Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Big Brother Is Here: Facebook Reveals Its Master Plan - Control All News FLOW

Big Brother Is Here: Facebook Reveals Its Master Plan - Control All News Flow

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/29/2015 21:45 -0400

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.

The new proposal by Facebook carries another risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and what else they have done on the web.

And if Facebook pushes beyond the experimental stage and makes content hosted on the site commonplace, those who do not participate in the program could lose substantial traffic — a factor that has played into the thinking of some publishers. Their articles might load more slowly than their competitors’, and over time readers might avoid those sites.

- From the New York Times article: Facebook May Host News Sites’ Content

Last week, I came across an incredibly important article from the New York Times, which described Facebook’s plan to provide direct access to other websites’ content in exchange for some sort of advertising partnership. The implications of this are so huge that at this point I have far more questions than answers.

Let’s start with a few excerpts from the article:

With 1.4 billion users, the social media site has become a vital source of traffic for publishers looking to reach an increasingly fragmented audience glued to smartphones. In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.

Such a plan would represent a leap of faith for news organizations accustomed to keeping their readers within their own ecosystems, as well as accumulating valuable data on them. Facebook has been trying to allay their fears, according to several of the people briefed on the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were bound by nondisclosure agreements.

Facebook intends to begin testing the new format in the next several months, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The initial partners are expected to be The New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic, although others may be added since discussions are continuing. The Times and Facebook are moving closer to a firm deal, one person said.

Facebook has said publicly that it wants to make the experience of consuming content online more seamless. News articles on Facebook are currently linked to the publisher’s own website, and open in a web browser, typically taking about eight seconds to load. Facebook thinks that this is too much time, especially on a mobile device, and that when it comes to catching the roving eyeballs of readers, milliseconds matter.

The Huffington Post and the business and economics website Quartz were also approached. Both also declined to discuss their involvement.

Facebook declined to comment on its specific discussions with publishers. But the company noted that it had provided features to help publishers get better traction on Facebook, including tools unveiled in December that let them target their articles to specific groups of Facebook users, such as young women living in New York who like to travel.

The new proposal by Facebook carries another risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and what else they have done on the web.

And if Facebook pushes beyond the experimental stage and makes content hosted on the site commonplace, those who do not participate in the program could lose substantial traffic — a factor that has played into the thinking of some publishers. Their articles might load more slowly than their competitors’, and over time readers might avoid those sites.

And just as Facebook has changed its news feed to automatically play videos hosted directly on the site, giving them an advantage compared with videos hosted on YouTube, it could change the feed to give priority to articles hosted directly on its site.

Let me try to address this the best I can from several different angles. First off, what’s the big picture plan here? As the number two ranked website in the world with 1.4 billion users, Facebook itself is already something like an alternative internet where a disturbing number of individuals spend a disproportionate amount of their time. The only thing that seems to make many of its users click away is content hosted on other people’s websites linked to from Facebook users. Other than this outside content, many FB users might never leave the site.

While this is scary to someone like me, to Facebook it is an abomination. The company doesn’t want people to leave their site ever — for any reason. Hence the aggressive push to carry outside news content, and create a better positioned alternative web centrally controlled by it. This is a huge power play move.

Second, the New York Times righty asks the question concerning what will publishers get from Facebook for allowing their content to appear on the site seamlessly. Some sort of revenue share from advertisers seems to be an obvious angle, but perhaps there’s more.

While Facebook isn’t a huge traffic driver for Liberty Blitzkrieg, it isn’t totally irrelevant either. For example, FB provided about 3% of the site’s traffic over the past 12 months. This is despite the fact that LBK doesn’t even have a Facebook page, and I’ve never shared a link through it. Even more impressive, Facebook drove more traffic to LBK over the same time period than Twitter, and I am very active on that platform. So I can only imagine how important FB is to website editors who actually use it.

This brings me to a key point about leverage. It seems to me that Facebook has all the leverage in negotiations with content providers. If you’re a news website that refuses to join in this program, over time you might see your traffic evaporate compared to your competitors whose content will load seamlessly and be promoted by the FB algorithm. If a large percentage of your traffic is being generated by Facebook, can you really afford to lose this?

One thing that FB might be willing to offer publishers in return other than advertising dollars, is increased access to their fan base. For example, when I try to figure out through Google analytics who specifically (or what page) on Facebook is sharing my work, I can’t easily do so. Clearly this information could prove very useful for networking purposes and could be quite valuable.

Looking for some additional insight and words of wisdom, I asked the smartest tech/internet person I know for his opinion. It was more optimistic than I thought:

This could be a huge shaper of news on the internet. or it could turn out to be nothing.

Other than saying that I don’t really know how to predict what might or might not happen, and I sort of don’t care much because it is in the realm (for now at least) of stuff that I don’t read (mainstream news), on a site that I never see (Facebook). However, the one thing I wonder in terms of the viability of this is whether in the end it may drive people away from FB.

