I can see this being a naïve but realistic take given what we knew in ~2008. In 2012 it should have been clear that this model could be gamed. And it's on Facebook that their culture wouldn't allow them to see that.
Spam and Sybil attacks were well known problems a decade earlier. It is basically what killed the vision of the semantic web in its infancy, several years before Facebook took off. It's certain everybody knew gaming data was a thing in 2008.
You’re assuming they didn’t see that. Given it’s now nearly 2020 and we’ve had years of reports of election meddling yet Facebook are only calming down on suggestive emoji - stating that they have no interest in policing “free speech” when it comes to political ads - I’m inclined to believe they’re not unaware their network is being games but rather don’t care because it’s still money in their pocket.
I don't think you're right @nemild, it's not a scary quote and it's also true. Sure, people can be duped temporarily but the best quality ideas last. Information is best distributed when it can be distributed freely. What alternative would you propose, censorship, regulation?
Facebook solved a problem (connecting) but it also created one (fake content, bot farms).
Either Facebook will fix it, or if they don't, new products will pop up to solve the problem to try to provide more reliable content.
Recently, might have seen it on here (I forget where) someone trained an AI to try to detect fake news. Sure the first attempts will be crappy prototypes, but the point is that people are trying to figure the problem out.
It's sophomoric at best even in 2008. The quote itself and the fact that the book itself is called the "Little Red Book". It's almost a straight up comic irony.