Donald Trump to him.

In 2011, Facebook asked for political ads on its site to be regulated like campaign buttons, not TV ads, which require a disclaimer.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

It's not difficult to curate your social media feed to include only trustworthy news sources and voices. People generally don't take the time to learn the platform, or feel they have to accept every suggestion the algorithm gives them because they don't know better. As with any tech tool, understanding what it can and can't do is important.

most people don't bother, really. You're correct, of course, but expecting people, in general, to take the trouble to control their experience is expecting too much.

Facebook is designed for one thing, and one thing only: profitability for Facebook. They know that most people won't tweak the site and continue to increase the level of noise presented to users until blowback from users requires them to walk back changes. Further, the site often changes user-set controls without notice, requiring users who want more control to use a new process to regain it.

Since I use it only for social contact purposes, my level of annoyance at irrelevant material in my news feed is increasing these days. All attempts on my part to use the available tools to reduce the noise appear not to be working, since one type of noise in my news feed is instantly replaced with another.

If it were not for family members posting on the site, I'd simply not visit it at all. I now scroll through my news feed once a day for about 10 minutes, and then move on and do not return until the next day. I almost never post there, nor do I use many of it's interactive features, except to like family and friend posts from time to time.

What kind of irrelevant material and noise do you see? I'm curious.

sponsored ads appear in my Home feed with amazing frequency. I also cannot control what material from FB friends appears, except on a piecemeal basis. I have one friend who frequently "shares" crap from her friends who are not on my friends list. I keep blocking individual sources of that sharing, but she seems to have an infinitely long list of friends and regularly shares their changes of status photos and photos of their children and pets. Often, shared material from my friends that is completely irrelevant to me makes up much of my own news feed. The friend I mentioned is just about to get blocked from my feed, due to this. The problem with that is that she's my sister-in-law. It's a tricky thing to manage, really.

Still, I give only 10 minutes a day to FB, so I see what I see and then move on after that time. It's not that big a deal, really. The noise, however, often means that I don't see some posts in that time that I would like to have seen.

I don't get the problem with making 'friends' on Facebook, or 'following' people on Twitter, with your own interests

make it easier for me to use links to that site and occasionally reply to them. I follow nobody on Twitter. For some reason, I have a bunch of followers, myself, but have no idea why any of them are following me, since I never post, really.

Facebook friends are another matter. For me, they are all family, a few friends from my life, and a couple of groups. I give FB 10 minutes each morning with a cup of coffee in hand, and then move on to other things until the next morning. I rarely post there.

I really don't use social media in any serious way. It's too noisy for my taste. Too little useful information, compared to the noise, as I said in the OP.

The problem arises when so many make poor choices for news viewing. That opens the door for exploitation.

Nothing I can do about that, naturally, except to make different choices than most do.

Lots of people watch Fox News, as well. I think that's incredibly stupid and a poor, poor choice, but there's nothing I can do about that, either.

Mostly I get wedding pictures and soon some pretty nice looking pumpkin carvings.

because my newsfeed includes a LOT of smart, educated commies that post local news items that MSNBC and the rest of the corporate stooges won't touch. Almost EVERY incident of police terror against people of color I saw on FB first. IF the news went national it was ONLY after it had been on Leftbook for several days. And of course I also get analyses on issues from a Marxist perspective that I wouldn't get from CNN or the MSM.

It's all what you make of it. If you have a problem with news you get on FB, then it's probably because your newsfeed is full of shit. "Friend" a better and more educated class of people.

My friends and family are who they are. Since I don't look to FB for news of any kind, I'm not looking for "educated commies," or anyone in particular to "friend" on that website. All of my FB friends are people I know in real life, family, and old friends from years past. Almost none of them ever post anything political or about any news items, unless there's some sort of local tie-in.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with people who have some personal connection with me. That's it. You apparently use it in another way. I have no recommendations for you regarding how you decide to use any website. I don't know you, as far as I am aware.

anti-capitalism. And I use it to link more in-depth propaganda and analytical pieces that also involve anti-capitalism. And I also use it to keep in contact with real life friends and family.

It's a tool and IMO, a very good tool IF you use it correctly. But a blanket statement that involves denigrating getting news from FB leaves out too much opportunity to get a more unfiltered view than you will get from the MSM.

Getting news from FB will depend on your newsfeed. I personally am not satisfied with getting "news" from MSNBC, CNN, and Faux Noise. Nor from any newspaper. They, by design, will only show you what the ruling class wants you to know. At least up until they HAVE to show you something else because it's already been on social media for three or four days.

To each his own I guess, but I disagree that FB is useless for getting news.

..if it's political writing you're after, or if you're looking for reporting or breaking news, all you need to do is follow those reporters, news orgs, writers, pols you trust, and ignore the rest. You don't need to click on a tweet to read the comments, not if all you want is a direct to news, statements, articles, or events.

I have what I consider a very efficient twitter feed which I use for 'news' and I regularly add to it by following reporters, pols, writers, and others I feel comfortable reading - especially those who become relevant/prominent along with developing news or events.

What you're suggesting is retreating to a bubble; albeit one you trust. It may well suit your needs, but it's, by no means, anywhere near as dynamic the experience and information that can be gleaned from a well-followed twitter feed.