{"id":662,"date":"2021-11-19T01:26:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/facebook-debates-what-to-do-with-its-like-and-share-buttons-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2021-11-19T01:26:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:26:39","slug":"facebook-debates-what-to-do-with-its-like-and-share-buttons-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/facebook-debates-what-to-do-with-its-like-and-share-buttons-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Debates What to Do With Its Like and Share Buttons &#8211; The New York Times"},"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>Advertisement<br \/>Supported by<br \/>The Facebook Papers<br \/>Likes and shares made the social media site what it is. Now, company documents show, it\u2019s struggling to deal with their effects.<br \/><strong>Send any friend a story<\/strong><br \/>As a subscriber, you have <strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">10 gift articles<\/strong> to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.<br \/><span class=\"byline-prefix\">By <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/mike-isaac\" class=\"css-mrorfa e1jsehar0\">Mike Isaac<\/a><\/span><br \/>SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 In 2019, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/26\/technology\/facebook-young-people.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> researchers began a new study of one of the social network\u2019s foundational features: the Like button.<br \/>They examined what people would do if <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/09\/26\/technology\/facebook-hidden-likes.html\" title=\"\">Facebook removed the distinct thumbs-up icon<\/a> and other emoji reactions from posts on its photo-sharing app Instagram, according to company documents. The buttons had sometimes caused Instagram\u2019s youngest users \u201cstress and anxiety,\u201d the researchers found, especially if posts didn\u2019t get enough Likes from friends.<br \/>But the researchers discovered that when the Like button was hidden, users interacted less with posts and ads. At the same time, it did not alleviate teenagers\u2019 social anxiety and young users did not share more photos, as the company thought they might, leading to a mixed bag of results.<br \/><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/21\/technology\/zuckerberg-facebook-project-amplify.html\" title=\"\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, Facebook\u2019s chief executive, and other managers discussed hiding the Like button for more Instagram users, according to the documents. In the end, a larger test was rolled out <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/17\/business\/instagram-likes.html\" title=\"\">in just a limited capacity<\/a> to \u201cbuild a positive press narrative\u201d around Instagram.<br \/> \tFrom the Document: Project Daisy Mark Review &#8211; Version as Presented to Mark Deck <br \/> \t<em>Messaging<\/em> <br \/> \t\u2022 We\u2019re making like counts private for everyone on Instagram &#8211; they\u2019re not going away, just becoming private <br \/> \t<strong>\u2022 Teens feel a real \u2018pressure to be perfect\u2019 on Instagram <\/strong> <br \/> \t<strong>\u2022 We hope making like counts private will help reduce that pressure <\/strong> <br \/> \t\u2022 The Facebook app is a different experience we\u2019re not planning to roll it out there <br \/> \t\u2022 People are not particularly worried about how many likes they get on Facebook <br \/>The research on the Like button was an example of how <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/29\/technology\/meta-facebook-zuckerberg.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> has questioned the bedrock features of social networking. As the company has confronted crisis after crisis on <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/24\/technology\/facebook-election-misinformation.html\" title=\"\">misinformation<\/a>, privacy and <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/11\/technology\/facebook-soccer-racism.html\" title=\"\">hate speech<\/a>, a central issue has been whether the basic way that the platform works has been at fault \u2014 essentially, the features that have made Facebook be Facebook.<br \/>Apart from the Like button, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/29\/technology\/meta-facebook-zuckerberg.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> has scrutinized its share button, which lets users instantly spread content posted by other people; its <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/05\/technology\/stop-the-steal-facebook-group.html\" title=\"\">groups<\/a> feature, which is used to form digital communities; and other tools that define how more than 3.5 billion people behave and interact online. The research, laid out in thousands of pages of internal documents, underlines how the company has repeatedly <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/09\/21\/technology\/facebook-frankenstein-sandberg-ads.html\" title=\"\">grappled with what it has created<\/a>.<br \/>What researchers found was often far from positive. Time and again, they determined that people misused key features or that those features amplified toxic content, among other effects. In an August 2019 internal memo, several researchers said it was Facebook\u2019s \u201ccore product mechanics\u201d \u2014 meaning the basics of how the product functioned \u2014 that had let misinformation and hate speech flourish on the site.<br \/>\u201cThe mechanics of our platform are not neutral,\u201d they concluded.<br \/> \tFrom the Document: What Is Collateral Damage <br \/> \t\u201cWe also have compelling evidence that our core product mechanics, such as virality, recommendations, and optimizing for engagement, are a significant part of why these types of speech flourish on the platform.\u201d <br \/> \t\u201cIf integrity takes a hands-off stance for these problems, whether for technical (precision) or philosophical reasons, then the net result is that Facebook, taken as a whole, will be actively (if not necessarily consciously) promoting these types of activities. <strong>The mechanics of our platform are not neutral<\/strong>.\u201d <br \/>The documents \u2014 which include slide decks, internal discussion threads, charts, memos and presentations \u2014 do not show what actions Facebook took after receiving the findings. In recent years, the company has changed some features, making it easier for people to <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/help\/268028706671439\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">hide posts<\/a> they do not want to see and turning off <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-facebook-groups\/facebook-says-it-will-permanently-stop-recommending-political-groups-to-users-idUSKBN29X00C\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">political group recommendations<\/a> to reduce the spread of misinformation.