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Yes, the issue is forced algorithm-based feeds, where Meta is free to profile as deeply as they want and exploit what should be private knowledge about you. A "most recent" feed (of things you already chose to subscribe to/follow) should be a standard option on any social media app, and the app shouldn't switch back to their toxic algorithm automatically anytime you look away. This behavior itself shows how much Meta wants to control what you see and is extra impetus to require a simple chronological feed option that is selectable as default, and that the user's choice is respected.

IIRC, around 2008-2009, "most recent" was the only kind of feed, and within the span of a couple years, they added their "personalized" feed but would let you switch between the two freely (and the setting would persist), and not much later, the setting would no longer persist.



There are probably people on this thread who were born after algorithmic feeds became ubiquitous and they seem to have turned out fine.

The moral panic over feed ranking models will seem to history as quaint as the moral panic over the telegraph and the train.

If your new technology isn't attracting a swarm of moral gnats buzzing about it corrupting the youth, are you even making something impactful?


Okay, but that doesn't mean we should throw up our hands and say "guess chronological sorting is too much to ask for." I flip between the homepage of HN, the /newest section, and the /active section, and frequently find interesting content at the top of each that is missing from (or buried in) the other views. Similar with facebook. The default feed to find bigger posts that might be a few days or a week old, and the recent feed for what's happening right now.

How does it hurt you by requiring social media to offer a working chronological sort?

I think even casual users understand the appeal of having both options and wouldn't want to lose it, assuming they discover it.

I agree with the judge. We are not obligated to suffer the degeneracy of the hyper-optimized algorithm with no alternative.

Just because you have never experienced the utility of working chronological sort doesn't mean it doesn't exist.




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