Every now and then I spit out my coffee as I’m reading something online. This is one of those occasions. Under the innocuous headline “Most Shared Stories on Forbes,” I stumbled across this: “Facebook Is Recycling Your Likes To Promote Stories You've Never Seen To All Your Friends.” That’s where the spitting part came in.
I, of course, clicked on the link. Tech contributor Anthony Wing Kosner detailed how one man had been contacted by his mother about a questionable post and she urged him to take it down. Problem was, he had not made the post and it was not on his timeline. You can’t delete a post that you didn’t make.
Kosner wrote, “Facebook is now recycling users Likes and using them to promote ‘Related Posts’ in the news feeds of the user’s friends. And one more thing, the users themselves have possibly never seen the story, liked the story or even know that it is being promoted in their name.”
Yikes.
It gets worse. Kosner cited another source who found that you don’t even have to Like something in the first place to get credited with the Like. You may have simply messaged a link to a likable page. You may have told your friend that the company was stupid, run by idiots, and you hoped they all dropped into the Pacific Ocean sooner rather than later. That’s a Like, and apparently eligible for promotion to friends, family, coworkers and that venture capitalist that you’ve been wooing.
After you mop-up your coffee, read the full article by Kosner here.
Use the comments section below to express your opinion on attaching your name to Related Posts in the news feeds of your Friends.
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