After penning Monetizing Hate Speech and False News yesterday, I remembered non-self-starters will be asking:
“Where are examples of successful monetized filters for hate speech and false news?”
Of The Top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics – Updated November 2016, I need only two to make the case for monetized filters.
1. Worldwide, there are over 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users (Facebook MAUs) which is a 16 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook as of 11/02/16)
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15. Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. (Source: The Social Skinny)
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(emphasis in the original)
By comparison, Newsonomics: 10 numbers on The New York Times’ 1 million digital-subscriber milestone [2015], the New York Times has 1 million digital subscribers.
If you think about it, the New York Times is a hate speech/fake news filter, although it has a much smaller audience than Facebook.
Moreover, the New York Times is spending money to generate content whereas on Facebook, content is there for the taking or filtering.
If the New York Times can make money as a filter for hate speech/fake news carrying its overhead, imagine the potential for profit from simply filtering content generated and posted by others. Across a market of 1.79 billion viewers. Where “hate,” and “fake” varies from audience to audience.
Content filters at Facebook and the ability to “follow” those filters for on timelines is all that is missing. (And Facebook monetizing the use of those filters.)
Petition Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook for content filters today!