Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug?
Article

Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug?

Is the most powerful tool for connection in human history capable of adapting to the world it created?

Farhad Manjoo
The New York Times, 2017
Read the article

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
audio autogenerado
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
audio autogenerado

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Overview
  • Engaging

Recommendation

A 2017 Harvard/MIT study found that Facebook, along with other social media, served as a ready vehicle for misinformation during the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election. Social media helped users stay within filter bubbles, cocoons of conformity where they became a captive audience for partisan perspectives. Journalist Farhad Manjoo explores the dark side of Facebook’s immense global influence and asks whether company CEO Mark Zuckerberg is willing to shoulder responsibility equal to the Internet behemoth’s power. getAbstract recommends reading this incisive study of Facebook’s role onc the global stage.

Summary

Around the time of Donald J. Trump’s 2017 presidential inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg apparently underwent an awakening of sorts. An early January interview – before the inauguration – found the Facebook CEO beaming and voluble. He voiced pride in Facebook’s central role in election-period conversations and displayed a nonchalance with regard to charges that Facebook had provided a ready tool for propagandists and partisan trolls. During another interview a month later, Zuckerberg came across as more self-reflective, less certain, more questioning. He shared...

About the Author

Journalist and author Farhad Manjoo writes the State of the Art column for The New York Times.

Comment on this summary or Comenzar discusión