The Facebook Papers: the Algorithms That Control Your News Feed

upstart writes:

Facebook employees knew that a computer-curated feed increased the time users spent on the social network-and that it led to unhealthy behaviors:

This piece is part of Gizmodo's ongoing effort to make the Facebook Papers available to the public. See the full directory of documents here.

In a presentation dated May 6, 2018, a Facebook employee asked, "Is Ranking Good?"

"Probably. Even asking the question feels slightly blasphemous at Facebook," the same employee answered in smaller text below. "So many experiments and product launches demonstrate the value of ranking that it's [sic] value is often taken as an article of faith."

[...] . The presentation is part of the Facebook Papers, a trove of documents that offer an unprecedented look inside the most powerful social media company in the world. [...]

Today, as part of a rolling effort to make the Facebook Papers available publicly, Gizmodo is releasing a second batch of documents-37 files in all. In our first drop, we shared 28 files related to the 2020 election and the Jan 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol. [...]

Today's batch offers insight into how Meta chooses to rank the content submitted by its users. It's a system that very few people seem to understand, a problem that the company appears short on clues how to solve. [...]

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