[Air-L] Data analysis shows power of Facebook super-users to distort discourse

[Denby Weller]

I’m really interested to hear from anyone on Adam’s question too. Thanks for asking, Adam!

From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Adam Burke <adamburkemail at gmail.com>
Date: Friday, 11 February 2022 at 10:58 am
To: Listserv AOIR <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Data analysis shows power of Facebook super-users to distort discourse

It's a good insight and this definitely seems consistent with dynamics on
Facebook in general, or, indeed, with the sewer my Facebook feed quickly
turns into if I don't ruthlessly focus it on personal friends and local
community groups.

As a researcher outside this specific communications / platforms / hate
speech area, I am curious about one methodological thing.

"""
For more than a year, we’ve been analyzing a massive new data set that we
designed to study public behavior on the 500 U.S. Facebook pages that get
the most engagement from users. Our research, part of which will be
submitted for peer review later this year, aims to better understand the
people who spread hate and misinformation on Facebook.
"""

It seems an unusual choice to go to a big mainstream news publication as
the first public outing of this analysis? I understand publication lead
times can be long, but since a great deal of detailed work has clearly been
done already, which the researchers have great confidence in, I'm surprised
there isn't any pre-print or public report made available. A parallel
release might also have made sense. There's lots of examples of this in
other fields, but a recent one is the speed at which COVID research was
able to proceed due to pre-print papers.

Lack of a public research artifact also seems to make their research too
easy for Facebook to dismiss:
"""
Facebook declined to answer our questions for this article, and instead
provided this statement: “While we’re not able to comment on research we
haven’t seen, the small parts that have been shared with us are inaccurate
and seem to fundamentally misunderstand how News Feed works. [...] "
"""

Since there are many experienced researchers on the list, it would be great
if someone could take the time to explain.

Cheers
Adam Burke



On Fri, 11 Feb 2022 at 09:34, Alexandre A. Gonzales <aarnsgonzales at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It is a very good article about Facebook (or Meta) indeed, and it reminded
> me of the initiative from the Center for Internet and Society of India,
> that submitted a policy consultation to the Facebook Oversight Board
> regarding their "X-Check" system, or whitelisted accounts on the platform.
> I do not know if the "superusers" analyzed in the The Atlantich article are
> in the X-Check system, but its findings may help better understand the
> function of the "X-Check" for the company
>
> To whom it may interest, here's the link to the submission presented to the
> Oversight Board:
>
> https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/submission-to-the-facebook-oversight-board-policy-on-cross-checks<https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/submission-to-the-facebook-oversight-board-policy-on-cross-checks>
>
>
> Em qui., 10 de fev. de 2022 às 15:19, Sarah Ann Oates <soates at umd.edu>
> escreveu:
>
> > Wow, if you read or teach one article about FB, this should be it I
> think.
> > Sarah
> > Sarah Oates
> > Pronoun: she/her
> >
> > Professor and Senior Scholar
> > Philip Merrill College of Journalism
> > Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
> > University of Maryland
> > College Park, MD 20742
> > Email: soates at umd.edu
> > Phone: 301 455 2332
> > www.media-politics.com<http://www.media-politics.com>
> > Twitter: @media_politics
> >
> > *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund
> > <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding<https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding>> today.
> *
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 1:15 PM Colin Delany <cpd at epolitics.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Makes perfect sense, based on what we know about the Fb algorithm. The
> > > researchers have studied the patterns/effects in detail, and you might
> be
> > > interested in both the findings and the methodology.
> > >
> > > "And because Facebook’s algorithm rewards engagement, these superusers
> > > have enormous influence over which posts are seen first in other users’
> > > feeds, and which are never seen at all. Even more shocking is just how
> > > nasty most of these hyper-influential users are. The most abusive
> people
> > on
> > > Facebook, it turns out, are given the most power to shape what Facebook
> > is."
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/facebook-hate-speech-misinformation-superusers/621617<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/facebook-hate-speech-misinformation-superusers/621617>
> > >
> > > --cpd
> > >
> > >
> > > "How to Use the Internet to Change the World - and Win Elections: A
> > > Comprehensive Guide to Digital Politics for Campaigns, Activists &
> > > Advocates" [Ebook]
> > > http://www.epolitics.com/winning<http://www.epolitics.com/winning>
> > >
> > > Colin Delany
> > > Epolitics.com<http://Epolitics.com> -- digital strategy for politics and advocacy
> > > http://www.epolitics.com<http://www.epolitics.com>
> > > 202-422-4682
> > > cpd at epolitics.com
> > > @epolitics
> > > _______________________________________________
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>
> --
>
> *Alexandre Arns Gonzales*Doutorando em Ciência Política (UnB/2017) -
> Resocie - https://www.resocie.org/<https://www.resocie.org>
> Bolsista/CAPES - Instituto da Democracia e Democratização das Comunicações
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