It’s pretty respectable to see just what Facebook is willing to do in order to debunk claims that point to it being a key distribution platform for misinformation and conspiracy theories. Equally impressive are the literally mind-bending logical progressions it has made in order in order to achieve the image that it prefers.
For quick recap, Facebook published a new ‘Widely Viewed Content’ report back in August (2021), which was designed to show the post types that typically get shown in user feeds. The idea stood opposite to the one conceived by Kevin Roose, a New York Times journalist, which showed the most-shared link posts on Facebook, based on the data from its internal analytics, CrowdTangle
The daily top 10 list featured in that Tweet is regularly dominated by right-wing media outlets, many of which are known to be highly ‘questionable’.
Getting Back On Track
Naturally, Facebook wasn’t too keen as to the characterization that a ‘top 10’, 3rd party listing provided, so it decided to create its own report, one that presents more accurate data on what type of content really gets the most views every quarter. This would be important to note as links that get viewed on a quarterly basis are very different from those that gain daily traction.
However – and sadly – as expected, Facebook is in a bit of a bad start due to the fact that it scrapped its original Q1 Most Viewed Content Report due to implications that might negatively impact the company’s standing. Nonetheless, which is classic-Facebook, it presses on and presented its Q3 Most Viewed Content Report, which highlights various concerns and issues with the app, including how it also potentially amplifies them.
To start, Facebook is keen to point out that link posts and posts from pages are only minor elements in the broader Facebook experience, elaborating as to why they might be less impactful than we think. Based on their data, even links from the most viewed domains have very little visibility on regular users’ News Feed, so the links highlighted in the top 10 list can’t possibly be driving significant response, at least in theory. With 261 million active users and counting, even a small percentage of that can be considered ‘a significant response’, so answering the question is more a matter of perspective than anything else.
So, what links did gain much traction then? Below are the top links for Facebook’s Q3 Content Report (arranged by order):
A spam-link to a former Green Bay Packers player.
Link to a CBD seller.
Link to a radio station.
Link to a Trade Show in London.
Link to a recipe website.
Link to the ABC news website.
Link to a 3-minute DIY YouTube channel.
Link to a video that maps out the neurons in the human brain.
Link to certain UNICEF post (possibly amplified by Facebook’s COVID Center).
Link to the same 3-minute DIY YouTube channel.
What did we get? Well, it’s honestly more junk and spam rather than right-wing conspiracies and fake news. These are also reflected in the ‘Widely Viewed Posts’ section of the report. Mainly harmless and interactive posts that people use to either poke friends to respond or as simple avenues that allow people to participate. Also worthy of note is that almost everything listed under ‘Most Widely Viewed’ were posted 4 months back, thus explaining why they gained more traction and engagement.
The main concern here now mainly has to do with data transparency and if or how Facebook skews certain data in order to appear more favorable. One example of this is one of the links only displays that it was removed due to ‘violating community guidelines’, but was given no further context, which is a bit fishy on Facebook’s end/
The Wrap
At this point, given its reach, influence, and reputation, anything that Facebook says or releases will be subject to misinterpretation, or just downright questioning, explaining why it’s acting so cautiously. What it does tend to mask is that to succeed on its channel, one simply has to resort to posting highly attractive, but otherwise rubbish, click-bait posts, which some of its publishing partners are taking advantage of.
If Facebook really wishes to turn things around, then it might need to rethink what its primary content focus is and what safeguards should be implemented to ensure that community safety and privacy is secured? On this note, it could mean a drastic change in terms of engagement and might cause huge initial detriments that might even impact it’s current progress towards the Metaverse.
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