Facebook Biased? Social Media Are Objective, Correct?
May 21, 2016
I am shattered. Imagine. Facebook delivering information services which are subjective. Facebook is social media at its finest. There are humans who “vote” or “like” something. That’s crowdsourcing. A person has built a career on the wisdom of crowds.
My illusionary social world crumbled before the information presented in “The Real Bias Built In at Facebook.” The author is an academic and opinion writer. I am confident that the students of Zeynep Tufekci are able to navigate the reefs and shoals of social media because the truth is that algorithms are set up by humans who are, as some people believe, biased. (Note that you may have to pay money to read the write up by the compensated opinion writer Zeynep Tufekci. There is no bias in this approach to information. Heck, there is no bias at the New York Times, correct?)
What is Facebook doing? Here’s a passage I circled in stunned scarlet:
On Facebook the goal is to maximize your engagement with the site and keep it ad friendly.
This suggests that algorithms are set up to deliver these payoffs to Facebook. It follows that algorithms which do not deliver the required outcome are changed by programmers who:
- Either tune or structure the numerical processes to bring home the bacon
- Engage in on going tinkering until the suite of algorithms pumps out the likes, the clicks, and the revenue.
My thought is that chatter about “algorithms” is a bit trendy, just like the railroad cars stuffed with baloney explaining how artificial intelligence is the now now now big thing. Big Data, it seems, has fallen to second place in the marketing marathon.
I prefer to believe that Facebook, Google, and the other combines are really trying to be objective. When someone suggests that Google results are not in line with my query or that my deceased dog’s Facebook page displays a stream of relevant information, there is no bias.
My world is a happier place. I like searching for a restaurant when I am standing in front of it. When I look for that restaurant on my smartphone, the restaurant does not appear.
That’s objectivity in action. I know I don’t need to know where the restaurant is. I am in front of it. That’s objectivity in action.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2016
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