{"id":24020,"date":"2019-10-24T18:17:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T22:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=24020"},"modified":"2019-10-24T18:17:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T22:17:07","slug":"crowdsourced-fact-checking-doesnt-work-for-microtargeted-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2019\/10\/24\/crowdsourced-fact-checking-doesnt-work-for-microtargeted-information\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowdsourced Fact-Checking Doesn’t Work for Microtargeted Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Zuckerberg testified to congress this week. The testimony was supposed to address Facebook\u2019s move into the currency market. Instead, they mostly talked about Facebook\u2019s policy of not banning or fact-checking politicians on the platform.\u00a0 Zuckerberg roots the policy in values of free expression and democratic ideals. Here is a quick primer on why that rationale is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

For background, Facebook does partner with third party fact-checkers, but exempts politicians\u2019 organic content and paid advertisements from review. This policy is not new. Here is an overview of the policy\u2019s parameters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To summarize the company\u2019s rationale, Facebook believes that constituents should have unadulterated knowledge about political candidates. When politicians lie, the people should know about it, and they will know about it because of a collective fact-checking effort. This is premised on the assumption that journalists, opposing political operatives, and the vast network of Facebook users will scrutinize all forms of political speech thus debunking dishonest claims and exposing dishonest politicians.<\/p>\n

In short, Facebook claims that crowdsourced fact-checking will provide an information safety net which allows political speech to remain unregulated, thus fostering an optimally informed electorate.<\/p>\n

On a simple technical level, the premise of crowdsourced fact-checking on Facebook does not work. The reason crowdsourced fact-checking cannot work on Facebook is because content is microtargeted. Facebook\u2019s entire financial structure is premised on delivering different content\u2014both organic and advertised\u2014to different users. Facebook gives users the content that will keep them \u201cstuck\u201d on the site as long as possible, \u00a0and distributes advertisements to granular user segments who will be most influenced by specific messages. For these reasons, each Facebook feed is distinct and no two Facebook users encounter the exact same content.<\/p>\n

Crowdsourced fact-checking only works when \u201cthe crowd\u201d all encounter the same facts. On Facebook, the this is not the case, and that is by design. Would-be fact-checkers may never encounter a piece of dishonest content, and if they do, those inclined to believe the content (because it supports their existing worldview) are less likely to encounter the fact-checker\u2019s debunking.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s ideological justification for unregulated political speech is not just thin, it’s technically untenable. I\u2019m going to assume that Zuckerberg understands this. Facebook\u2019s profit motive thus shines through from behind a\u00a0 moral veil, however earnestly Zuckerberg presents the company\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jenny Davis is on Twitter @Jenny_L_Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

Headline image via: source<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Zuckerberg testified to congress this week. The testimony was supposed to address Facebook\u2019s move into the currency market. Instead, they mostly talked about Facebook\u2019s policy of not banning or fact-checking politicians on the platform.\u00a0 Zuckerberg roots the policy in values of free expression and democratic ideals. Here is a quick primer on why that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24020"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24034,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24020\/revisions\/24034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}