Facebook is a social network. Facebook is a conglomerate (it owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus VR). Facebook is a hardware company. Facebook is a software company.
Facebook is many things. For instance, it’s also a media company.
This is the only description of Facebook, however, that makes CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg bristle.
“We’re a technology company. We’re not a media company. When you think about a media company, you know, people are producing content, people are editing content, and that’s not us. We’re a technology company. We build tools. We do not produce the content. We exist to give you the tools to curate and have the experience that you want, to connect with the people and businesses and institutions in the world that you want.”
That’s Zuck speaking during a Facebook town hall event held this week, after being asked about Facebook’s role in media.
The actions of Facebook tell a different story.
Facebook’s 1.7 billion users voraciously consume news through Facebook’s social network. It’s a major driver of traffic to publications small and large (including this one).
Up until last Friday, Facebook paid for a team of over 20 people to curate and maintain its “Trending Topics” section. If that sounds an awful lot like an editorial team, that’s because it’s an editorial team.
Facebook makes editorial judgments about what kind of violence it will allow in videos. For instance, when Diamond Reynolds took to Facebook Live, she livestreamed the shooting death of her boyfriend Philando Castile at the hands of police in a routine traffic stop.
Facebook initially removed the video, though it was explained as a glitch (the video was back online an hour later).
Facebook is outright bankrolling media producers like The New York Times, BuzzFeed, Vox, and Business Insider to create content for its Facebook Live video service.
Facebook changed how its News Feed system works earlier this summer, with the intention of tamping down so-called “clickbait” pieces in favor of more traditional Facebook content (pictures of babies, for instance).
Facebook’s reluctance to accept its role as a news company has led to some messy gaffes.
First, there was the report by Gizmodo that the section of Facebook curated by an editorial team had a liberal-leaning slant. That resulted in a reprimand from Congress and Zuck having to make nice with Conservative leaders.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:economictimes.indiatimes.com)
