Gizmodo’s Disappearing Story Explains Why No One Trusts Facebook

“On Friday, Gizmodo uncovered shocking new evidence that Facebook is using its platform to suppress stories about CEO Mark Zuckerberg…” reports Gizmodo, adding “or maybe his janky, busted-ass website is just bugging out again for no reason. It’s hard to say, really. That’s sort of the problem…” For some reason, a story about Zuckerberg we posted to our Facebook page was hidden from many readers. The post was fully visible through web browsers in incognito mode, but an unclear percentage of users were told, “Sorry, this content is not available,” when they tried to view it while signed in. In short, lots of people (including several Gizmodo staffers and at least one of their parents) could not see the story. By Friday afternoon, the issue seemed to resolve itself just as mysteriously. Was it a bug, a moderation error, or something more nefarious? Personally, I find it hard to imagine Zuckerberg furiously refreshing Gizmodo’s page, just waiting to slam the giant red button on his desk labeled “WRONGTHINK.” But it’s easy to see why some people believe similar (if less cinematic) conspiracy theories. When Facebook acts strangely — which is fairly often! — users have to draw their own conclusions about what’s happening. Like most big tech companies, Facebook doesn’t offer a phone number to call if you’re having issues. If you want a response from a social network about your specific problem, your best bet is to be a journalist, a celebrity, or someone else with the power to give headaches. To understand their experiences with social media, then, most people are left with two choices: trust the system (lol) or develop their own, potentially very wacky, explanations… Some may believe — as Zuckerberg himself seems to — that companies like Facebook are just too big to explain every little thing they do to their millions of users. Maybe so, but is it any surprise, then, that no one fucking trusts them?