braak: I don't have a specific explainer but I've been reading recently that Facebook has become much more aggressive about downplaying links that go off site, and also that it's been full of sort of really weird artifacts of its algorithm that are cramming up feeds -- not necessarily AI stuff

the federalist has 166 readers lmao

what happened? is this all the effect of trump having lost?

Facebook has become unuseable and it was funnelling clicks to these places by the 100,000s

and in some cases ways that were obviously clear violations of Facebook rules, like DailyWire was getting a million hits from thousands of nominally independent facebook groups that were doing coordinated posts and shares on their articles.

so did zuck stop that or what? i’m just wondering if there’s an explainer showing facebook traffic cratering, facebook not promoting these pages in favor of Jesus AI pics, etc

I don't have a specific explainer but I've been reading recently that Facebook has become much more aggressive about downplaying links that go off site, and also that it's been full of sort of really weird artifacts of its algorithm that are cramming up feeds -- not necessarily AI stuff

though the Shrimp Jesus stuff is definitely a big part of it -- but overall by trying to tamp down both "politics" and "external links" it's just made space for increasing incomprehensible old people behaviors.

Log on right now and see how long you have to scroll to find a link to anything, or even a post from a real person! It’s just like wandering through a dying digital mall now.

A few recent podcasts I listen to have delved into all the weird decrepit groups, tons of weird "Offficel Facebook complaints centar" type groups, etc.. www.wheresyoured.at/were-watchin...

We're Watching Facebook Diewww.wheresyoured.at Like this newsletter? You should listen to the Better Offline episode! In the first quarter of 2024, Meta made $36.45 billion dollars - $12.37 billion dollars of which was pure profit. Though the com...

Eds post is unrelated to the fake groups I think.

No I see the connection, it’s so gummed up with weird nonsense and Groups and ads that you can’t even find any actual content from people you follow!

Oh I just meant I'm not sure he delves directly into that, didn't want anyone to read it looking for the juice on that particular angle.

Yep, ads, extremist nutbar groups, more ads, and a fairly large group of naïve old people sharing AI photos they think are real!

FB is basically bleeding users across all of its platforms, so they'd like to close the loop as much as possible. I.e. use the FB AI to generate FB content to post to other FB users, etc.

It’s finished, just circling the drain now. I think they know it’s done and they’re doing everything they can now to monetize it, long-term be damned.

Still wild to me that no one (?) has challenged Zuck on the state of the site directly. Feel like he does interviews all the time now.

Yeah you’d think there’s a Board of Directors or something that would care. Maybe they’ve all just given up and figure they’ll squeeze it for what it’s worth before it goes under.

Zuck, to an even greater degree than Musk, has rigged himself more or less ironclad control over the voting shares of the company. The board is a hood ornament.

(Old source, but nothing of significance has changed:)

Mark Zuckerberg is essentially untouchable at Facebookwww.vox.com Zuckerberg has an enormous amount of voting power at Facebook, meaning he’s not going anywhere.

as their profits have doubled since 2020 they probably think the site is just dandy

Yeah, the irony here is that external links/posts to ragebait content probably tethered a large chunk of their older user base... and now they've even killed that.

"Enshittification Death Spiral" gonna be Merriam-Webster's phrase of 2025/26/27...

Meta keeps making terrible decisions. They completely destroyed Instagram, for example; making it much harder for content creators to actually get views + followers. So there's basically no point to the platform anymore and some of the biggest accounts are leaving. It's just.. inexplicably dumb 🤷🏼

last night I shared an imgur link that was a short vid of lambs and a sheepdog and within 30 seconds of my sharing it FB had removed it with the message "It looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way."

like if I attempt to read Facebook now, half the posts things like this screen shot — Tiffany is not someone I know nor do I think they know me. Why is Facebook telling me that they suggested it? Just really weird.

yeah I've found Ryan Broderick at Garbage Day, who periodically takes dives into particular weird viral events that are going on on the internet, particularly interesting on this score www.garbageday.email

Garbage Daywww.garbageday.email A newsletter about having fun online

very interesting. there needs to be whole agencies watching this shit

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