Bonum Certa Men Certa

Facebook Contributed to Death of Online Journalism and What's Left Online Isn't Covering Real Facebook Scandals

Summary: The demise of Facebook and other social control media (or the World Wide Web at large) "won't be televised"; to make matters worse, what prevails on today's Web is clickbait, gossip and SEO noise

MY intention here is not to constantly bash the media, but it's curious that instead of finding actual news about Facebook I mostly find Facebook-connected puff pieces and ridiculous gossip about a "fight" (two sociopaths looking to distract from their commercial failure [2]).

"It's a public holiday in the United States, so news is expected to be slow."I moreover worry that reputable news sites now publish cooking recipes as front page news, resort to webspam (sometimes computer-generated spew), and the Web is dominated by digital tabloids, not journalism. For instance, regarding Facebook, Gizmodo [1-5] and Engadget [6] focus on "news" that's more akin to gossip, including empty claims of parental supervision, just as we noted some hours ago in relation to TikTok. Gizmodo and Engadget also produced a lot of Microsoft webspam earlier this year, faking excitement of hype for some chatbot that's still falsely marketed.

It's a public holiday in the United States, so news is expected to be slow. We continue to wonder aloud how to still pursue actual information and scientific facts. We expect that later this month Microsoft will start another storm of vapourware in the media, days or weeks ahead of mass layoffs being announced again. They're batching it. It's a PR tactic.

"Some (but not all) of the media/press layoffs are the fault of "Web giants" (and no, "link tax" is not the solution!); it means that the very best/potent critics of companies like Facebook no longer have sufficient capacity to do so."Speaking of layoffs, Facebook has had plenty of them recently. But the official number of layoffs does not tell the full story. By forcing workers to come back to the office (needlessly) Facebook convinced many workers to simply resign. They won't count as "layoffs". This is an HR tactic that we've been seeing in other companies too.

Some (but not all) of the media/press layoffs are the fault of "Web giants" (and no, "link tax" is not the solution!); it means that the very best/potent critics of companies like Facebook no longer have sufficient capacity to do so. Facebook is hearsay and it has rapidly reduced the quality of media to its own low standards (or even lower).

Related/contextual items from the news:



  1. 2023-06-30 [Older] Meta Reportedly Wants to Pursue Direct App Downloads Through Facebook Ads in Europe
  2. 2023-06-29 [Older] Elon Musk's Parents: Please Don't Let Our Grown Child Fight The Facebook Guy
  3. 2023-06-29 [Older] Meta Offers A Glimpse Into the Black Box of AI Ranking
  4. 2023-06-29 [Older] Oversight Board Tells Facebook to Remove Video of Cambodian Prime Minister Threatening Opponents
  5. 2023-06-27 [Older] Facebook Lets Parents See Who Their Kids Are Talking to on Messenger
  6. 2023-06-27 [Older] Facebook adds parental control tools to Messenger




Recent Techrights' Posts

Facebook's Debt Leaps to Over 51 Billion Dollars
A lot of this is a bubble, aside from the bubble the media irresponsibly dubs "AI"
3 Days Ago Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Most of This Month Will Deal With EPO Scandals
A timeline of sorts
 
The Long-Coveted Milestone of 3,200 Active Gemini Capsules
Despite being away some days last week, about 50,000 Gemini requests were served each day, on average
Five More Days Till Techrights Party
We'll have many more batches of Daily Links as we catch up with a 'backlog' of news
Links 02/11/2025: More Nuclear Escalations and "Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2025: "The Pragmatic Programmer", Perl New Features and Foostats
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 01, 2025
Linux.com is Becoming Microsoft
They took a once-reputable site with a vast audience and turned it into a pile of trash
Microsoft Lunduke: People Pointing Out I'm a Bigot is a Badge of Honour
It's almost as if he openly admits being a troll and is proud of it
Oracle's Debt Continues Rising to All-Time Highs, The "Slop Bubble" is a Smokescreen for Larry Ellison
wishful-thinking bubble waiting to implode completely
News on the Web is Becoming Rare, Shallow, and Difficult to Find
To efficiently and rapidly find original and important news without underlying comprehension/understanding of the news (and its context) is a hard task
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Serial Slopper, WebProNews, and More
getting back into the habit
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part III: European Patent Office Officials Cannot Claim False Identification
Corroborating with other sources is always desirable if possible. We shall do so later in this series.
Still Catching Up, Daily Links a Top Priority
Readers who have additional information about the EPO can send it along to us
Links 01/11/2025: "Americans Are Defaulting on Car Loans at an Alarming Rate" While Many Left to Starve (SNAP)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: FIFO and Gemini Age Survey
Links for the day
Why Does German Media Protect the EPO From Accountability for Cocaine?
Can we trust such media to properly inform the public?
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Azure Goes Offline Again
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Distributes Malware Again, Radio Free Asia Shut Down by Dictator
Links for the day
November is Here, Anniversary Party This Coming Friday
Expect this site to return to its normal publication pace either by tomorrow or Monday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 31, 2025
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: Synergetic Disinformation and Software Maintenance
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 29, 2025