Facebook can increase the frequency of violent racist attacks, according to a new study reported this week in the New York Times.
It’s not that Facebook is deliberately pushing racist views. The study, by researchers at a British University, looked at more than 3,000 attacks on refugees in Germany over two years.
They found that in communities with a more intensive local use of Facebook, compared to overall internet usage, attacks were more frequent the more people used Facebook.
When there were region-wide internet outages, attacks dropped off.
The key seems to have been that Facebook rewards negative emotions. Again, this isn’t Facebook’s business plan. Their business plan is to get you to spend more time on Facebook. Spend more time, you see more ads, Facebook makes more money.
But nothing gets people engaged – reading, sharing, liking, commenting – like stuff that makes them angry and scared.
So Facebook, as well as every other social media entity, has tweaked its algorithms for one thing and one thing only – holding our eyeballs hostage.
And if that means we see mostly things that make us angry, anxious, and more inclined to be suspicious of our neighbours, that’s what we’ll see.
Let’s be completely honest – this is a game that’s been played for centuries. Street corner prophets of doom and big newspapers alike try to grab attention. The news industry has not always covered itself in glory. There’s a reason the idea of “if it bleeds, it leads” still has currency.
But at least we have responsibility for what we print. Facebook and other social media companies wash their hands of the vast bulk of hate, libel, and general garbage on their system.
They’re not producing it, after all. They’ve instead handed a giant bullhorn to the worst three or four per cent of people, the kind of folks whose letters to the editor used to be good for a laugh, but were too vile to print.
The thing is, the kind of negative attention Facebook and Twitter and even Instagram can generate isn’t good for anyone. It generates conflict in the real world. It generates anxiety and wasted hours for individuals.
Like cigarettes and gin, leaded gasoline and asbestos, it’s likely only a matter of time before governments step in and attempt to regulate away the worst of it.
Hopefully, Facebook investors will cash out before they have to give up our attention.