
Facebook Has Begun to Rank News Organizations by Trust, Zuckerberg Says - artsandsci
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/facebook-has-begun-to-rank-news-organizations-by-trust
======
jfasi
Just to clarify, are they developing a universal trust ranking for all users
or developing a per-user ranking of what sources that user trusts most? The
first option is awesome because it'll hide propaganda outlets that are
universally mistrusted but masquerade as legitimate news sources, while the
second will entrench polarization deeper.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
And how will that "universal trust ranking" be determined?

See the problem?

~~~
wmeredith
There is no problem at all here. I totally trust Mark "dumb fucks" Zuckerberg
at Facebook to watch the watchmen. /s

------
mooneater
"gathered data on how consumers perceive news brands "

Oh great, its a model based on consumer opinion. And we know loads of people
trust Fox news.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
What Fox News says is as trustworthy as any other mainstream news source.

What stories they cover (or ignore) and what details they include (or omit)
are where the bias comes from. Every other news source is the same way.

~~~
untog
(deleted)

~~~
Armisael16
That isn't really what they said, unless you equate 'all mainstream news' and
'all news'.

~~~
dragonwriter
> unless you equate 'all mainstream news' and 'all mainstream news'.

I suspect there is an error here, as most people would equate those things
since they are letter-for-letter identical phrases.

~~~
Armisael16
Yep. Fixed, thanks for pointing it out.

(Not that any of this is relevant, I guess, since the post I responded to was
deleted?)

------
CryoLogic
I wouldn't label any major news outlets as trustworthy. They all have
sensationalist, often outright lying headlines. They all clip parts of
conversations and stories to make something sound much worse or better than it
actually is. It's not honest in any regards.

How will Facebook, a brand built on dishonesty choose honest sources
correctly?

~~~
craftyguy
Further, why should a person who build a brand based on dishonesty be trusted
to implement a trustworthy way to rank news sources?

------
ericst
Disclaimer: haven't been on Facebook for years, mainly because I was pissed at
all those stupid games and surveys at the time.

The problem with simply providing a trust appreciation is that you continue to
encourage low-value social behaviour. If you want to solve the problem, I
think you should try to promote critical thinking.

Why not simply de-advantage the news and concentrate on social aspects? Simply
put more emphasis on Original Content created by your "friends", not re-shares
(no social added value, as the cost for creation was low) or simple link
sharing (same thing, if you don't integrate a small comment or analysis, it
has no social added value).

~~~
Lionsion
> If you want to solve the problem, I think you should try to promote critical
> thinking.

I don't think Facebook wants to encourage too much critical thinking, as it's
business is to sell an audience to advertisers. If the audience thinks too
critically, it's harder to manipulate into doing what's in the interests of FB
its advertisers.

> Why not simply de-advantage the news and concentrate on social aspects?
> Simply put more emphasis on Original Content created by your "friends", not
> re-shares (no social added value, as the cost for creation was low) or
> simple link sharing (same thing, if you don't integrate a small comment or
> analysis, it has no social added value).

They've already done that.

------
lazzlazzlazz
This is exactly what countless people on Hacker News ("why can't Facebook have
some sense of the trustworthiness of a news source") have been demanding for
years.

I'm sure we will now hear complaints that Facebook shouldn't be choosing which
sources are trustworthy.

~~~
na85
My complaint is that Facebook itself is untrustworthy.

~~~
mesozoic
Bingo!

------
courtneycouch0
So where will Facebook place itself on this list?

~~~
nradov
Facebook doesn't create any news stories themselves.

~~~
mesozoic
As the financial crisis of 2008 taught us it's kind of important that the
ratings agency (ranking agent) is trustworthy as well.

------
creaghpatr
Pro-tip: If you unfollow all major and minor news sources on facebook you will
encounter no fake news, no real news, and no political commentary that links
to a media article.

Totally improved my newsfeed UX though it took a few days to get em all.

------
mesozoic
And buzzfeed is at the bottom of the rankings?

------
reflect
perhaps rather than suppressing everything, a "trustworthiness of this news
source cannot be verified" tag could be applied to the posts that seem
legitimate but have no ranking.

------
AstralStorm
Shouldn't they rank themselves the lowest then? ;)

------
throwaway84742
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

------
heimatau
If only there was a way to remove 'trusted 3rd parties' and allow people to
decide for themselves, in a wholesome way that aids the macro-ecosystem.

 _cough_ bitcoin _cough_

~~~
sp332
Blockchains are shared global ledgers. If you want an individualized solution,
blockchains are the opposite of that.

~~~
heimatau
Social media websites aren't private.

I think in numerous court cases (at least in the US) even email is considered
public.

So, with that said, a DLT (dist. ledger tech; i.e. bitcoin) is a great
solution for the problems facing a publicly facing company.

~~~
sp332
There's a weird loophole where law enforcement can get your emails in certain
cases without a warrant. It's not the same as being public.
[https://www.cnet.com/news/doj-we-dont-need-warrants-for-e-
ma...](https://www.cnet.com/news/doj-we-dont-need-warrants-for-e-mail-
facebook-chats/)

Anyway I can't understand what the use case would even be here. You need FB to
publish their rankings publicly which doesn't need to be decentralized, or you
want each person to have their own rankings which don't need to be
distributed?

~~~
heimatau
I don't think publishing their rankings will help.

The use case that I think is: A competitive marketplace to compete for the
best use of encrypted data. Where each data point and evaluation has a 'cost'
to the system and each algorithm competes and entirely based on pseudonyms.
Since how we perceive 'trust' is etherial/intangible/ever-changing.

I don't think the solution is an easy one to create but I do think the
building blocks to them are (no pun intended).

~~~
sp332
Best use of encrypted data? What does that have to do with ranking news
organizations?

~~~
heimatau
One must think differently if you wanted to use a DLT/Bitcoin solution.

It's not simply just a ledger.

I'm talking about every data point that facebook has, to be hashed and
competitively manipulated in a global market place.

Trust is very relative but using a bitcoin-like solution would allow for the
market to compete for the better solution, each and every day. Facebook's
authoritarian solution won't last forever, nor should it; allowing competition
through FB's data could be a way that FB stays in the limelight.

