Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected?

"Facebook will need to change its business model if it does want to address these editorial challenges. Currently, the truth of a piece of content is less important than whether it is shared, liked and monetized. These “engagement” metrics distort the media landscape, allowing clickbait, hyperbole and misinformation to proliferate. And on Facebook’s voracious news feed, the emphasis is on the quantity of posts, not spending time on powerful, authoritative, well-researched journalism.

The more we click, like and share stuff that resonates with our own world views the more Facebook feeds us with similar posts. This has progressively divided the political narrative into two distinct filter bubbles – one for conservatives and one for liberals (a blue feed and a red feed), pulling further and further apart in the run-up to election day. "

read article by Olivia Solon


Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected? | Technology | The Guardian: