Facebook faces consequences of becoming a news source


Posted on May 10, 2016  /  0 Comments

Few days back, I had a Twitter exchange with a journalist about news.

The debate above was on whether reading news was productive, but it began with a tweet that assumed that Facebook use was unproductive. I brought news into the conversation.

But as seen below, there are consequences to being perceived as a purveyor of news.

“The agenda-setting power of a handful of companies like Facebook and Twitter should not be underestimated,” said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of computer science and law at Harvard University. “These services will be at their best when they are explicitly committed to serving the interests of their users rather than simply offering a service whose boundaries for influence are unknown and ever-changing.”

By late Monday, users on the social network looking for more information about the Gizmodo report did not have to look far: It was among the top articles trending on Facebook.

Report.

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