Protests notwithstanding, the social media industry itself seems mostly indifferent to the loss it has contributed to. A large part of this change in disposition was due to the business model upon which the industry was established. Profitability was driven almost entirely by advertising revenue rather than subscription income. The industry’s ecosystem, now permeating older mainstream news and information sources, has become dependent upon the income generated through clicks on thinly sourced stories or sensational headlines. What matters is not the quality of the information, of course, but the number of people who see the story and the advertisements accompanying it. The greater the number, the greater the revenue. Perverse incentives indeed! Nor are the algorithms for “likes” or “recommends” or “retweets” optimizing what is accurate or fair. Fake accounts on Facebook, trolls who purposely inflame and antagonize, bots on Twitter that artificially and anonymously magnify disinformation–these techniques are ubiquitous on the internet and their omnipresence only cultivates doubt about everything that is communicated online.
James Davison Hunter, Democracy and Solidarity, 307.