<br \/>But the core way that Facebook operates \u2014 a network where information can spread rapidly and where people can accumulate friends and followers and Likes \u2014 ultimately remains largely unchanged.<br \/>Many significant modifications to the social network were blocked in the service of growth and keeping users engaged, some current and former executives said. Facebook is valued at more than $900 billion.<br \/>\u201cThere\u2019s a gap between the fact that you can have pretty open conversations inside of Facebook as an employee,\u201d said Brian Boland, a Facebook vice president who left last year. \u201cActually getting change done can be much harder.\u201d<br \/>The company documents are part of the <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/facebook-papers-takeaways.html\" title=\"\">Facebook Papers<\/a>, a cache provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to Congress by a lawyer representing <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html?partner=IFTTT\" title=\"\">Frances Haugen<\/a>, a former Facebook employee who has become a whistle-blower. Ms. Haugen earlier gave the documents to <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-facebook-files-11631713039\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a>. This month, a congressional staff member supplied the redacted disclosures to more than a dozen other news organizations, including The New York Times.<br \/>In a statement, Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman, criticized articles based on the documents, saying that they were built on a \u201cfalse premise.\u201d<br \/>\u201cYes, we\u2019re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people\u2019s safety or well-being misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie,\u201d he said. He said Facebook had invested $13 billion and hired more than 40,000 people to keep people safe, adding that the company has called \u201cfor updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere.\u201d<br \/>In a <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/4\/posts\/10113961365418581\/?d=n\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">post<\/a> this month, Mr. Zuckerberg said it was \u201cdeeply illogical\u201d that the company would give priority to harmful content because Facebook\u2019s advertisers don\u2019t want to buy ads on a platform that spreads hate and misinformation.<br \/>\u201cAt the most basic level, I think most of us just don\u2019t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted,\u201d he wrote.<br \/>When Mr. Zuckerberg founded Facebook 17 years ago in his Harvard University dorm room, the site\u2019s mission was to connect people on college campuses and bring them into digital groups with common interests and locations.<br \/>Growth exploded in 2006 when Facebook introduced the News Feed, a central stream of photos, videos and status updates posted by people\u2019s friends. Over time, the company added more features to keep people interested in spending time on the platform.<br \/>In 2009, Facebook introduced the Like button. The tiny thumbs-up symbol, a simple indicator of people\u2019s preferences, became one of the social network\u2019s most important features. The company allowed other websites to adopt the Like button so users could share their interests back to their Facebook profiles.<br \/>That gave Facebook insight into people\u2019s activities and sentiments outside of its own site, so it could better target them with advertising. Likes also signified what users wanted to see more of in their News Feeds so people would spend more time on Facebook.<br \/>Facebook also added the groups feature, where people join private communication channels to talk about specific interests, and pages, which allowed businesses and celebrities to amass large fan bases and broadcast messages to those followers.<br \/>Another innovation was the share button, which people used to quickly share photos, videos and messages posted by others to their own News Feed or elsewhere. An automatically generated recommendations system also suggested new groups, friends or pages for people to follow, based on their previous online behavior.<br \/>But the features had side effects, according to the documents. Some people began using Likes to compare themselves to others. Others exploited the share button to spread information quickly, so false or misleading content went viral in seconds.<br \/> \tFrom the Document: Project Daisy, Likes, and Social Comparison <br \/> \tWhen people were asked to recall an experience that induced negative social comparison on Instagram, <strong>they were likely to attribute that negative feeling to Like counts<\/strong>. <br \/>Facebook has said it conducts internal research partly to pinpoint issues that can be tweaked to make its products safer. <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/17\/business\/instagram-likes.html\" title=\"\">Adam Mosseri<\/a>, the head of Instagram, has said that research on users\u2019 well-being led to investments in anti-bullying measures on Instagram.<br \/><strong>A tech giant in trouble.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>The leak of internal documents by a former Facebook employee has provided <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/04\/technology\/facebook-files.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">an intimate look<\/a>\u00a0at the operations of the secretive social media company and renewed calls for better regulations of the company\u2019s wide reach into the lives of its users.<\/span><br \/><strong>How it began.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>In September, The Wall Street Journal published The Facebook Files, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/17\/business\/dealbook\/facebook-files-whistleblower.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">a series of reports based on leaked documents<\/a>. The series exposed evidence that Facebook, which on Oct. 28 assumed the corporate name of Meta, knew Instagram, one of its products <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/01\/technology\/facebook-instagram-teenagers.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">was worsening body-image issues among teenagers<\/a>.<\/span><br \/><strong>The whistle-blower.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>During an interview with \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired Oct. 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Frances Haugen, a Facebook product manager <\/a>who left the company in May, revealed that she was responsible for the leak of those internal documents.<\/span><br \/><strong>Ms. Haugen\u2019s testimony in Congress.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>On Oct. 5, Ms. Haugen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/what-happened-at-facebook-whistleblower-hearing.