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 ]
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Gawker’s Nick Denton: Facebook dominance is better than ‘convoluted’ ad tech

Gawker Media CEO Nick Denton told Recode that the publisher, which used to view Facebook warily, is now "going all in" on Facebook Instant Articles. He's now come around to the idea that Facebook can simply provide a better user experience and even monetize better than the options publishers... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook's New And Improved Like Button Is Coming "In The Next Few Weeks"

Reactions will enhance Facebook's classic Like button with emoji responses that convey emotions ranging from anger to awe.As revealed in October, Facebook has been hard at work reinventing the famed Like button—and Bloomberg got the inside scoop. In a profile published Wednesday, Bloomberg digs... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2016-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Is Expanding Its Burgeoning Ad Network to the Mobile Web

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[ AdWeek | 2016-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How to Pray Better: PW Talks to John Eldredge

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How brands and publishers are using Facebook Messenger

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[ Digiday | 2016-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook is cutting prices in its brand-content matchmaking program

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[ Digiday | 2016-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How Snapchat Plans to Compete With Facebook for Advertisers' Dollars

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[ Advertising Age | 2016-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo balk at UK's Investigatory Powers Bill

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[ Betanews | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Facebook's Audience Network Looks Like a Billion-Dollar Advertising Machine

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[ AdWeek | 2016-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Advertising Age | 2016-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How PopSugar gets people to watch its Facebook videos for 30 seconds

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[ Digiday | 2016-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Former ABC managing director Brian Johns dies aged 79

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[ The Guardian | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg Defends Facebook Against Free Basics' Critics

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[ Fast Company | 2015-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ PC World | 2015-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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How UK Publishers are Using Facebook Instant Articles

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ AdWeek | 2015-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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