Back in the day, probably when you weren’t so aware of the nascent net, there were two giant “services” on the Internet called Compuserve and America Online. They were each what you are thinking that Facebook is heading toward; exclusive, centralized portals to the whole net. They were also giant and successful at the time. Then people outside of them started doing things that were so much more creative and interesting. At the same time, in order to make everything fit inside their proprietary boxes and categories, they were making everything ever more standardized and boring. Then they just abruptly died.

Given the enormity of what Facebook is trying to achieve, I have some obvious concerns. First, since all of the leverage seems to reside with Facebook, I fear they are likely to get the better part of any deal by wide margin. Second, if they succeed in this push, this single company’s ability to control access to news and what is trending and deemed important by a huge section of humanity will be extraordinary.

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Sun, 03/29/2015 - 21:50 | 5940653Jonesy

Fuckbook? Another Goy invention lifted by a Jew.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 21:53 | 5940661chilli sauce

I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.jobs-review.com

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:39 | 5940774me or you

Can you pay my rent this month?

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:52 | 5940905COSMOS

Call it what it is Joobook. Another way to control how you perceive the world. Fucklebergsteinowitz can take a hike.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 00:25 | 5940936balolalo

I think this shows how desperate both parties are.

The MSM is dying. Facebook has plateued.

However the risk is great to both parties. What happens when users hijack the message? And how do they control feedback?

I think this will shoot both of them in the foot in the end.

BLOWBACK BITCHEZ.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:24 | 5941003Macchendra

Do you see any of your code on Facebook?

Did I use any of your code?

What? Match.com for Harvard guys?

You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this.

If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:38 | 5941017Macchendra

And honestly, the "goy" version of this, classmates.com, had been around for ages stinking up your spam folder. Thank God the MBAs didn't win this battle. They would have monetized it to death. And YOUR opinion has benefited. YOU have been given a voice.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 05:21 | 5941132GetZeeGold

The master plan is nothing new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ForvEyNABs8

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 06:31 | 5941162Truthseeker2

Whoever Controls The Media Controls The World

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 08:01 | 5941260AtticusNoyle

Nice little talk on what Facebooks algo's actually do...https://youtu.be/p6vM4dhI9I8

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 09:36 | 5941513Took Red Pill

Anyone who is still on FB and wants to get off, you need to completely delete your account, not just deactivate it. It's not easy to find out how through them. Follow directions here;

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/permanently-delete-your-faceboo...

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 09:50 | 5941577Gnostech

Sorry, even that won't totally get rid of it. And even if you don't have a facebook and never had had one, Facebook still has a "dark" profile for you, based on pictures uploaded by other people of you, uses of your name, etc etc.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 13:33 | 5942535General Decline

The best thing you can do at this point if you have a FB account is to post bad and misleading information. Tag people with incorrect names, put false intrests down about yourself, post fictional stories, etc.. If they're going to use it to gather information on you, let it be totally worthless.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 10:08 | 5941655ExpendableOne

As gnostech said, you are on facebook. Like it or not. If you've ever had your picture taken by a facebook user and that user tagged you, you are on there. Just think of the implications of that for a few. All the sheeple are self reporting and linking themselves up via photos and postings. The Stasi had to work for their info.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:34 | 5941012fudge

What happens when users hijack the message?

Yes, this is all about control of the 'message'. They are loosing control, this is one option they've chosen and they'll attempt to vilify any and all alternate sources.

This attack on RT is another skirmish in the war for your minds ,http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/244401-media-eu-nato-us/ , maybe lesser known sites will just be disappeared.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 06:32 | 5941163WordSmith2013

Who REALLY Controls The Mainstream Media?

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 05:03 | 5941124Taint Boil

Imagine FaceFuck controlling all the information delivered to the sheep on say ….hmmm, Russia for example.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 07:33 | 5941218doctor10

"they" have lost control of the narrative. Can't even get a good game of cowboys and indians going anywhere in the world any longer.

When despite all their insane raving about him, even Putin comes off looking more of a statesman than anybody in the West, its obvious the stories no longer hold together into a believable story

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 09:00 | 5941402mtl4

This is the natural progression.........first expansion then consolidation but in the end unfortunatly it will likely mean the death of any sort of freedom on the internet.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:43 | 5941027XqWretch

They probably told Zuckerfuck to play ball or theyd release pics of him with little boys. It's always the same

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:13 | 5940848sun tzu

o you have to swallow to make that much or can you spit?

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:01 | 5940680Burt Gummer

I'm gonna twitter this shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBCUCJNWimo

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:31 | 5940747Paveway IV

"...With 1.4 billion users..."

