Rather than censoring posts from repeat disinformation offenders that were evaluated by the company’s network of outside fact-checkers, the News Feed distributed them, increasing views by up to 30% internationally. The engineers saw the surge subside a few weeks later and then flare up again until the ranking issue was fixed on March 11th.
FB ‘Ranking Failure’ Leads to Increased Misinformation on the Platform
In addition to posts flagged by fact-checkers, Facebook’s systems failed to properly demote probable nudity, violence, and even Russian state media, which the social network recently pledged to stop recommending in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Internally, the problem was labeled a level-one SEV, or site event — a designation reserved for high-priority technical issues. Meta spokesman Joe Osborne ratified the incident, stating the company “detected irregularities in downranking on five distinct occasions, which matched with a minor, temporary rise in internal metrics.” Furthermore, Osborne said, For years, Facebook has promoted downranking as a way to improve the quality of the News Feed, and its automated system has steadily expanded the types of content on which it acts. Downranking has been utilised in response to conflicts and contentious political stories, prompting fears of shadow banning and legislative action. Despite its growing relevance, Facebook has failed to discuss its influence on what people see and, as this incident demonstrates, what happens when the system fails. Downranking, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, combats people’s natural desire to connect with “more sensationalist and controversial” information. According to Zuckerberg, Check out? Facebook funded GOP firm to defame TikTok
