{"id":1447,"date":"2021-11-25T03:51:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T02:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/25\/three-hours-after-the-rittenhouse-verdict-conservative-pages-ruled-facebooks-engagement-algorithms-by-a-factor-of-nine-to-one-indy-week\/"},"modified":"2021-11-25T03:51:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T02:51:27","slug":"three-hours-after-the-rittenhouse-verdict-conservative-pages-ruled-facebooks-engagement-algorithms-by-a-factor-of-nine-to-one-indy-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/25\/three-hours-after-the-rittenhouse-verdict-conservative-pages-ruled-facebooks-engagement-algorithms-by-a-factor-of-nine-to-one-indy-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Hours After the Rittenhouse Verdict, Conservative Pages Ruled Facebook&#039;s Engagement Algorithms by a Factor of Nine to One &#8211; INDY Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p><span>To look at Facebook\u2019s data about user interactions\u2014which reflects the engagement of its users with content worldwide\u2014is to find oneself in a universe where American conservative voices dominate.<\/span><br \/>by      <a href=\"https:\/\/indyweek.com\/topics\/john-byrne\/\" rel=\"author\" itemprop=\"author\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">John Byrne<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"John Byrne\" \/><\/a> <br \/>Nov. 24, 2021<br \/>6:00 a.m.<br \/>Courtesy of Raw Story.\u00a0<br \/><strong>Last Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Facebook page<\/strong> had the most interactions in the world. \u201cLet\u2019s chase what we are trying to achieve this season!\u201d he exclaimed.<br \/>The Portuguese soccer star\u2019s post, however, was an island in a partisan sea. The next six most engaged posts came from outspoken American conservatives cheering the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse for the murder of two men at a Wisconsin protest. Looking at shared links, conservatives\u2019 Facebook dominance was even more stark\u201418 of the top 20 most engaged page links in the world originated from conservative Facebook pages.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s largest leak in history focused on the company\u2019s past. Missing, however, from the coverage of a Facebook whistle-blower has been a focus on Facebook\u2019s present.<br \/>To look at Facebook\u2019s data about user interactions\u2014which reflects the engagement of its users with content worldwide\u2014is to find oneself in a universe where American conservative voices dominate. While Facebook claims to host a diverse spectrum of 2 billion users, its daily engagement ranking exposes how right-wing actors eclipse all other media conversations atop its algorithm.<br \/>Three hours after 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of the murder of two men at a Wisconsin protest, Facebook lit up with a panoply of conservative pages cheering the teen\u2019s exoneration. Even a cursory glance at the scoreboard\u2014the top 20 most engaged link shares by pages in the world\u2014suggests that Facebook has become a town square for right-wing American voices. Ninety percent of Facebook\u2019s most engaged pages linking out to other websites were conservative pages, with just two mainstream sources\u2014NPR and NBC News\u2014eking out a place on the list.<br \/>Twenty-four hours after the verdict, conservative pages gave up some ground. But while link posts from Myanmar, Great Britain, and Qatar joined the list (at 17, 18, and 19), conservative American pages still held 15 of the top 20 posts, and 90 percent of the top 10\u2014worldwide.<br \/>Even though Facebook banned former president Donald Trump after the January 6 riot at the Capitol, a Donald Trump for President page beat out all mainstream news outlets, twice, in the three hours after the verdict. NPR and NBC came in at 14 and 17, behind Donald Trump for President at positions seven and eight.<br \/>\u201cKyle should spend the next year suing the absolute pants off of every news outlet that defamed him,\u201d one Trump for President post read. There is no indication former president Trump is involved with the page.<br \/>Also trumping NPR and NBC\u2014three different times\u2014was Dan Bongino, a three-time failed congressional candidate, former police officer, and Secret Service agent, who is now a conservative radio host. Bongino had also captured five of the top ten most engaged slots the prior day.<br \/>Facebook reveals daily user engagement data through CrowdTangle, a tool publishers use to get insight into what\u2019s trending. For the past several years, <em>New York Times<\/em> reporter Kevin Roose has tweeted \u201cFacebook\u2019s Top 10,\u201d a daily list of pages atop Facebook\u2019s engagement algorithm. Roose\u2019s list reveals how often conservative pages win in Facebook\u2019s interaction metrics.<br \/>Facebook has repeatedly said engagement data does not reflect how often content appears in users\u2019 news feeds.<br \/>In August, Facebook released a report showing that recipes and cute animals ranked among the most viewed items on the platform. The report was undermined by <em>The New York Times<\/em>, which revealed the company had shelved an earlier analysis showing the most viewed link was \u201ca news article with a headline suggesting that the coronavirus vaccine was at fault for the death of a Florida doctor.\u201d Facebook then released the earlier report.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s third-quarter report appeared to support the company\u2019s claims that the most viewed content isn\u2019t partisan. The most widely viewed domains included YouTube, GoFundMe, and Amazon, and the most popular posts were memes. Only the anti-China page, Epoch Times, which spreads right-wing conspiracy theories, stood out among the top 20 most seen U.S. pages.<br \/>A former Facebook executive who spoke to <em>Raw Story <\/em>criticized the company\u2019s transparency reports. The executive noted that Facebook had only released a tiny amount of data; the reports only show the top 20 in any category.<br \/>Better reporting, the executive said, would include not simply what was popular\u2014but where, including different geographic areas of the United States. Facebook should also reveal what content gets distributed to which demographics, the executive said, as well as more current data to allow analysis of \u201ctrends and pockets of trends\u201d on Facebook.