Vox Political has challenged Facebook to reverse changes that harm social media sites
I wrote this today (July 16) and sent it to Facebook, after seeing the (lack of) hits on this site overnight:
I run a blog called Vox Political, and have a Facebook page dedicated to that site, and to promoting its articles.
Recently, readers of that page have been telling me they have not been receiving its posts. As a consequence, they have not been visiting my website and hits have dropped by three-quarters.
The reason they are not receiving it is that Facebook has imposed new algorithms that push posts from social media sites, such as mine, down the newsfeed in order to prevent readers from finding them.
Readers who say they have enabled the ‘see first’ option are telling me that Facebook is returning to default settings every day.
And Facebook is also interfering with readers’ own news feeds. Clicking on the ‘news feed’ button, on their own ‘home’ pages, shows that they have to click ‘most recent’, EVERY DAY (sometimes more than once a day), or Facebook will unilaterally change it back to ‘top stories’.
It seems to me that this is interference in UK politics. Sites like Vox Political play a vital role in providing information that the general public cannot get from the mainstream news media, and Facebook is trying to stop that information from being seen. Has Facebook been paid to do this by a third party? If not, why is Facebook doing this?
There is also the matter of lost earnings. Since I noticed the drop in traffic to my website from Facebook, the amount of revenue it takes has plummeted by two-thirds. I make only a modest amount from the site in any case, but this means that, since July 9, I estimate my losses to be around XXX UK pounds per day – XXX UK pounds in total, if we include today (July 16).
Will Facebook reimburse me for my lost earnings?
I would point out that Facebook is also losing revenue from this. My site has enjoyed high volumes of traffic in the past, with hundreds, and occasionally thousands, of shares for some posts. The people who aren’t seeing my posts now are also not seeing your adverts and you are therefore losing money. As mine cannot be the only site affected by your changes, I can only deduce that you are losing a large amount of money.
Will you please provide assurances that you will change your algorithms to ensure that social media pages like mine are not penalised and that Facebook does not interfere with readers’ news feeds?
Will you also please undertake to reimburse me for my lost earnings – and continue to do so for as long as my site continues to suffer because of this unwarranted interference by yours?
And will you please provide an explanation for this unwanted, unnecessary and damaging action by yourselves?
With regards,
Mike Sivier
Vox Political.
I know; it’s probably pointless. Facebook has a monopoly and intends to use it against small operators like Vox Political.
But if all the other social media site operators did the same, would that make a difference?
And isn’t it worth doing, simply to raise awareness of this cynical manipulation of the UK political scene?
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Why not dump Facebook and use Diaspora? If you use Diaspora, the data remains in your control. See https://joindiaspora.com/
Facebook has almost a monopoly on social media distribution. The vast majority of my visitors come via FB.
So dumping it would mean dumping all but a handful of hits. It would be commercial suicide.
I will look at Diaspora, now you’ve suggested it, though.
While everyone thought the press barons held the manipulation monopoly, Face ache has been quietly busy making plans on world media domination. Given the ebbing power of the tabloids, these successor’s have realised the power it can wield, where intellect is a forgotten commodity. Should Herr Zuckerberg be allowed to decide, the world will succumb to his whim. Make no mistake, the news and trivia that FB wants you to read, will be the only news. Social media has uncovered an uncomfortable truth, that off mass idiocy, complacency & acceptance, where instant answers are delivered in a skewed context to a gullible audience, designed to persuade identified sections of society to believe in the virtue and ethics of the message. The same people that have allowed these organisations to harvest their personal data as a commodity to be exploited.
Nothing new in that, except the volume the targeting and motive. Who can deny the effectiveness, certainly not VOX, who have themselves relied on the very tools now being turned against them. Free speech will not be heard in the future, only that which suits the agenda of the ‘controller’ will reach us as the Orwellian state marches on. We may look back at this time in history, as the end of a brief interlude that gave us false freedoms. Democracy will become a devolved anachronism for the wealthy, those that hold power, those that control the social media. Yet another symptom of the bizarre age in which we ‘exist’.
When you refer to VOX, do you mean this site, Vox Political or Vox, the US website founded more than two years later?
I can’t say I’ve ever relied on Facebook’s algorithms to run anybody else down, but if it’s This Site you mean, please explain.
Up to now FB has been posting single VP articles to my timeline however now they are coming in bunches.
can i just say… 1.ive never even heard of this diaspora …so a lot of others wont have either. 2. i have no intentions of going onto other sites.i dont even use twitter. we do not spend 24/7 on our computers. i spend far too much time as it is getting rid of unwanted emails (spam) and looking/reading such emails as i get from this site.and others 3. is facebook still owned by mark zukkerberg or whatever is name is? if so what are americans doing meddling in OUR politics? apart from saying we hate trump and him as president makes the world a more dangerous place thats all we do(far as i know). thats an opinion. not interference as this appears to be. If any uk person is meddling in their affairs they should be stopped too.. i used to follow somweone elses site till he stopped using fb and went solely on twitter. i no longer follow his blog.i realise the world does not revolve around me but people simply do noyt have time to gop finding new sites and trying to keep them all going. i certainly domnt and im retired so working people wont stand any chance.
I’m surprised Diaspora is still going. I thought it went the way of Tsu, Ello, and all the other social networks that didn’t quite hit a critical mass of users. Diaspora is a great idea, but too complicated for mass appeal.
I notice that you’re still promoting Facebook on every page through various social sharing buttons. Perhaps it would help to promote your own mailing list more prominently?