Skip to main content

vrabel1_JOEL SAGETAFP via Getty Images_facebook

脸书是如何沦为大众鸦片的

Jan 20, 2022 František Vrabel

布拉格—在打击虚假信息的战争中，敌人可能很难确定。记者、政治家、政府甚至祖父母均被指控助长了在线谎言的传播。

尽管上述群体均不完全无辜，但真正的对手却更加世俗。正如脸书举报者弗朗西斯·豪根去年下半年在其证词中所指出的那样，恰恰是社交媒体自身的算法才导致虚假信息无孔不入。

自2004年诞生以来，脸书已经从一家学生社交网站发展成为破坏全球社会凝聚力和民主的监控怪物。脸书搜集大量用户信息——其中也包括体重和怀孕状况等私密数据——用于绘制其用户的社交DNA状况。该公司而后将信息转售给想“精准定位”其 29亿用户的任何人——从香波制造企业到俄罗斯和中国的情报机构。通过这种方式，脸书允许第三方操纵思想并交易“人类未来”：开发预测模型，预测个人可能做出的选择。

To continue reading, register now.

As a registered user, you can enjoy more PS content every month – for free.

or

Subscribe now for unlimited access to everything PS has to offer.

Already have an account? Log in

Project Syndicate Digital Premium Image

Subscribe to Project Syndicate

Enjoy unlimited access to the ideas and opinions of the world’s leading thinkers, including long reads, book reviews, topical collections, short-form analysis and predictions, and exclusive interviews; every new issue of the PS Quarterly magazine (print and digital); the complete PS archive; and more. Subscribe now to PS Premium.

new comment has been posted. new comments have been posted.

0 Comments on this paragraph, 2 Comments on this article

Tim Dibble Jan 24, 2022

Facebook took advantage of people's need for the Gossip Fence and Park Bench/Coffee Shop. They broadened gossip beyond the titilation of the grocery store checkout rags. They created a world-wide passion for gossip, information sharing, and inaccurate hypothesization for solving the world's issues.

It promised lifetime free access for the right to gather people's data. People had no idea that their data was worth anything so it seemed like a great deal. It offered what appeared to be "something for nothing". People will almost always fall for the marketing pitches of Buy One-Get One Free! Facebook promised "Lifetime access for Free!" (giving us access to your data and online activities)

Just like the Market Rags outlandish titles: "I had Elvis' Baby" or "Bigfoot made me clean his cave" still gets people to make the impulse purchase of the Rag, Facebook could posit that "I am Putin's love child with a Martian" and monitor the traction with near real-time data and use the information to inform the algorithm to create posts that would increase clicks. As they got better at it, they sold the rights to that algorithm to marketers and others with lessons of how to phrase things to get more clicks.

What started as a great experiment became an obsession because it was so successful at generating money. Here they had legal right to people's on-line activities, click patterns and even off-Facebook tracking with cookies for the "free access" to Facebook, and they'd learned how to phrase titles and what pictures to select to bring eyeballs resulting in clicks and it brought in billions.

In the days before corporations owned Congress, Government fought for the People as it is supposed to be an organization of the people, for the people and by the people. But the corruption was easy to create. Now the whole purpose of Congress is to block and obstruct anything the other party wants to do. We can't expect Congress to act in the behalf of the people until the people demand that they get attention. Facebook's claim to "regulate us" is the false promise knowing that they own enough of Congress to prevent anything that would adversely affect their interests.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
G DUFEY Jan 23, 2022

"Facebook collects troves of user data – including intimate facts, like body weight and pregnancy status – to map the social DNA of its users" -- but ONLY if we give them the info! How much they know is in the users' sovereign hands. As to the algo's, they are designed to foster ENGAGEMENT -- no secret. If I indicate through my viewing choices that I like hate and interesting disinformation, this is what I will receive. And here is the point: I love hate-messages and take a clinical interest in disinformation, and I dislike Mr Z's minions, or the gov to deprive me of my viewing preferences.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.

https://prosyn.org/4yLUbXPzh

New Comment

Pin comment to this paragraph

After posting your comment, you’ll have a ten-minute window to make any edits. Please note that we moderate comments to ensure the conversation remains topically relevant. We appreciate well-informed comments and welcome your criticism and insight. Please be civil and avoid name-calling and ad hominem remarks.

Email this piece to a friend

Your name

Your email

Friend's name

Friend's email

Message

Cancel Send

Please select an option

Cancel

Send

Log in/Register

Email required

Password required Remember me?

or

Sign in with