> A lot of the issues FB deals with are social problems at scale. It's insane that any one company is expected to successfully moderate three billion people, they're doing the best they can with impossible constraints.
This is a problem that they've created at scale. In the US our closest thing to social issue moderation is probably the police (though please leave any efficacy discussion at the door) and there are 17 officers per 10k people in the US that make 67.6k/annual. Amortized per capita we expend about $114.92 for law enforcement in the real world - Facebook doesn't need a similar per-capita expenditure to keep its platform, but if you think it ends up spending more than 5 cents per user in amortized moderation costs I've got a Bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
This social issue at scale didn't exist before Facebook - it might have naturally existed over time through the popularity of platforms like Disqus and disjointed forums. But Facebook owns the problem and nurtured it into the beast we know today. The social problems are an externality of Facebook's business model which they want nothing to do with fixing - it should be treated no differently than a paper mill polluting a river.
I think all of us own the problem. Technology and progress are not going to stop, if not Facebook then some other company would have brought us here. I think connecting people is a good thing, and Facebook made the world a better place so far (just my opinion), but misinformation is becoming easier and easier with technology and it won't stop here without some innovative ideas or groundbreaking regulations.
perhaps you should do the math, 5 cents per user would be 2.81 billion * 0.05 = ~$7 million. They said in the earnings report they will spend $5 Billion this year on moderation.
This is a problem that they've created at scale. In the US our closest thing to social issue moderation is probably the police (though please leave any efficacy discussion at the door) and there are 17 officers per 10k people in the US that make 67.6k/annual. Amortized per capita we expend about $114.92 for law enforcement in the real world - Facebook doesn't need a similar per-capita expenditure to keep its platform, but if you think it ends up spending more than 5 cents per user in amortized moderation costs I've got a Bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
This social issue at scale didn't exist before Facebook - it might have naturally existed over time through the popularity of platforms like Disqus and disjointed forums. But Facebook owns the problem and nurtured it into the beast we know today. The social problems are an externality of Facebook's business model which they want nothing to do with fixing - it should be treated no differently than a paper mill polluting a river.
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