this question of many people and even some of the newspapers answer ” yes “, Facebook would have favored the election of the republican candidate, leaving spread some rumors, viral, or even putting forward false news in its flow of information Trending Topics.
Mark Zuckerberg defends itself having to win Donald Trump
of Course, the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has responded to these accusations and defended himself by saying : “ The idea that false information on Facebook, which are only a small part of the content, have influenced the election one way or another, is completely mad “, adding : “ there is a profound lack of empathy when it is said that the only reason why someone would have voted as he did is that he has given false information “.
He concluded by saying : “If you believe that, then I think that you have not assimilated the message that the support of Trump has tried to send during this election “, specifying : “The voters decide based on their own experience “.
The feature Trending Topics at the heart of the storm
But then, why a large number of people think just the opposite and accuse Facebook of having been a decisive element in this election. To understand, you need to go back a little. You probably remember the launch of the feature Trending Topics, launched a few months ago, the latter centralizes the events, news or articles that make the buzz, depending on your preference, and displays them in the news feed of each user of the social network.
Soon after its launch, the camp of Donald Trump blamed this feature not to be neutral and to go back very often for news on his opponent, a information is quickly relayed by the press and prompted Facebook to take a drastic decision to prove to the world that his company was neutral to : fire all the journalists, who were working for the feature Trending Topics and to entrust this task to an artificial intelligence.
The problem between an artificial intelligence and a true journalist, this is what the algorithm does and it will attach that to the data statistics (number of views, shares, likes, comments, etc) to determine if the subject is sufficiently “warm ” to integrate the Trending Topics and to fill in more of the world. A journalist will verify if the info is true or false, forward “silly ” a buzz.
false information to the head of the news…
It is this point that many criticize today, because the internet users are found to see numerous false information or rumors in front of the eyes on a daily basis, who were put forward as if they were proven facts, influencing the perception of the candidates. In addition, the algorithm of Facebook based on the preferences of each user, the latter receive only the version that they ” want to read “, Facebook locked so the users in a virtual bubble and preaching to the convinced.
The New York Magazine in an article accusing titled : “Facebook has allowed the victory of Trump “, denounced the fact that Facebook has left to flow disproportionately from false information, and never deny them later. The journal gives a few examples : “the clintons have purchased a house for $ 200 million to the Maldives “, “Hillary Clinton bought for 137 million dollars of illegal weapons ” or “ the pope supports Trump “.
The newspaper stated : “Csome have been shared, “mine that have been liked” and commented on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times. (…) Many of these stories were lies or "parodies", but their appearance and their location in the news feed did not differ in nothing from those of the individual authors who undertake to, you know, don’t lie. “
users locked in a bubble, defined by their preferences
A vision shared by the journal The Guardian, which states : “the More we click, like and share content that resonates with our own way of seeing the world, the more Facebook we drunk of similar publications. This has gradually divided the narrative policy into two bubbles of the filtering distinct – one for conservatives and one for liberals. “. Through the articles sensationalist, Facebook could shape our understanding of events unfolding around us, and thus influence the choice of a vote. If this is really the case, it is necessary that a real discussion opens on the topic at the global level, because we can’t trade for democracy against advertising inserts.
On the question of “bubbles “in which would be kept locked users, Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear :” almost everyone has friends who are on the other side ,” adding : “This means that the diversity of information you receive on a social network like Facebook will be by definition more broad “. It was then taken as an example that before the arrival of social networks, the voters are not just one or two television channels and a handful of newspapers have been political preferences, to shape an idea of the candidates. The debate is therefore open, Facebook has the power to influence an election ?
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Photo Credits : Flickr by Brian Solis
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