Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Democracy is not a Facebook focus group
Facebook is a publicly traded corporation, therefore its goal is to maximize shareholder revenue.<p>Facebook generates revenue by selling ad space on its website.<p>Ad space that is surrounded by attention grabbing content will generate the most revenue, thereby maximizing shareholder value.<p>At the lowest common denominator, negative emotions such as outrage and fear draw attention.<p>Facebook has no incentive to remove or alter this content in any way, other than to avoid illegal content that could produce lawsuits.<p>Fake news is not illegal.<p>If you don&#x27;t want to consume the same questionable news as the lowest common denominator, pay for a subscription to a news service. Otherwise don&#x27;t use Facebook for anything more than a photo sharing&#x2F;messaging platform.<p>Dis-aggregate the pieces of the platform. If you can&#x27;t do that, then avoid the whole service. There are plenty of alternatives for each piece.