WHO controls your Facebook News Feed? We are fed a specially selected diet of jokes, photos and gossip from our Facebook friends, but not by a person. Instead an algorithm does the work 鈥� giving it the power to influence us.
The furore over an experiment in which Facebook researchers attempted to manipulate users鈥� emotions via their News Feed, albeit only slightly, highlighted the extent of that power.
Facebook鈥檚 algorithms are a closely guarded secret. 鈥淭hese are black boxes,鈥� says in Boston. 鈥淚n many cases the algorithms are held up as trade secrets, so there鈥檚 a competitive advantage to remaining non-transparent.鈥�
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For Karrie Karahalios and Cedric Langbort at the University of Illinois and Christian Sandvig at the University of Michigan, Facebook鈥檚 influence is out of balance with our understanding of how its algorithm works. So they are carrying out what they call a collaborative audit, looking at the Facebook experiences of thousands of people to work out the underlying algorithmic rules.
To do this they have created an app called , which creates a stream of everything that your friends are posting. When I tried it, I saw an endless stream of comments, likes and posts by friends I鈥檇 forgotten I had. To the right I saw my standard News Feed, which was empty by comparison.
In their first, small study using FeedVis, the team found that most people 鈥� 62 per cent 鈥� didn鈥檛 know that the News Feed is automatically curated. People were shocked that they weren鈥檛 seeing everything their network posted. In cases where posts of close friends or family were excluded, many became upset.
The team is starting to understand some of the basic rules that govern what people see. 鈥淲e know that if you comment on someone鈥檚 wall, you鈥檙e more likely to see a post from them than if you just like something,鈥� says Karahalios. 鈥淎nd if you go to a person鈥檚 timeline you鈥檙e more likely to see content from them later.鈥� The work was presented at the Berkman Center at Harvard University last week.
But Facebook鈥檚 algorithms change constantly. 鈥淓ven if I figure it out today, that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean it鈥檒l be like that tomorrow,鈥� says Wilson.
To expand the experiment, the team will recreate a person鈥檚 profile based on their likes, comments and other Facebook activity and then see if they can detect patterns in what their News Feed shows them.
Already, Facebook appropriates its users鈥� profiles to create adverts on their friends鈥� feeds that look like normal content. There are other tricks, too. 鈥淚 could share a link to the McDonald鈥檚 website, commenting that a McLobster sounds disgusting,鈥� says . If you like that link, Facebook registers that you like McDonald鈥檚. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 appear on your feed, but your friends will get ads that say 鈥楬al likes McDonald鈥檚鈥�,鈥� he says.
Understanding these dynamics is crucial, as Facebook is increasingly the tool that people use to communicate and find out about their world. 鈥淚n the history of mass media, there have been channels with huge reach, but it鈥檚 typically a human in the apex of the control loop,鈥� says Wilson. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just not true any more.鈥�
聯In the history of mass media people were in control of what you saw. That鈥檚 not true any more聰
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淔acebook鈥檚 biggest secret鈥�
