This gives us sudden realization that information can easily be manipulated and amplified, for worse, even by the so called agent of democracy. To make it even more dramatic, Facebook is not the only platform which such prowess. However, from what we see from the current development of the issue, it is quite a different case, as democracy and freedom of speech might be challenged by this powerful resource Facebook possess. People casually take information they want to see (as provided by Facebook) as the thing that is believable, trustworthy, and democratic. On the other hand, as more and more people heavily utilize the site, people take and use the information provided in the site very much for granted. In the defense of themselves, Facebook already took good step, by clouding whatever intentions they have with ultimate user experience to be developed with involving human touch in the process of making news and topics viral. Facebook is very (too) powerful, that we may forget that it has the capacity to drive us. Business wise, Facebook has also emerged into the ultimate market, seen form billions of revenues Facebook earns from their ad section. Attracting more than 1 billion people, with over thousands of updates every seconds, Facebook is a very important platform to inform people, and potentially shape opinions. Regardless of whether Facebook really manipulates information and virality, we have to put into realization that Facebook has the power to do so. The step is indeed acknowledged by the site, citing complexity of the patterns of human behaviors, making it very difficult to be translated to codes computer understand. Incorporating people in picking important news and topics is off course raising eyebrows, as it opens rooms for manipulation and ‘editorialized’ News Feed as what we see from the recent issue Facebook entangled in. However, in developing the algorithm, a crucial tool in determining which-to-publish news, human intervention inevitably is present, triggering possible biased decision. Facebook wants to give personal touch to its users, where people only see things they want to see. Facebook quotes that the constant evaluation of their News Feed algorithm is to always provide things that matter the most to its users. Little did everyone know, Facebook has been changing the way News Feed works, by evolving the algorithm it uses, to better give personal experiences to its users. This further put up the platform as a game-changer, and undeniably forces other traditional platforms, particularly mass-driven industry, to keep up with its updates. Facebook has emerged to be the epicenter of information, ranging from updates from users, news, entertainments, and the likes, all wrapped in News Feed feature. The introduction of News Feed and other important features (Like, Comments, Shares), has forever changed the game. “Regardless of whether Facebook really manipulates information and virality, we have to put into realization that Facebook has the power to do so.”įacebook has always been pulling out efforts on bringing up the very best experience of social media and virtual interactions to its users over the years, since its establishment roughly a decade ago. This provokes assumption that the tech-giant is manipulating political voices through its mass media-savvy prowess and at the same time, raises questions over the evolution of mass media and democracy in general. The tech company has denied the accusation ever since. The news also prompted reaction from the US Senate Commerce Committee, where he sent the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg himself a letter, pointing out several questions regarding the site’s Trending Topics section. Very recently, Facebook was caught up in one of the most intriguing and surprising issue, where they are accused of intentionally filter and select news in the ‘Trending Topics” section, particularly removing politically sensitive contents (mostly conservative and republican Party related news), and injecting less popular news in the rank of this section. Facebook has become the social media ‘guru’, the one that made the huge splash, and still does.
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