Facebook out of control? A technically-mediated autonomous technology

Abstract

On the controversy triggered by the influence of the so-called “fake news” that circulated on Facebook in the 2016 United States presidential elections, we notice the emergence of an idea of “control of technology”, both in the platform’s official publications and steps announced after the event, and in the specialized media demands. In order to refute the idea of total control of technology and defend the recognition of the action of nonhuman elements, thus contributing to a better understanding of the platform’s actions, we use the concepts of “autonomous technology”, by Langdon Winner (1977), and “technical mediation”, by Bruno Latour (1994). Methodologically, we were inspired by the Cartography of Controversies (VENTURINI, 2010) and worked with content collected through the platform’s official pages and media vehicles that covered the event from July 2016 to July 2018.