by DANIEL PINCHBECK In the 13 years since it launched, Facebook has become a tool unprecedented in its power and reach, used daily by more than a billion people across the world. Facebook functions like a public utility on a global scale — but one that is in private hands and dependent on financial capital from investors such as Goldman Sachs and revenue streams from advertisers; these factors influence how the company manages data and how it shapes the experience of its users. In its effort to make the user experience as sticky as possible, Facebook inadvertently created the “ filter bubble” effect: they learned that people stay on Facebook longer when they keep getting the kind of news that grabs their attention. Therefore, they created sophisticated algorithms to support this tendency. What this has meant, in practice, is that people tend to see news and updates that confirm…