To the Editor:
Re “Facebook’s Troubling One-Way Mirror,” by Jim Rutenberg (Mediator column, Business Day, May 23):
It is well known that Facebook collects data on its users and sells it. We notice shopping website ads on our Facebook newsfeed minutes after visiting those sites. But I believe that is the trade-off in our modern, money-driven world to be able to use Facebook.
But I am not O.K. with Facebook’s human-controlled algorithm determining what news shows up on my newsfeed. Facebook has become a main source of news for me and many other Facebook users. How do we know that we are getting the most accurate account of the biggest news stories of the day? Journalists are supposed to be our nation’s news gatekeepers—not Facebook, a social media site.
So while we seem to be distraught over Facebook’s stealing our browser information, I think we need to be more concerned about Facebook’s playing gatekeeper.
MADDY GILDERSLEEVE
Vadnais Heights, Minn.
Note from KBJ: Or you can stop using Facebook, as I have. (I used it only briefly, to see what the hullabaloo was all about.)
