Facebook already tells us what kind of people we are
< < Go Back
Trust no one — or, alternatively, trust only those users whom Facebook has awarded a satisfactory trustworthiness score.
The Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin reported on Tuesday that the tech platform has started assigning its users “reputation assessments” ranging from zero to 1 based on their behavior on the site. It turns out this is not quite as dystopian as it sounds. What the story does show is the extent to which we’ve allowed companies such as Facebook access to our minds.
Facebook’s effort focuses only on whether users who flag news stories as false are doing so accurately, which helps the company triage as it slogs through the trenches of information warfare. Having a human immediately check every single story every single user alerts them to is unrealistic, and Facebook says some users lash out against articles they disagree with — even when they’re perfectly true. Those who want Facebook to fight falsehoods wailed when the company first announced it would rely on users for help. Now they’re wailing again as its executives treat that crowdsourcing with care. The critics can’t have it both ways.
More From The Washington Post: