Facebook: Cracking the Code Page #2

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It's a place that we can use,

it provides great value

in many ways,

don't get me wrong,

to its users.

But it's incorrect to see it

as a neutral place.

It can do things

like a government

and indeed it has inherited

some government-like functions,

but I don't think that passes

the smell test

to imagine that Facebook

or any online platform

is truly democratic,

they're not.

If we tell the computer

to look at two numbers

and compare them and put

the larger number on one side

and the smaller one

on the other then,

with a series of steps

we will be able to reorder it.

To understand

how Facebook works,

we need to understand

what goes on under the hood.

The engine that drives the

system is built on algorithms -

sets of instructions

that Facebook's engineers use

to determine what we see

in our News Feed.

Dr Suelette Dreyfus,

an information systems expert,

demonstrates how

a basic algorithm works.

Typically, an algorithm might be

for processing some data

or doing some arithmetic,

summing something for example,

or it might be

to try and recreate

the decision-making process

that we use in our human brain

on a more sophisticated level.

Facebook's algorithms

were originally configured

to help Harvard University

students

stay in touch with one another.

They exploited the way

the students had

a small group of close friends,

and a wider,

looser social circle.

The algorithms are now

vastly more complex,

but exactly how they work

is a closely guarded

commercial secret.

We do know that they are

designed with one aim in mind -

to keep us online

for as long as possible.

The algorithms are designed

to be helpful

and give us information

that's relevant to us,

but don't for a minute

assume that

the algorithms are just there

to help us.

The algorithms are there to make

a profit for Facebook.

And that is Facebook's genius.

It is a giant agency

that uses its platform

to deliver us advertising.

By tracking what we do,

who we associate with,

what websites we look at,

Facebook is able make

sophisticated judgements

about the stories we see,

but also advertising that

is likely to move us to spend.

We will probably

always live in a world

with old fashioned display ads.

Times Square simply wouldn't be

the same without it.

But these ads nudge

towards products

with all the subtlety

of a punch in the nose.

Facebook on the other hand uses

the extraordinary

amounts of data that it gathers

on each and every one of us

to help advertisers reach us

with precision that

we've never known before.

And it gives anybody

in the business of persuasion

power that is unprecedented.

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