What is your reaction to the fact that Facebook has dismissed their fact checking outfit?

I am annoyed and kerflummoxed, my distress includes Zuck’s donation to the inauguration debacle. I, too, rely on facebook and messenger for a lot of things.
I am spending too many energy coupons per day being aware and outraged by stuff like this.

I’m not, Trump openly wants to “reign in” social media. Zuck is just kissing up to the new sheriff in town. Zuck openly supported the opposing party last go around so he has a lot of ass-kissing to do.

I’ll believe it when I see it, and it’s probably too little too late. But if they do this, it would be a step in the right direction. Their “fact checking” has been in service to state & corporate power, and has served to support a genocide. If you’re unable to use a platform to educate, speak out against, and organize against a genocide we’re currently committing, the platform is completely free from “facts”.

I think it’s Zuck kissing Trump’s ass, too. Maybe he has to, if he wants Trump to leave him alone, I don’t know. I think we’re going to see more bad stuff on there, more bullshit, more lies and maybe more Russian troll type of posts. This just encourages them to keep trolling and keep bullshitting.

I use FB for keeping in touch with friends and so I have no intention of leaving it any time soon.

Right now, I’m very leery about posting in public groups. If a group is public, I usually try not to comment at all, or post anything.

Someone on a thread there just said they are staying on for the connections they have but will not click on any ads or buy anything through there which is how FB makes their money. I never do anyway but that makes sense to me.

I’ve never bought anything through FB. I’ve heard of people who had and were ripped off – not that all of their ads are rip offs, but some probably are.

Some ads, if I see them too much (too repeatedly), I click on it and say “I don’t want to see this any more” and FB will ask why, and I click on “too repetitive” and the ad disappears from my feed.

I had at one time, been seeing a lot of ads for Master programs, and I clicked on “why am I seeing this” and it said because I had indicated that I have a Bachelors in my “about” information. I then removed that from my “about” and I stopped seeing those ads.

^^ Yup

I am not all that bothered. I have a facebook, was much more active in the past than I am now, but I still use it.

Not bothered by it because I want to see more of how they are “fact checking”. Unless things changed, I never saw the fact checking provide their own proof? If that makes sense?

Also, if they cannot even censor images properly, I worry about the accuracy of fact checks. I get the censoring is probably done by people reporting, but they seriously have no filters that go “oh, this is a picture of a puppy, lets ignore all the reports of it being violent.”? Because I will literally have to click “see anyways” on a post flagged as violence, and it is a dog.

Yeah, that might seem off topic, but I have doubts fact check is done by real people, verified by Facebook, even if it is claimed. It just cannot be. It is either other users, which I think is BS, or it is AI. Still don’t trust. If they fuck up one system they probably all are messed up, is my point.

I hope this answers the question somewhat? I kind of had a tangent

I didn’t care one bit. I don’t have Facebook. But I find this question completely contradictory. The explanation of the question states: “Personally, I don’t see a viable alternative to it for what I use it for but I hate that our communication media are controlled by the oligarchy.”. What just happened was that the oligarch (Zuckerberg) stopped controlling your communications. When he had fact checkers, he was controlling what you could and couldn’t say. He has stopped doing that. Maybe the OP meant they were upset that their communications are NOT being controlled by oligarchs?

@seawulf575 Guess you missed this part of the details: ”Note: It would be very helpful to the discussion if people who have never used FB don’t post on this thread.” <eyeroll>

@seawulf575 Facebook never stopped me from saying anything. Their “fact checkers” usually attached appropriate context to things like memes that were beginning to go viral. It was usually spot on too.

My reaction is never to trust in social media billionaires’ seemingly good intentions except in their intention to keep their profits coming.

This is all part of American capitalism. No emotions, no honor, no morals, no religion, no shame, no humanity.

For years now I had wanted to leave FB and social media in general but unable to.

Everyone is waving their white flag to survive the next 4 years as best they can.

And in a related question, have any of the Facebook users here noted that there is less and less content from friends and more and more from other sources that the algorithms presumably think you might like (and not just ads?) I wonder if people really are abandoning FB and they are desperate to retain users?

I have noticed that, yes, @janbb. It’s a bit frustrating.

YES. And it is all bot ran groups that only post AI photos

I’ve noticed that, @janbb. More suggestions for groups to join, etc. Less actual friend posts in the feed. I think they’ve probably found that the more groups people are in, the more time spent on FB. When I use FB on my phone, and I search for a group that I’m in, it will show, at the bottom of the screen, about five more groups that “you may be interested in” and it has a button to “join all.”

@janbb Yes, especially the “shorts.” They’re looking to take over the space tiktok is about to vacate.