they typed "Holocaust" in fb search box and got suggestions for pages denying Holocaust. So they concluded that Facebook alogorithms promote Holocaust denial but did not check if there is actually any reachable alternative content for the keyword "Holocaust". I don't think facebook users created any educative pages about Holocaust.
> Facebook algorithm found to 'actively promote' Holocaust denial
> Similar content is also readily accessible across Twitter, YouTube and Reddit, says UK-based counter-extremist group
Reminds me of back when Foxconn was the big media story and every article lead with "Apple uses child labor" (Subtitle: also every other company uses Foxconn too)
It's good that holocaust denial is called out but problem is on YouTube and Reddit it is easy to find a lot of left wing extremism (calls for violent overthrow of society, black racial supremacy etc) that is not only present but implicitly endorsed both by those platforms and media institutions such as the guardian.
For American companies I'd imagine the violent overthrow of society being a centrist thing? Washington, for instance is celebrated, and the violent overthrow of Iraqi society was a bipartisan affair.
Characterizing black racial supremacy as left wing extremism also sounds strange; supremacy infers a hierarchy based society which is antithetical to what leftists want. Extreme something, but maybe just another form of extreme right wing politics?
I think its the support for black supremacy that would be considered as left wing extremism, not black supremacy itself. Supporting a movement which is anti-normal supports their causes. Any movement which upends the status quo is fair. They are trying to destroy the current society itself, not to support something which creates societal value.
> ...a hierarchy based society which is antithetical to what leftists want.
Americans are weird because of the two-party system. "Left" and "Right" are classically about economic theories, specifically, collective vs individual ownership. Another axis that's become confounded is the libertarian / authoritarian axis. In the US, the Libertarian party is fairly right-leaning; many modern socialists are left-leaning libertarians. There are quite a few historical examples of atrocities at the hands of authoritarians on both the left and the right. There does seem to be some correlation between left/libertarian and right/authoritarian, but best Biden/Harris represent the authoritarian aspect of the Democrats and neither of them is remotely leftist.
"Actively promote" meaning being treated no different than any other content, unless the article omitted some information about that study. Perhaps technically true, but still a highly misleading title.
What does “actively promote” mean here? The article doesn’t seem to have evidence of this. It seems more like “we found a nonzero amount of holocaust denial content”.
How much holocaust denial content should one expect to find? The internet has increasingly normalized nonsense. I'll bet plenty of people, post- the advent of social media, would think 25%, for example, would be perfectly reasonable.
How much would one find in the pages of a newspaper, transcripts of a public conference, or publications in a university library? Would it even be 1%?
If this new normal on social media is enlightening people and making the world a better place, one would expect to see it reflected in the world around us. I don't think the general consensus is that society has been making big strides in a good direction, over the past decade.
Okay, I can't go all the way, and describe it as grossly misleading, but "actively promote" uses too strong an adverb. So, I'll concede that, strictly speaking, the headline is misleading.
On the other hand, if a reader gets the impression that Zuckerberg and the other social media CEOs, to the extent that they can get away with it, signal-boost holocaust denial (and propaganda from hate-groups, in general), recent history speaks for itself.
So if someone asked me to rewrite the title, I would go with "passively promote."
Surely the tech-minded folks of HN understand that this doesn't actually occur under any reasonable definition of "active." This article is a clear example of how the media twists reality due to their lack of understanding and/or maliciousness.
>> Researchers found that when they followed public Facebook pages containing Holocaust denial content, Facebook recommended further similar content.
I can understand that being precise is crucial when making statements like this but instead of getting hung up on that detail, the tech-minded folks of HN would also understand the main argument about the perinicious effect of such feedback of "similar content" reinforcing the false beliefs and conspiracies.
They wanted a shitty paper on holocaust denial that the trailer park trash can froth at the mouth about how evil it all is and the newspaper got it's clicks.
Pretty good AI, delivered exactly what everyone wanted.
18 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 36.8 ms ] thread> Facebook algorithm found to 'actively promote' Holocaust denial > Similar content is also readily accessible across Twitter, YouTube and Reddit, says UK-based counter-extremist group
Reminds me of back when Foxconn was the big media story and every article lead with "Apple uses child labor" (Subtitle: also every other company uses Foxconn too)
Characterizing black racial supremacy as left wing extremism also sounds strange; supremacy infers a hierarchy based society which is antithetical to what leftists want. Extreme something, but maybe just another form of extreme right wing politics?
Americans are weird because of the two-party system. "Left" and "Right" are classically about economic theories, specifically, collective vs individual ownership. Another axis that's become confounded is the libertarian / authoritarian axis. In the US, the Libertarian party is fairly right-leaning; many modern socialists are left-leaning libertarians. There are quite a few historical examples of atrocities at the hands of authoritarians on both the left and the right. There does seem to be some correlation between left/libertarian and right/authoritarian, but best Biden/Harris represent the authoritarian aspect of the Democrats and neither of them is remotely leftist.
How much would one find in the pages of a newspaper, transcripts of a public conference, or publications in a university library? Would it even be 1%?
If this new normal on social media is enlightening people and making the world a better place, one would expect to see it reflected in the world around us. I don't think the general consensus is that society has been making big strides in a good direction, over the past decade.
On the other hand, if a reader gets the impression that Zuckerberg and the other social media CEOs, to the extent that they can get away with it, signal-boost holocaust denial (and propaganda from hate-groups, in general), recent history speaks for itself.
So if someone asked me to rewrite the title, I would go with "passively promote."
I can understand that being precise is crucial when making statements like this but instead of getting hung up on that detail, the tech-minded folks of HN would also understand the main argument about the perinicious effect of such feedback of "similar content" reinforcing the false beliefs and conspiracies.
Pretty good AI, delivered exactly what everyone wanted.