My world on the web
To what extent Facebook’s disruption of the media facilitated the political upheaval and polarization we’ve seen over the past several years is a question that researchers will be debating and investigating for some time. But it seems clear they’re related. And it was Facebook’s takeover of the news that gave Russian agents the tools to influence elections and civil discourse in democracies around the world.
First, by encouraging people to get news from all different sources in the same place, Facebook leveled the playing field among publishers.
Second, whereas human editors used to be trained to select and emphasize stories based on their news value, Facebook’s news feed algorithm optimized for clicks, views, likes, and shares.
This move isn’t to repair the damage done to democracy, but rather to limit the damage done to its users.
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