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">testified before a Senate subcommittee<\/a>, saying that Facebook was willing to use hateful and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/haugen-facebook.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">harmful content<\/a>\u00a0on its site to keep users coming back. Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, called her accusations untrue.<\/span><br \/><strong>The Facebook Papers.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Ms. Haugen also filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided the documents to Congress in redacted form. A congressional staff member then supplied the documents, known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/facebook-papers-takeaways.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook Papers<\/a>, to several news organizations, including The New York Times.<\/span><br \/><strong>New revelations.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Documents from the Facebook Papers show the degree to which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/22\/technology\/facebook-election-misinformation.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook knew of extremist groups on its site<\/a>\u00a0trying to polarize American voters before the election. They also reveal that internal researchers had repeatedly determined how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/technology\/facebook-like-share-buttons.html?action=click&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc&#038;module=RelatedLinks&#038;pgtype=Article\">Facebook\u2019s key features<\/a>\u00a0amplified toxic content on the platform.<\/span><br \/>Yet Facebook cannot simply tweak itself so that it becomes a healthier social network when so many problems trace back to core features, said Jane Lytvynenko, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Shorenstein Center, who studies social networks and misinformation.<br \/>\u201cWhen we talk about the Like button, the share button, the News Feed and their power, we\u2019re essentially talking about the infrastructure that the network is built on top of,\u201d she said. \u201cThe crux of the problem here is the infrastructure itself.\u201d<br \/>As Facebook\u2019s researchers dug into how its products worked, the worrisome results piled up.<br \/>In a July 2019 study of groups, researchers traced how members in those communities could be targeted with misinformation. The starting point, the researchers said, were people known as \u201cinvite whales,\u201d who sent invitations out to others to join a private group.<br \/>These people were effective at getting thousands to join new groups so that the communities ballooned almost overnight, the study said. Then the invite whales could spam the groups with posts promoting ethnic violence or other harmful content, according to the study.<br \/>Another 2019 report looked at how some people accrued large followings on their Facebook pages, often using posts about cute animals and other innocuous topics. But once a page had grown to tens of thousands of followers, the founders sold it. The buyers then used the pages to show followers misinformation or politically divisive content, according to the study.<br \/>As researchers studied the Like button, executives considered hiding the feature on Facebook as well, according to the documents. In September 2019, it removed Likes from users\u2019 Facebook posts in a small experiment in Australia.<br \/>The company wanted to see if the change would reduce pressure and social comparison among users. That, in turn, might encourage people to post more frequently to the network.<br \/>But people did not share more posts after the Like button was removed. Facebook chose not to roll the test out more broadly, noting, \u201cLike counts are extremely low on the long list of problems we need to solve.\u201d<br \/>Last year, company researchers also evaluated the share button. In a September 2020 study, a researcher wrote that the button and so-called reshare aggregation units in the News Feed, which are automatically generated clusters of posts that have already been shared by people\u2019s friends, were \u201cdesigned to attract attention and encourage engagement.\u201d<br \/>But gone unchecked, the features could \u201cserve to amplify bad content and sources,\u201d such as bullying and borderline nudity posts, the researcher said.<br \/>That\u2019s because the features made people less hesitant to share posts, videos and messages with one another. In fact, users were three times more likely to share any kind of content from the reshare aggregation units, the researcher said.<br \/>One post that spread widely this way was an undated message from an account called \u201cThe Angry Patriot.\u201d The post notified users that people protesting police brutality were \u201ctargeting a police station\u201d in Portland, Ore. After it was shared through reshare aggregation units, hundreds of hate-filled comments flooded in. It was an example of \u201chate bait,\u201d the researcher said.<br \/>A common thread in the documents was how Facebook employees argued for changes in how the social network worked and often blamed executives for standing in the way. <br \/>In an August 2020 internal post, a Facebook researcher criticized the recommendation system that suggests pages and groups for people to follow and said it can \u201cvery quickly lead users down the path to conspiracy theories and groups.\u201d<br \/>\u201cOut of fears over <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">potential<\/em> public and policy stakeholder responses, we are <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">knowingly<\/em> exposing users to risks of integrity harms,\u201d the researcher wrote. \u201cDuring the time that we\u2019ve hesitated, I\u2019ve seen folks from my hometown go further and further down the rabbit hole\u201d of conspiracy theory movements like QAnon and anti-vaccination and Covid-19 conspiracies.<br \/>The researcher added, \u201cIt has been painful to observe.\u201d<br \/>Reporting was contributed by Davey Alba, Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang and Ryan Mac.<br \/>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/technology\/facebook-like-share-buttons.html\">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>AdvertisementSupported byThe Facebook PapersLikes and shares made the social media site what it is. Now, company documents show, it\u2019s struggling to deal with their effects.Send any friend a storyAs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.By Mike IsaacSAN FRANCISCO \u2014 In 2019, Facebook researchers began [&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-662","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\/662","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=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}