Like for Like?
This article uncovered that loopholes in Facebook security allowed real and fake accounts to manipulate likes and comments. This created “large scale manipulation” and resulted in over 100 million likes that were not genuine – meaning that without this loophole, there would not be those likes. At first thought, who cares? But the implications of this are much larger when considering the social network and Facebook’s algorithms. For instance, a post that receives more likes will appear higher up on someone’s news-feed. This may be insignificant if it is a teenager looking for a self-esteem boost; however, researchers warn that this manipulation may be used for darker purposes. There is speculation that this type of manipulation was used to influence election results in the past US presidential elections as well as the French elections.
The importance of the flow of information through social networks highlights the importance and value of being able to influence people’s thoughts by controlling the visibility of posts in networks. This relates to the idea discussed in class of the sociologists perspective: “the strength of ties.” Each person belongs to a giant component of the social network but they receive information through their strong and weak ties.
Let’s assume a person’s network only consists of their Facebook connections and that’s the dominant way that person receives information. The manipulation of likes for certain posts closes bridges between nodes for that person because it may send an article or post to the top of one’s feed – where otherwise that person would not have seen it. This is powerful because it controls how and what information people are receiving.
Furthermore, the idea can be pushed further by considering the implication of positive versus negative links. Let’s assume that a person’s Facebook friends are “positive” or “negative” based on whether they align in political views. If this network is balanced, according to the structural balance theory, then either everyone in one’s network aligns in political views or (more likely) a person’s Facebook friends are divided into two groups who oppose each other political views. Thus, the manipulation of likes and comments has the ability to boost one side of the political spectrum and shift the structural balance of the network.
In conclusion, networks are powerful tools that can be used to, essentially, control people through influence. The implication of this ranges from selling products to influencing the way people vote. However, the question that needs to be considered based on this article is the ethics of “fake” likes and comments which push certain information. Is this manipulation ethical and, if not, how can we stop it?
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/collusion-network-facebook-flaw-leads-to-millions-of-fake-likes/