I am struggling to get a handle on what effect the monopolies of Facebook and Google and a constellation of tech companies have on our comprehension of objective truth.
Because media platforms like Facebook and Google are no longer just content providers, but also screeners, shadowbanners, ghosters, black badge issuers, content creators, algorithm and artificial intelligence trainers, WHO-approved official thought enforcers, and fact checker ecosystem creators and managers, you can no longer seek to protect academic freedom, free expression, scientific methods, science and scientists without also addressing the complex issues Facebook and Google introduce into a system that is creaking under the strain.
Blaze Reports: Facebook hatched ’emergency’ plan using ‘secret internal ranking’ to suppress ‘right-wing’ news sources post-election
Blatant censorship.
“In the tense days after the election as claims of widespread fraud were being disseminated on the platform, Facebook reportedly made an “emergency change” to its algorithm to suppress news sources that were spreading what the company believed to be ‘election misinformation.'”
“According to the New York Times, the change involved weighting news sources using a “secret internal ranking” of publishers that Facebook created based on “signals about the quality of their journalism.” The result became the more prominent featuring of posts from mainstream news outlets such as “CNN, The New York Times, and NPR,” and the suppression of posts from “right-wing” outlets.”
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(Note to self: Talk about a self fulfilling prophecy. If their favored caste media members maintain a blockade at the feeder level, there is nothing for Facebook and its fact checkers to censor; there is nothing for Google algorithms to bury)
“It involved emphasizing the importance of what Facebook calls “news ecosystem quality” scores, or N.E.Q., a secret internal ranking it assigns to news publishers based on signals about the quality of their journalism.
Typically, N.E.Q. scores play a minor role in determining what appears on users’ feeds. But several days after the election, Mr. Zuckerberg agreed to increase the weight that Facebook’s algorithm gave to N.E.Q. scores to make sure authoritative news appeared more prominently, said three people with knowledge of the decision, who were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
The change was part of the “break glass” plans Facebook had spent months developing for the aftermath of a contested election.“
(Note to self: I am not aware that in reviewing Hydroxychloroquine Access Now (HAN) censorship decisions, if they were ever specifically scored around FB’s presumptive media preferences. We will have to review this and see if there may be some antitrust angles for small media concerns that may have been locked out on the FB platform),