Yeah, and I account for a dozen of those. I can't remember the username or password or email account that I made up the last time I was forced to use it so I just make up another one. Which I promptly forget again because I never use it.

When you hear your teenage kids say, "Facebook?? Facebook SUCKS" you know it's over for them.

MSM want's to funnel their feces through FB? Hey - I'm all for it. More power to them. I would rather have ALL the knuckle-draggers self-confined to their own little cage somewhere on the periphery of the internet than wandering around loose and showing up on worthwhile sites. Like I would ever even bother to make up yet another fake account on Facebook to read somethign like the NYT, WSJ, WaPo, Bussiness Insider, etc., etc., etc.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:41 | 5940777bag holder

This sounds exactly like America Online back in the 90s. They tried to create their own self-contained Internet, too. It didn't exactly end well.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:24 | 5940870in4mayshun

Half the people I know already ditched FB for Instagram. The other half were smart enough never to join FB..

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:50 | 5940903hairball48

I'm glad I'm in the latter group--never joined :)

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 00:07 | 5940921COSMOS

Facebook owns instagram so you are still in the cage.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:42 | 5941024XqWretch

When NSA run bartertown, dont matter what social media network you use, you are being watched

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:58 | 5940914Lone_Star

The only problem with that is FB bought Instagram in April 2012.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303815404577333840377381670

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:14 | 5940849sun tzu

I have a few accounts I haven't used in years. You can't delete them.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:41 | 5940898MsCreant

I don't have an account or go there at all. Would it be subversive to create lots and lots of accounts, I wonder?

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 00:24 | 5940941WillyGroper

OT: exposes the agenda on one front.

Where's Goog glass tech whiz Barnaby?

Lloyds excluding damages from non-ionizing radiation on policies.

Cell phones, masts, wifi, bluetooth, smart meters.

http://thephaser.com/2015/03/the-phaser-letter-to-the-editor-wireless-smart-meters-and-lloyds-insurance-giant/

Real estate is going to be real fun. They're putting up towers every mile here.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:06 | 5940990PrettySkulls

im sure if we all pitch in we can raise fb's userbase to 5 or 10 times the population of the planet.

then lets see 'em brag about "50 billion users." even "X.Y billion active users" would be plainly seen as having no providence.

PS.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 09:33 | 5941502Took Red Pill

Sun TZU, you can delete them. They don't make it easy. Follow link on this;

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/permanently-delete-your-faceboo...

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 00:31 | 5940947DipshitMiddleCl...

This.

I think most people get off facebook whne they hit about 26 or 27 years old.

I got off it along time ago and most of the teengagers today don't use it at all.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:46 | 5941030XqWretch

Teenage kids are saying fuck facebook? Where do you live? I want to move there

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 00:53 | 5940968glenlloyd

I suppose it could in a way exert an influence on what people read, but I would guess that the percentage of people who wish to reside completely on the FB site is not all that large, and I can't think that this is really an audience worth persuing tbh.

Others, who figure out that their typical sources of media are being throttled will seek out those sources outside the facebook site and it might cause them to think twice about how much time they spend there or whether FB really has anything to offer.

For FB I'm in the same camp as the Internet guru, I think it could end up biting FB in the ass...in the end.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 04:08 | 5941110SHRAGS

Apathy [passive] + eye candy / Celeb / sex [active] type clickbait model. They are betting a large percentage of user are apathetic to going outside FB. They would already have a good idea of their users psych profile.

Curiosity is overestimated as a trait.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 08:06 | 5941272StupidEarthlings

It probably doesn't matter anyway. The 'types' that use FB are the same people that belive all the sh!t that's fed to them on the nightly news. So..who cares if those people are getting the same crap thru spacebook?

o snap, does anyone remember myspace?..

hell, I remember comp u serve..

lol

(yeah, I said lol..and 'o-snap' too)

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 21:53 | 5940660Boondocker

The game is still Monopoly. ...why do we seem to forget that?

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:15 | 5940662Rusty Shorts

BREAKING NEWS; ALL News Flows are conTROLLED.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 21:55 | 5940667NoDebt

What the hell is Facebook?

And now that I read this article I'm terrified ZH might not appear on it. Sounds like... really important and stuff.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 22:08 | 5940701bunnyswanson

Despite the attempt to turn Americans into the bad guy as their govt plows through one nation after another, stealing resources, killing everyone in site and leaving those still half alive in rubble, FB has allowed us here in America and Canada to reveal the real story. We do not talk about our families, jobs or dinner. We post news links.

https://www.facebook.com/wendy.davisguess

Take a look. United we stand.

Sun, 03/29/2015 - 23:05 | 5940826OldPhart

It's all fun and games until the FBI knocks on your door.

They will, and did.

I no longer facebook.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:09 | 5940992TheReplacement

Good for you, I suppose. I can't be bothered with Facebook for the simple reason I can't be bothered with Facebook, or MySpace before that (anyone remember MySpace?) or AOL before that.

