Within the past 24 hours , Facebook was grant apatentfor “ control cognitive content in an on-line forum , ” which it first applied for in February of 2015 . Unfortunately , the most exact term to describe what it covers is shadowbanning .
Shadowbanning — which has become a favour term among conservative and far - right interests who believe they ’re experiencing ideological censorship at the work force of social networking weapons platform — describes a specific scenario wherein a user has their substance bump or outright cover without their knowledge . equate that common definition to this excerption of the patent of invention ’s abstract ( accent ours ):
Amid the surroundings of for the most part baseless congressional inquiry into comprehend social medium bias and a GOP frothing at any evidence , no matter how thin , that back that crusade , Facebook repose effectual claim to the deed of reflex shadowbanning reads as a massive misstep .
Screenshot: Facebook (USPTO)
Jeff Kanter , the lead discoverer on patent of invention 10,356,024 , work as a product management lead at Instagram when the patent was first filed . ( He has keep a similar claim but since move over to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — the philanthropic branch of Mark Zuckerberg ’s conglomerate . )
We ’ve extend to out to Facebook for scuttlebutt and to learn what could possibly be gain by patenting a specific relief maneuver . We ’ll update if we discover back .
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