Fake News and Data Breaches: Facebook's Business Model
Recently, the issues of fake news and data privacy have pushed Facebook into the spotlight. With the massive data breach only a few months ago, the company has been under scrutiny for their data-driven business model. The questions they face now are broad and substantial. How far is too far when collecting the data of their users? And how reliable are social media sites as a way to gain information and access the news?
Since the 2016 election, fake news has been a hotly debated topic. With a growing number of voters using social media to contact local representatives, converse about various political issues, and even register to vote, it's unclear how accurate or informative these user-driven pages and articles can be. Many social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram came under fire for promoting advertisements or pages that were trying to sway user sentiment away or towards certain candidates. In fact, the current Russian probe is still trying to answer whether or not Russian hackers took advantage of social media ads to manipulate Trump's victory. The inability of Facebook to take down these "fake" advertisements was another issue, with users complaining that their reports and complaints weren't being heard.
For Facebook specifically, EU officials complained that the company wasn't being transparent in it's actions towards combating the creation of fake ads and fake accounts. While Facebook had said that they were working in removing such pages, many users claim that nothing is being done. In a joint statement issued by the European Commission, the platforms were failing to identify specific indicators of fake news. Without this ability, they had a limited scope of what they could and couldn't take down due to spam or inaccurate information.
So why doesn't Facebook take a harsher stand towards fake news? Their business model is based on revenues from advertising. Over 98% of revenues come from displaying ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other apps. Due to their massive base of consumers (1.52 billion daily active users), these social media platforms are a lucrative place for companies to reach large audiences. Only 2% of their revenues come from other sources, like payments or fees paid by it's third party users. Thus, removing ads would be similar to cutting off parts of their revenue. And if Facebook's algorithm for identifying fake news is wrong, they'd be losing unnecessary money.
With social media playing a larger role in our lives, we should learn to be careful of simply absorbing the information we see. Fake news is no longer something easy to identify, and with more and more people relying on the Internet for their daily news intake, it's important to make the distinction between what is accurate, and what is a method of manipulating your beliefs.
Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/trump-vortex-why-facebooks-business-model-is-just-now-under-fire.html
https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-facebook-make-money/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/eu-officials-say-facebook-twitter-google-failing-in-fake-news-battle/
Since the 2016 election, fake news has been a hotly debated topic. With a growing number of voters using social media to contact local representatives, converse about various political issues, and even register to vote, it's unclear how accurate or informative these user-driven pages and articles can be. Many social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram came under fire for promoting advertisements or pages that were trying to sway user sentiment away or towards certain candidates. In fact, the current Russian probe is still trying to answer whether or not Russian hackers took advantage of social media ads to manipulate Trump's victory. The inability of Facebook to take down these "fake" advertisements was another issue, with users complaining that their reports and complaints weren't being heard.
For Facebook specifically, EU officials complained that the company wasn't being transparent in it's actions towards combating the creation of fake ads and fake accounts. While Facebook had said that they were working in removing such pages, many users claim that nothing is being done. In a joint statement issued by the European Commission, the platforms were failing to identify specific indicators of fake news. Without this ability, they had a limited scope of what they could and couldn't take down due to spam or inaccurate information.
So why doesn't Facebook take a harsher stand towards fake news? Their business model is based on revenues from advertising. Over 98% of revenues come from displaying ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other apps. Due to their massive base of consumers (1.52 billion daily active users), these social media platforms are a lucrative place for companies to reach large audiences. Only 2% of their revenues come from other sources, like payments or fees paid by it's third party users. Thus, removing ads would be similar to cutting off parts of their revenue. And if Facebook's algorithm for identifying fake news is wrong, they'd be losing unnecessary money.
With social media playing a larger role in our lives, we should learn to be careful of simply absorbing the information we see. Fake news is no longer something easy to identify, and with more and more people relying on the Internet for their daily news intake, it's important to make the distinction between what is accurate, and what is a method of manipulating your beliefs.
Sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/trump-vortex-why-facebooks-business-model-is-just-now-under-fire.html
https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-facebook-make-money/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/eu-officials-say-facebook-twitter-google-failing-in-fake-news-battle/
In my opinion, fake news is not as much of an issue as user privacy. I believe that all users should have a right to privacy and that all data stored about them shouldn't be shared without their explicit consent. In recent months, there have been many concerns relating to Facebook's use of user data and their sketchy practices. While I do wholeheartedly agree with the fact that there should be transparency in the social media industry, I think that what companies like Facebook and Google are doing right now is totally acceptable. The users don't pay anything and should be fully aware that their data will be used to make money. If they don't want to use these products, then they can go use another product that they have to pay for — the fee for the amazing product is their data. This is an interesting debate and I am curious to hear what my other classmates have to say about it.
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