Evan Spiegel defends algorithms, criticizes Facebook in a new op-ed ahead of Snapchat's redesign

Algorithms and social media are bad, unless they're good, according to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.

Yes, quite confusing, but that's exactly what the cofounder of the app Snapchat argues in his first-ever op-ed posted on Axios Wednesday. The piece dropped just hours before Snapchat is expected to announce the details behind its massive redesign, Axios teased.

Why the talk of algorithms? Well it's in Spiegel's personal interest to both dispute and defend them. Snapchat plans to infuse its app with algorithms in a massive redesign, but while that's similar to Facebook's News Feed, it won't be exactly like that.

"The personalized newsfeed revolutionized the way people share and consume content. But let's be honest: this came at a huge cost to facts, our minds and the entire media industry," Spiegel began in the op-ed.

He later notes social media's problem with fake news and as an "unworthy distraction." Those words echo Napster cofounder and Facebook investor Sean Parker's from earlier this month where he accused Facebook and social media of "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology."

Of course, as Spiegel notes in the end of his piece, social media companies (read: Facebook) have become wildly profitable companies. But at what cost?

"The combination of social and media has yielded incredible business results, but has ultimately undermined our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media," he wrote.

For Spiegel, Snapchat is not in that same bucket of social media platforms. Rather, Spiegel defines Snapchat as a "communications app" and compares it to texting and Facebook's service WhatsApp. Even though Snapchat is focused on communication, Spiegel has embraced algorithms as a way to "better personalize the Stories created by publishers if they aren't curated by friends," he wrote.

In this way, Spiegel makes the bold comparison of Snapchat to Netflix. Indeed, while Snapchat offers one-to-one and group communication, it also has over 80 partners producing shows and other content exclusively for the app within Snapchat Discover (Mashable is a partner). Similar to Netflix, Snapchat's new algorithm will be based on an individual's viewing habits rather than behavior by friends like on Facebook.

Snapchat Discover already incorporates some machine learning to recommend content, but Spiegel hints that we can expect more algorithms across all of Snapchat's Stories — by friends, community members, Snapchat's editorial team, and publishing partners. Of course, humans are still behind these algorithms, and Spiegel said humans will still curate what's on Snapchat.

Snaps are known to be short, visual, and ephemeral. And yet, ahead of Snapchat's massive redesign and as his company's stock languishes in the stock market, Spiegel did something quite the opposite. He defended his company with words.