A Facebook friend recently wrote a status asking, "What am I missing? Is there a setting or something, cause like cable I'm getting 500 channels of crap all the sudden." Matt is overwhelmed by how to sort his newsfeed. Even worse Environmentalists are liking Chevron, Vegans are liking Greek Yogurt, Cyclists are liking Cars and I'm being told that my wife liked various pages when she's barely on The Social Network.
The like has become a currency of influence and it's pushing you towards whatever ad buys are being placed or campaigns ran.
I'm no conspiracy theorist or think a Monetization Devil is at work on ad algorithms, poking a dev with a trident to place them. More simply, another business finds itself at the throw everything on the wall to see what sticks phase of the tech cycle. Faced with the unfettered power of a billionaire with a billion users, will the FCC write new rules indicating an ad for a like actually has to have taken place? Citing a legal precedence of truth in advertising? I hope so. Cause Facebook fake like ads are lying to you and the company will absolutely not govern itself, now that they're driven by shareholder value.
If you haven't seen or noticed the fake like ads yet, here’s a screenshot of one. My friend Stu runs a bike shop near me and is committed to buying local and organic farming. After seeing this ad in my newsfeed I asked and he did not like Safeway or approve of his name being associated with Cookie Pops.
Sort by the Truth
A news filter I'd like to see on Facebook is by the truth. Just like a PR firm flattering a mommy blogger with product in exchange for positive reviews, these like ads play at the level of whom we trust and our relationships. The ability to trust our friends is lost and that's where the social graph stops being useful.
While Matt was asking for help to better sort his newsfeed, Instagram's terms of service changed to do the same thing as Facebook. On Hacker News, Dave Winer observed
They (Instagram) want to use your pictures to sell products to your friends. Say you take a picture of your friends at Domino's Pizza. They can show that picture to your friends and say 'Look this guy who you know loves our pizza. Come try it out.' Now you may not mind making an endorsement. But with this plan they don't have to ask you for permission. They can just do it
Instagram can and will just do it. It's the erosion of trust that's the issue and what I think most people are really upset about. If Facebook tells me that my bike-shop owning, buy-local friend likes Safeway Cookie Pops, then Instagram will show me how all my friends endorse pizza brands too.
In real life my friends don't lie to me or try to sell me pizza and cookies.
If they do, we're not friends for long.
