 28 likes -
Replying to @benedictevans @grubercraft
Nope, they were afraid of the political backlash. And there was no such consensus; some people were begging Facebook to crack down on fake news before the election. I believe they thought that Clinton would win (as did everyone) and they would deal with this after the election.
2 replies 0 retweets 30 likes -
Replying to @zeynep @grubercraft
‘Facebook should not decide what I can share’ was an extreme widespread view.
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Replying to @benedictevans @grubercraft
Among some, yes, but it was based on multiple misunderstandings which Facebook perpetuates. One, it already decides what people effectively share (has since newsfeed went algorithmic) but buries that fact, and research shows most people have no idea. But that's not all.
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Replying to @zeynep @grubercraft
I think that’s a profound mis -characterization of what the newsfeed means. It’s like saying a fashion designer decides what we wear, or indeed, that an editor decides what we read. True day to day, misleading on any longer-term scale.
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Replying to @benedictevans @grubercraft
Fashion designers do not rearrange your closet every time you open it, nor have detailed inventory of your closet, nor can they monopolize the way an online social network can.
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Replying to @zeynep @grubercraft
Also, they sell you fabric. Well done. The point of the metaphor is that it is incomplete to claim Facebook controls what we share, even though they make the product. Just as it is incomplete to claim fashion industry decides what we wear, even though it makes the product.
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Replying to @benedictevans @grubercraft
I don’t see how fashion, an industry without network effects, asymmetric information, inverted customers/users (fashion sells to us; Facebook to advertisers), monopolistic structure (ads at scale; buy up competition) and without such political power is a good metaphor here.
3 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
Telephone business that also listens to what you say and can reorder your calls etc.—heck, I don’t think you have an appropriate metaphor. The claim isn’t Facebook decides what you like at some retail level—like fashion. It’s more a novel form of infrastructure.
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