Headline May 05, 2018/ ''' DIGITAL'S *FANFARES* DOLLARS '''

''' DIGITAL'S *FANFARES* DOLLARS '''

MARK ZUCKERBERG wants you to know that he cares, really cares about journalism.

''I view our responsibility in news as two things,''  he said in a wide-ranging conversation with a small group of news editors and executives assembled in Palo Alto for a -

Journalism gathering known as Off the Record Tuesday afternoon. ''One is making sure people can get trustworthy news.''

The other he said is, ''building common ground in society.'' It turns out that 'common ground' is suddenly Zuckerberg's  preferred euphemism. [That and 'community'.]

'' You are not going to be able to bridge common ground,'' he said, unless you have a ''common set of facts so that you can at least have a coherent debate.''

And here's where the contradictions flood in and we pause and thank Adrienne LaFrance.

*Zuckerberg runs a media company that distributes news, but doesn't have a proper newsroom. He runs a media company that has - with Google's help - dominated the vast majority of digital ad dollars and -

Eviscerated the journalism industry's business model, all while preaching about the importance of journalism.

He runs a media company that, he says, believes deeply in the need to sustain independent journalism, but won't pay publishers to license journalistic content.

And he runs a media company that has decided to show its users less news from professional outlets - it's really not what people want to see, he says - in favor of more individual opinions*. 

Bhaskar Chakraovorti, senior associate dean at the Fletcher School at Tufts university, said Facebook had to walk a fine line.

''They have taken a blunt instrument approach, which is the right thing to do from public relations standpoint,'' he said. ''But now they need to reach out to developers and smooth things over.''

For much of its history, Facebook has had a rocky relationship with developers. It has sometimes adopted policies to attract developers, including by opening access to its vast troves of user data.

Developers, in turn, created apps that became emblematic of the Facebook's experience  - apps such as farmville, a farming simulation game played with friends on the social network, which was made by the game company Zynga.

But developers are often at the mercy of any changes that Facebook decides to make. When Facebook clamped down on viral apps several years ago, it became harder for companies like Zynga to spread their games across the social media site.

Zygna has since turned to making mobile games and its fortunes have plummeted.

Facebook announced a series of privacy changes in early April.

Under the new measures, developers can see only a Facebook user's name, profile photo and email address; previously. they could see more information, like users' Facebook posts.

Facebook is also cutting off developers' access to user accounts if someone has not used their apps for three months or longer.

The policy is intended to prevent developers from collecting information in the background for months or years after people stop using their apps.

Facebook also announced that it was investigating apps that had gained access to large amounts of its data in the past, and said it was conducting an audit of any company that it believed has shown suspicious activity.

Cubeyou got caught up in the dragnet in early April.

At the time, CNBC reported that the company, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., had collected users' Facebook information for academic purposes and then sold the data to commercial firms without informing users.

Facebook said it was conducting an audit of Cubeyou to determine if there was any wrongdoing.

Mr. Treu said Cubeyou fully complied with Facebook's requirements of disclosing the data it collected and what that data was used for.

He added that the Cubeyou stripped out any personality identifiable information that it got from Facebook. Cubeyou was simply singled out as part of ''a witch hunt'' by Facebook, he said.

''We did everything by the rules, and we are ready to prove that,'' said Mr. Treu, who said his company had repeatedly reached out to Facebook to talk.

''There is no way to talk to them, to find out anything.'' 

With respectful dedication to all the Facebook Fanfares, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See Ya all 'register' on !WOW! - the World Students Society and Twitter -!E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Disappearing & Displacements '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless