Facebook Psychological Manipulation, Social Media Experimentation
Facebook faced public backlash following reports of a psychological experiment conducted on users' newsfeeds to manipulate emotional states. Sheryl Sandberg issued a public apology, though critics argue that such algorithmic manipulation is a standard practice for advertising and engagement. The discussion highlights how mainstream media and social platforms consistently use emotional triggers to influence consumer behavior.
facebook· sheryl sandberg· psychological manipulation· newsfeed· algorithms· micro-propaganda
00:00 Islamic State, that would work! Exactly. Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak It's Thursday July 3rd 2014 time for your Gitmo Nation media assassination episode 631 This is no agenda. I am but not cooperative here in FEMA region six in the Travis Heights hideout at the capital of their own star state in the morning everybody I'm Adam Curry And from northern Silicon Valley where it's muggy I'm John C. Dvorak It's crackpot and buzzkill In the morning Why do I... What? Why do i feel obliged to give the weather report. Well, we do Weather and Traffic on the 8s! On the eights?! Haha, on the eights every s- And it's actually 908 Yeah you can set your clock by it Weather and Traffic on the Eights everybody Well John, we have a unique opportunity here Okay...? Yep, we have a unique opportunity And I'm a little dismayed that people didn't see the opportunity but I think we need to give our producers and listeners the tools
01:01 They need. Because, um... and you actually wrote a pretty decent article about this. Yeah I know surprising eh? The Facebook psychological manipulation. Oh Facebook! Sheryl Sandberg's behind it Let me uh so while people are running around saying the military industrial complex financed it they're trying to trick us People This is and this is actually this isn't good moment because this is where you can hit people in the mouth who say Wow, I can't believe Facebook manipulated my emotions. This was really an outrage um This is And what voice was that? That's the dumb guy voice wow I can't believe that Facebook wasn't manipulating manipulating my emotions in my newsfeed
01:57 I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here. You're winning sir! Oh thank you very much This is what the mainstream media does all the... it's their mission in life this is what he does mainly to sell you stuff and this is a perfect opportunity to tell people Really? You think that this is not happening all the time in newspapers and television and radio, that your mood is not being manipulated so that right at the moment where boy meets girl or mother's about to die we stop for a commercial break. Are you kidding me?! People don't realize this! No... as a matter of fact they don't. It's uh- Wait a minute are YOU
02:47 as naive as they are to actually think what you expressed? What do you mean? Do you think that people are aware of the or could even possibly be aware of all this. No, this is why I'm saying it's a unique opportunity for people who do understand this or perhaps needed this little nudge of a reminder yeah to say hey um gee you think that Facebook by the way Facebook does 100 experiments a month They manipulate your newsfeed all the time. Oh, sure! They have algorithms that give you only things that are good for you or that you will be most interested in. Okay how about... BULLSHIT! Please? They will manipulate it to sell you stuff any way they can
03:39 So as we discuss this, I just happen to have my Twitter feed open because i retweeted. And here's Carlos Rodela We know him. We know Carlos yeah? And so he is tweeting away Oh no! Facebook is down You know a minute later Current facebook status possible service trouble DownrightNow.com Carlos! Really dude get alive Get alive I thought the funniest thing I read was Cheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook who says we never meant to upset you. No that's exactly what you did! What are you talking about? You actually did try to upset some people. Yeah well the manner of speaking right so but the whole thing is baffling I found it to be a
04:33 It's ludicrous. No, it's baffling! It's baffling that people don't understand... I do have a small issue with your column you say, you know, you mention micro propaganda. I believe propaganda is meant more to create a crowd of people and then you use emotional torque you know, to manipulate people. And I think that's a little different than propaganda. I think the propaganda is to get everyone saying hey man yeah that really sucks and then when everyone knows... What are you criticizing me for? That's specifically why i use the word micro! Yeah no but you call this micro-propaganda or you oh okay I see what you're saying so it's a subset of propaganda okay all right now uh I gotcha
05:18 So, people! Unique opportunity. Do not run around and fall into the conspiracy theory trap which is the only thing Facebook can do at this point to focus you away from... I got a kick out of seeing people on news channels going, Wow naughty of Facebook! What? Are you kidding me?! This is the time—I do it once a year—I put in the show notes Go ahead and try out these Zen TV experiment You will like it very much. And that's all I got to say on it Do not fall into the conspiracy theory trap of the government is doing it, the government financed it
06:01 The government finance. The government hires the same PR companies everybody else hires, they already know what they're doing. Exactly! What do you think? That the governments experimenting on public relations tricks? They have a lot of people that work within... I think there's thousands of people in PR within the Defense Department but they don't already know this stuff. Well at the CIA they have an entire division called Was it Project Pundit? Everyone you see who is either former CIA or military, or has a book... they write the books for them! The guys just go out and they're hitting the golf course. They're on the golf course all day, like you got a book out? Oh yes that's right! Time to go! My book just came out. How do we have time to write an 850 page book every year?! Time to hangout with Don Lemon I love it Well i got stopped in my tracks at the checkout line by The Enquirer
