Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently had a conversation with author and historian Yuval Noah Harari as part of his annual challenge. During their ‘talk’, the two discussed ethics of the digital age and the challenges Facebook is facing to ensure that its platform unites the society and not divide.
The discussion covered several key challenges that the social media giant has tackled during the past year, within a historical context. However, one point made by Harari stands out from the rest.
According to Yuval Noah Harari, the algorithm sorting process of Facebook’s News Feed is not beneficial for the broader society. This is because it only shows people what they like and prefers to see (AKA filter-bubble) – which is always not appropriate to enhance awareness and understanding in the community.
In fact, during the discussion, Harari points out that Facebook’s content works like ‘feel-good’ potion for the users – which ultimately makes them come back for more.
Harari points out that this may not be a healthy practice to establish as users often make up an isolated perspective of themselves without realizing.
In response, CEO Facebook Mark Zuckerberg argues that his platform does not entirely rely on the machine learning process to establish the user’s experience. He claims that his developers and engineering teams interact with real people who share their experiences for the calculations.
He also clarified that the company periodically introduces measures to enhance healthy and meaningful interactions between the users – as per the purpose of Facebook.
Read next: Facebook can be divided into two spaces by 2024, according to Mark Zuckerberg
The discussion covered several key challenges that the social media giant has tackled during the past year, within a historical context. However, one point made by Harari stands out from the rest.
According to Yuval Noah Harari, the algorithm sorting process of Facebook’s News Feed is not beneficial for the broader society. This is because it only shows people what they like and prefers to see (AKA filter-bubble) – which is always not appropriate to enhance awareness and understanding in the community.
In fact, during the discussion, Harari points out that Facebook’s content works like ‘feel-good’ potion for the users – which ultimately makes them come back for more.
Harari points out that this may not be a healthy practice to establish as users often make up an isolated perspective of themselves without realizing.
In response, CEO Facebook Mark Zuckerberg argues that his platform does not entirely rely on the machine learning process to establish the user’s experience. He claims that his developers and engineering teams interact with real people who share their experiences for the calculations.
He also clarified that the company periodically introduces measures to enhance healthy and meaningful interactions between the users – as per the purpose of Facebook.
Read next: Facebook can be divided into two spaces by 2024, according to Mark Zuckerberg
