The proof that Facebook is broken is obvious from its very modus operandi | John Naughton

Despite employing a small army of contractors to monitor posts, it’s clear the company is no longer fit for purposeWay back in the 1950s, a pioneering British cybernetician, W Ross Ashby, proposed a fundamental law of dynamic systems. In his book An Introduction to Cybernetics, he formulated his law of requisite variety, which defines “the minimum number of states necessary for a controller to control a system of a given number of states”. In plain English, it boils down to this: for a system to be viable, it has to be able to absorb or cope with the complexity of its environment. And there are basically only two ways of achieving viability in those terms: either the system manages to control (or reduce) the variety of its environment, or it has to increase its internal capacity (its “variety”) to match what is being thrown at it from the environment.Sounds abstruse, I know, but it has a contemporary resonance. Specifically, it provides a way of understanding some of the current internal turmoil in Facebook as it grapples with the problem of keeping unacceptable, hateful or psychotic content off its platform. Two weeks ago, the New York Times was leaked 1,400 pages from the rulebooks that the company’s moderators are trying to follow as they police the stuff that flows through its servers. According to the paper, the leak came from an employee who said he “feared that the company was exercising too much power, with too little oversight – and making too many mistakes”.... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #plain english

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The proof that Facebook is broken is obvious from its very modus operandi | John Naughton'


Kiwi writer Anthony McCarten on Queen, the Popes, John Lennon and Weed

It's been a whirlwind of a time following the success of The Theory of Everything, but Anthony McCarten certainly hasn't been resting on his laurels. The New Zealand-born writer, based in London, has just finished screenwriting a film based on Winston Churchill's life, polished off Bohemian... Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #john lennon #winston churchill #yoko ono #non-fiction book #darkest hour


Best of the week: Publishers press Facebook to drive paid subscriptions

This week's top stories covered Facebook’s moves to benefit content creators, publishers’ distributed media endeavors and more. The post Best of the week: Publishers press Facebook to drive paid subscriptions appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


The 10 Best John Ashbery Poems

Picked by Karin Roffman, author of 'The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery's Early Life.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #early life


Uncorrected Harry Potter proof with 'J A Rowling' typo fetches £10k

A bookseller's proof of J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has been sold for almost £10,000 - four times as much as the expected bidding price. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sharry potter


U.K. Magazine The Drum Bangs the Facebook Gong

Under most circumstances, background information about a conference-room shoot of media company executives would merit, maybe, a couple of tweets. But these are no ordinary circumstances. And so... Doug Zander, U.S. editor for U.K. magazine The Drum, clocks in with a breathless behind-the-scenes... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Video View Metrics for Facebook and Instagram Are Being Added to CrowdTangle

Video publishers on Facebook and Instagram now have a new measurement option, as the social network announced that video view metrics for those two platforms will be added to CrowdTangle starting Thursday. Facebook said in a release that publishers will now have another way to track emerging... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #video publishers #video views


Podcast: LittleThings’ Gretchen Tibbits on distributed publishing, skipping Snapchat and Facebook Live

On this episode of the Visionaries Podcast, we sat down with Gretchen Tibbits, COO, and president of uplifting content publisher LittleThings to talk Facebook Live, Snapchat, distributed publishing, and duopoly. Sponsored content by GumGum The post Podcast: LittleThings’ Gretchen Tibbits on... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post podcast #facebook live #sponsored content


Facebook Is Giving Advertisers More Control Over Where Their Ads Appear

Brands advertising on Facebook will soon have more control over where their ads appear. The social network is rolling out several tools aimed at providing more transparency before campaigns go live. The latest additions, announced today, will provide advertisers with a list of publishers up... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #giving advertisers #latest additions #announced today #provide advertisers


Facebook Lets Brands Blacklist Publishers

Facebook is giving advertisers more control over where their ads run, allowing them to opt out of appearing near content from specific publishers, according to new policies announced on Wednesday."We will show you all the publishers or pages on which your ad could theoretically run," said Michel... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ads run #giving advertisers


The Destiny 2 Reveal Campaign on Facebook Resulted in a 35-Point Increase in Ad Recall

Facebook released a case study touting the success video-game publisher Activision experienced with a recent advertising campaign for Destiny 2, its upcoming first-person-shooter release. To start, Activision raised awareness of Destiny 2 across both Facebook and Instagram by releasing teaser... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook released


Digiday Research: YouTube and Facebook are where the action is in video

At the Digiday Video Anywhere Summit, video publishers assess the challenges and opportunities in video. The post Digiday Research: YouTube and Facebook are where the action is in video appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digiday video #video appeared #digiday research


How publishers use emotion to promote content on Facebook

Now that Facebook has tamped down on clickbait, publishers are putting an emotional spin on content shared on the platform whenever they can. The post How publishers use emotion to promote content on Facebook appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook appeared #promote content #content shared


Facebook: Before E3, 2K, Bethesda Are Among the Top Trending Publishers

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) takes place in Los Angeles June 13 through 15, and as the excitement builds, Facebook revealed the top trending video games and publishers on its platform leading into the show. The top trending publishers and video games were those that experienced the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #facebook revealed #video games


All Publishers Can Now Test Ads in the Related Articles Section of Facebook’s Instant Articles

Facebook began testing ads in the related articles section of its Instant Articles in late March, and the results for publishers in the test group promoted the social network to expand the test to all publishers Thursday. Facebook introduced Instant Articles in May 2015 as a way to enable... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #enable publishers #late march #interactive content


May Religion Bestsellers: Louie Giglio Breaks Top Four; ‘The Broken Road’ Takes #1

Pastor Louie Giglio debuts on our Religion Nonfiction Bestsellers list at #4 with a new take on the biblical story of David and Goliath. Plus, Richard Paul Evans tops in Religion Fiction with ‘The Broken Road.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #religion bestsellers #takes #1 #biblical story #religion fiction


Lessons From The Epic Rise And Fall Of The Facebook Of The 1990s

Two friends started a website in their dorm room that IPO’d. Then came the dotcom bust. Here are the lessons the founder took to his next venture. Before Mark Zuckerberg created The Facebook, and even before Tom Anderson of MySpace was a household name, there was Todd Krizelman and Stephan... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2017-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Facebook Live Videos Are About to Become a Lot More Accessible to Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing Users

Facebook announced Tuesday that publishers of Facebook Live videos can now add closed captions in order to make those videos more accessible to users who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Product manager Supratik Lahiri and director of accessibility Jeffrey Wieland said in a Newsroom post that daily... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #newsroom post


Advertisers should follow Vodafone's lead after Facebook and Google failures | Nils Pratley

Telecoms giant is right to stop relying on social media titans to stop its adverts appearing next to inappropriate contentAbout time too: a major advertiser has become so frustrated with Facebook and Google’s limp attempts to police the content they publish that it has taken matters into its own... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2017-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #longer rely #ads appearing #hate speech #fake news #online advertising


BET made a Facebook Messenger bot for its summer festival

The first wave of publisher Messenger bots focused on sharing content. A second wave, including BET's, is focused on managing and deepening relationships. The post BET made a Facebook Messenger bot for its summer festival appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sharing content


‘It’s going to be a slow burn’: Publishers are starting to see money from Facebook’s mid-roll ads

There's money to be made with Facebook's mid-roll video ads -- if you have scale. The post ‘It’s going to be a slow burn’: Publishers are starting to see money from Facebook’s mid-roll ads appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #slow burn