When you speak to people, face to face, you can better judge if they heard you or if they were listening.

All the same, it doesn't seem likely to matter. Have you contemplated just how much you do not and cannot know? The whole thing is mindboggling in scale and scope and the intricate webs of alliances and deceit is beyond comprehension.

And that is the good news. It is too complex. Everything is too complex. People fashion TPTB as some sort of continuation of the Nazis of old and even further back. Yes, this does seem to be the case. However, the Nazis used slave labor to build complex weapons systems that were too heavy for a lot of ground that needed to be fought over, mechanically unreliable, too complex to manufacture in mass quantities quickly, and required extensive training for an ever dwindling number of soldiers capable of learning to use the systems while being loyal and contientious (they impressed captured soldiers from one front to fight on another against a different enemy).

Does that sounds familiar? How many Abrams and Apaches can we churn out? Can an Abrams get everywhere it might need to go? Those fields in Donbass looked awfully muddy. Just how fast can we make these tanks now that our auto industry is just about gonesky? How much effort does it take to maintain and supply the Abrams and Apache? Do any Chinese components go into that tank or helo? How about software from other countries? How much does it cost, how long does it take, and what are the requirements for a tanker or helo crew? We have plenty of people who can read, write and speak english and, for sure, they are totally, like, loyal and everything, right?

Care to compare the monetary or financial systems? How about police and surviellance? Regulations and social justice? Fanaticisms? Fear/loathing of the other?

History repeats, just sometimes wavelengths get crossed.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:46 | 5941031bunnyswanson

Sharing links and making observations is hardly talking to each other. And if the FBI is reading our news feeds, then they should realize that only a fool would not object to the real news. Remember, when the number of people in the demonstrations reaches 1 million, the cops change sides. When the cops change sides, it's over for the couple thousand at the top of this pyramid made from blood, sweat and tears of 4 generations. The end is going to be the same for Americans. I am a Canadian in America. And I strongly feel that every american no matter their income is going to be answering to the Chinese govt officials by the time they wrap this up. Americans are going to be responsible for the debt their politicians racked up. Just like Greece. Elimination of the middle class is not something to take lying down if you care at all about humanity and what our actions today will do to future humans on this planet. China is not a nice country.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 01:56 | 5941040Bay of Pigs

Laughable...you don't know shit about Americans...and the fuckan Chinese? Seriously?

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 02:24 | 5941065bunnyswanson

What is there to know? Father was given an ambassorship by Canadian govt in his industry (mining) when he was needed to do a complex job during a deep freeze and broken water main (ice filled mine shaft). During that trip from Sudbury, in Johnstown, PA, a mining accident occurred resulting in a bucket of several tons of muck falling 500 feet down a shaft onto the heads of 2 men, one of whom had 11 children and who was also the superintendent of the drilling company sinking the shaft. My father was in Pittsburgh when it happened. The coal miners refused to go down the hole. They called and asked my father, who did. http://www.camgenpa.com/news/1965TD.html He sautered the bucket back onto the same crane and went down numerous times, but when it came time to bring up the deceased drillers, the company boss decided he had the courage, and the media coverage was called in. My dad was devastated. But the company offered him the job of the superintendent and gave him and his family life long visas. He traveled to other countries and left my us in a very small town. Mother decided to spend her time at the bar. The towns people raised me, fed me, let me sleep there, took me to doctor, stores, and never made me feel badly about my fractured family and empty home. They were Polish, Slovadian, Filipino, Italian, and back in 1965, the people were very kind, hard working, honest and private.

I know enough that I have gratitude toward the Americans for keeping me from going where I should have gone considering the situation. They showed me love. And I plan on doing what I can to see to it that these people are not punished for what their govt and big money interests have done in their name. They do not deserve this.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 04:17 | 5941112bunnyswanson

There is no hero who is going to come and save the day. If the global community turns its back on your country when the real reason for combat equipment and enough ammo to wipe out the entire population, the surveillance and the FEMA camps, the gloves will come off and the Rich Kid on the Block will be put in his place with the techniques used by the US soldiers, deemed torture. With the bankers and the manipulation going on going unreported by MSM everywhere, FB is the only choice. Huffpo may have been once but that quickly changed when AH joined AOL.

ZH commentors who down vote me and yet scream on these threads condemnation must be in the library because boys it is the same fucking thing.

Mon, 03/30/2015 - 07:50 | 5941245flapdoodle

The problem is that FB will quickly erase any information or communication that is a danger to TPTB, disable the account of whoever sends it, and provide the three letter agencies the information needed to take out the troublemaker.

Personally, I agree with the other posts - FB will just turn into another Compuserve/AOL and be just as irrelevant... and the silver lining is that the MSM who go for this scheme will circle the bowl along with them.