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Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook
This article explores the new modalities of visibility engendered by new media, with a focus on the social networking site Facebook. Influenced by Foucault’s writings on Panopticism – that is, the architectural structuring of visibility – this article argues for understanding the construction of visibility on Facebook through an architectural framework that pays particular attention to underlying software processes and algorithmic power. Through an analysis of EdgeRank, the algorithm structuring the flow of information and communication on Facebook’s ‘News Feed’, I argue that the regime of visibility constructed imposes a perceived ‘threat of invisibility’ on the part of the participatory subject. As a result, I reverse Foucault’s notion of surveillance as a form of permanent visibility, arguing that participatory subjectivity is not constituted through the imposed threat of an all-seeing vision machine, but by the constant possibility of disappearing and becoming obsolete.The global web may be a thing of the past, as discrepancies become increasingly pronounced between how the web is accessed and used by people in different countries around the world, according to GlobalWebIndex's latest survey results. Countries such as the UK and Korea are increasingly placing emphasis on e-commerce and purchasing, while users in emerging countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines focus more exclusively on social networking. The graph above shows how usage is split across different countries, varying depending on social and commerce engagement. Facebook fatigue Simultaneously, established markets such as the US, UK and Canada have seen a decline in active participation on Facebook, with less status updates, content shared and messages being sent.
GlobalWebIndex / Online Trends / Contagious Magazine
Simon Johnson , the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund , is the co-author of “ 13 Bankers .” Goldman Sachs is investing $450 million of its own money in Facebook , at a valuation that implies the social-networking company is now worth $50 billion. Goldman is also creating a fund that will offer its high-net-worth clients an opportunity to invest in Facebook. On the face of it, this might seem just like what the financial sector is supposed to be doing – channeling money into productive enterprise. The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking at the way private investors will be involved, but there are more deeply unsettling factors at work here.
Why Are Taxpayers Subsidizing Facebook, and the Next Bubble? - NYTimes.com
Facebook in Online Privacy Breach; Applications Transmitting Identifying Information - WSJ.com
Kim White Bloomberg Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the F8 developer conference this spring. Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users' activities secure.
Is your private phone number on Facebook? Probably. And so are your friends' | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Facebook's iPhone app does ask you to press a button before using it. And agree to something. But what, precisely?