Facebook is ditching human editors from its trending topics

[froggyboy604]

Facebook made the news a few months ago after claims surfaced via Gizmodo that the social network kept certain conservative news content from hitting the site's Trending Topics section (claims that it denied). Today, the social network announced that humans would no longer write special descriptions for the stories that appear in the site's Trending Topics area seen on the top right of your Facebook profile.

Instead, while human employees will select what shows up there, a special algorithm pulls excerpts from the articles themselves to place within the Trending Topics section. There won't be a special story description exactly, but a "simplified topic," as Facebook attests, as well as the number of people currently discussing the topic on Facebook itself.

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I got a feeling copying story descriptions from the original article would not go well because a lot of website writers may take advantage of Facebook system by writing clickbait sensationalist description excerpts which has nothing to do with the article's topic, and clickbait descriptions are mainly written to trick people into visiting the article website.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

That's a shame, but I take it this is a cost saving move?

 

[lb]

the stories that appear in the site's Trending Topics area seen on the top right of your Facebook profile.

The only thing I see in the top right of my Facebook profile are ads... No stories, no articles... :|

 

[froggyboy604]

That's a shame, but I take it this is a cost saving move?

I think it is most likely cost savings. But, it could be the human staff which caused Facebook to ditch human editors. In the past Facebook, banned strongly conservative news sites,

I think people who are strongly conservatives supporters got upset at Facebook, and decided to protest for Facebook to punish the staff who were censoring News sites which posted conservative news.

A lot of Facebook members and shareholders are conservatives, so Facebook probably does not want them to go to another Social network like Twitter.

The only thing I see in the top right of my Facebook profile are ads... No stories, no articles... :|

Maybe Trending Articles are only available in the US, Canada, and other heavily western countries like Australia.

 

[IntoxNitram]

Seems to be a cost saving measure, however I see this leading to some false news being shared.

 

[froggyboy604]

I read on online blogs that Facebook wants to be less biased where all news has an equal chance of becoming a trending topic because the trending topics are not controlled by humans who have personal biases and belief which can prevent some news from being a trending topic.

But, I think some very opinionated Facebook members with their strong personal belief related to politics, immigrants, and other topics will find ways to trick Facebook Algorithm into Trending articles which they believe in, so more people will know about the article.

A lot of people on Facebook don't share news, but the small percentage of people who share news sometimes share news which is false, or have a very strong opinion about certain topics like immigration, refugees, and politics.

 

[lb]

I think people who are strongly conservatives supporters got upset at Facebook, and decided to protest for Facebook to punish the staff who were censoring News sites which posted conservative news.

Couldn't they just have clear rules instated and a stricter supervising?

 

[froggyboy604]

Couldn't they just have clear rules instated and a stricter supervising?

They could have clearer rules, and stricter supervising may work. But, with such a big site like Facebook, it would be difficult to supervise.

Other big informational sites like Wikipedia had problems with editors changing facts, and posting facts which were not-real.