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s most engaged link shared by a page after Rittenhouse\u2019s acquittal was posted by Bongino, the conservative talk show host. Bongino\u2019s Facebook post linked to a video where a crowd outside the courthouse cheered to a chant of \u201cFreedom wins! Freedom wins! Freedom wins!\u201d followed by another man screaming, \u201cSecond Amendment stays!\u201d<br \/>Bongino has more monthly Facebook engagement than <em>The New York Times<\/em>, <em>The Washington Post<\/em>, and CNN combined. Asked why he\u2019s so popular on Facebook, he said, \u201cI think people just love the message.\u201d Bongino has promoted conspiracy theories, including allegations that Democrats spied on former president Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign, and falsely asserted that masks are \u201clargely ineffective\u201d at preventing the spread of COVID-19.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s second- and third-most engaged post after the Rittenhouse verdict came from Ben Shapiro, founder of the conservative news site <em>The Daily Wire<\/em>. \u201cNot guilty was the correct verdict,\u201d Shapiro\u2019s page wrote. \u201cAnyone with a prefrontal cortex who had watched the trial for more than 30 seconds knew this. Anyone who says differently is a lying hack.\u201d<br \/>\u201cJustice was served,\u201d Shapiro\u2019s page added in another post. \u201cThe Left accepting the verdict in a peaceable manner remains the sizable elephant in the room.\u201d<br \/>The <em>Daily Wire<\/em> article linked asserted that social media was celebrating Rittenhouse\u2019s not-guilty verdict\u2014which was true, at least on Facebook.<br \/>\u201cJoe Biden, CNN, MSNBC, and the Democrat establishment should apologize for lying about Rittenhouse as a \u2018racist\u2019 and \u2018school shooter\u2019 and \u2018white supremacist\u2019 for months,\u201d the author wrote, quoting conservative radio host Buck Sexton. \u201cBut they won\u2019t, because they have no honor and don\u2019t care about the destruction they constantly incite.\u201d<br \/>\u201cThese jurors are patriots,\u201d Sexton continued. \u201cThey chose honor, truth and love of country over the whims of the vicious Leftist mob.\u201d<br \/><em>The Daily Wire<\/em>\u2019s article was the most engaged news article linked from a Facebook page in the three hours following the verdict.<br \/><em>The Daily Wire<\/em>\u2019s success is linked to the fact that the company controls multiple Facebook pages. At least eight have more than 500,000 followers, including Daily Wire, The Angry Patriot, Fed Up Americans, The Real Patriots, Matt Walsh, and Donald Trump Is My President. It also controls pages with more than 100,000 followers: Conservative News, The Conservative, Boycott, The Right News, Restless Patriot, Pro-America News, and The United Patriots.<br \/>Shapiro\u2019s own page, with 8 million followers, is run by <em>The Daily Wire<\/em>, which describes itself as \u201cone of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment.\u201d The site is owned by Shapiro, his editorial partners, and self-made fracking billionaires.<br \/><em>The Daily Wire<\/em> was forced to acknowledge ownership of its other Facebook pages after an expos\u00e9 by <em>Popular Information<\/em>. Facebook acknowledged the pages engaged in deceptive coordinated sharing that violated its rules but allowed them to continue to operate. During the Trump administration, Shapiro was among a number of conservatives who had private dinners with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.<br \/>While Facebook correctly notes that engagement and views are different, data CrowdTangle releases about videos reveals total views. That data shows that conservatives won that race as well.<br \/>Eight of the 10 most popular videos posted about the Rittenhouse trial in the first three hours were posted by conservative pages. Conservative pages\u2019 videos received 87 percent of views. A liberal political page, Occupy Democrats, captured 13 percent. Occupy Democrats had the eighth- and ninth-most popular videos about the trial.<br \/>Eighteen of the top 20 videos\u2014or 90 percent\u2014related to the trial by engagement were posted by conservative pages.<br \/>Twitter\u2019s algorithmic response to the verdict was more balanced. Five hours after the verdict, Kyle Rittenhouse and Kenosha ranked as number one and two most trending topics. \u201cNOT GUILTY\u201d was celebrated among some of the tweets, but Twitter\u2019s number five topic referenced Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who said Rittenhouse\u2019s acquittal was a \u201cmiscarriage of justice.\u201d<br \/>On Twitter, Black Lives Matter landed in eighth. On Facebook, Black Lives Matter\u2014or any page affiliated with Black empowerment\u2014didn\u2019t appear anywhere in the top 100 most engaged public page posts.\u00a0<br \/><em>This article originally appeared on Raw Story.<\/em><br \/><strong><em>Support independent local journalism<\/em><\/strong><em>. <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/pico.link\/indyweek\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Join the INDY Press Club<\/em><\/strong><\/a><em> to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.\u00a0<\/em><br \/><em>Comment on this story at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:backtalk@indyweek.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>backtalk@indyweek.com<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em><br \/>by      <a href=\"https:\/\/indyweek.com\/topics\/john-byrne\/\" rel=\"author\"        >John Byrne<\/a> <br \/>Nov. 24, 2021<br \/>6:00 a.m.<br \/>\u00a9 2021 Indy Week \u2022 320 E. Chapel Hill St., Suite 200, Durham, NC 27701 \u2022 phone 919-286-1972 \u2022 fax 919-286-4274<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indyweek.com\/news\/three-hours-after-the-rittenhouse-verdict-conservative-pages-ruled-facebook-engagement-algorithm\/\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To look at Facebook\u2019s data about user interactions\u2014which reflects the engagement of its users with content worldwide\u2014is to find oneself in a universe where American conservative voices dominate.by John Byrne Nov. 24, 20216:00 a.m.Courtesy of Raw Story.\u00a0Last Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s Facebook page had the most interactions in the world. \u201cLet\u2019s chase what we are trying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}