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“Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

aftenposten.no

71–80 of 215 posts

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#71

> "Facebook is for the pleasure and benefit of the whole world, myself included, on a number of levels." Wrong. Facebook is for making money. If providing users with pleasure or benefits makes them money, then that's lucky for the users. > "Facebook has become a world-leading platform for spreading information, for debate and for social contact between persons. You have gained this position because you deserve it." A…

The idea that you should discard your integrity in the pursuit of money, or even that that is to be expected, is quite damaging.

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#72

Sometimes I wonder that when we shower criticism on Facebook about privacy concerns, we're missing the forest for the trees. The bigger issue I see is the sheer amount of eyeballs trained exclusively to Facebook's content. What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos, because an algori…

If we follow your logic, it seems like a valid response would essentially be a social network disconnected from a company with a profit motive. The closest thing we had to that was diaspora[0], although it doesn't seem very successful. [0] https://joindiaspora.com/

Previously Usenet. Which died under, ironically, trolls, antipornography drives, and copyright enforcement.

There was the WWW itself, at least for a time, though there are elements which tend toward centralisation, largely discovery, discussion, authentication, and directory.

Tim Berners-Lee and others have recently announce Solid.

https://solid.mit.edu

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#73
post #46

Sometimes I wonder that when we shower criticism on Facebook about privacy concerns, we're missing the forest for the trees. The bigger issue I see is the sheer amount of eyeballs trained exclusively to Facebook's content. What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos, because an algori…

It's a man-in-the-middle attack on culture.

just like tv, radio and newspapers. perhaps even churches, temples and mosques... though that might be more controversial to say.

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#74
post #52
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wrong. Facebook is for making money. I know you're not wrong here, but at what point does social responsibility trump profit? Should it?

Basically only when the law says that something is illegal.

And that answer is what is wrong with capitalism.

Why can a drug maker jack their prices up 100x? Because it's profitable.

Why do gas companies raise their prices when there's an impending disaster (hurricane, blizzards, etc.)? Because they can.

Capitalism is great in a different aspect: it provides a form of unaccountable eugenics. Your parents were poor, and went to a public school that wasn't funded well. That travels along with life, leading to a harder life for you. Less money for the essentials, and perhaps health insurance.

There's nobody out there with a knife going to kill you; it's more of ling-chi or death by a thousand cuts. And the culmination amounts to moralizations like "You should have went to better school", or "Its your fault not getting a better job", or insults of "Lazy".

But your lifespan is shortened; there's less everything for you. And society has no one to blame except you. Well, other than every other actor who causes tiny bits of pain and suffering... but not enough to quantify. Not like they could sue, anyways.

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#76
post #24

> "Facebook is for the pleasure and benefit of the whole world, myself included, on a number of levels." Wrong. Facebook is for making money. If providing users with pleasure or benefits makes them money, then that's lucky for the users. > "Facebook has become a world-leading platform for spreading information, for debate and for social contact between persons. You have gained this position because you deserve it." A…

I don't know if I agree with the outrage at Facebook. They are out to make money. They can make more money if they avoid controversy and keep their site a place that brands like to be associated with. It results in corporate censorship for sure, but is it Facebook's responsibility to provide a censorship free platform? I fully agree with people taking note and becoming aware that Facebook is simply a business providi…

I think the outrage is perfectly fine. The only thing that's going to sway them is public opinion and outrage that can have an impact on their revenue stream.

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#77

Sometimes I wonder that when we shower criticism on Facebook about privacy concerns, we're missing the forest for the trees. The bigger issue I see is the sheer amount of eyeballs trained exclusively to Facebook's content. What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos, because an algori…

> What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos

That Facebook is a social networking platform that some people incidentally use to try to relay news of general public concern, not an online public affairs platform with an incidental social networking function?

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#78
post #70

Sometimes I wonder that when we shower criticism on Facebook about privacy concerns, we're missing the forest for the trees. The bigger issue I see is the sheer amount of eyeballs trained exclusively to Facebook's content. What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos, because an algori…

> What does it mean for society when Facebook can demote a challenging but important article (say, of war reporting) in your newsfeed so it can promote your friend's Wedding photos, because an algorithm says that challenging articles cause people to leave FB, reducing page views and ad revenue? Couldn't a newspaper that uses algorithmic metrics (or any kind of metrics or surveying) end up making a similar editorial d…

imo they essentially did those algorithms. tabloids are the outcome

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One solution is to not remove anything until told to do so by law enforcement. If people don't like what's posted they can choose to not view it.

I really don't get why sites don't think this way. If you take the hands-off route, you can deflect a lot of criticism: "We don't endorse it, we just let people post what they want". But as soon as you censor, or curate, or promote one item/subject, you become responsible for everything else on your site. Why add extra load on yourself?

If you don't moderate what the users post your service becomes a child porn host in a surprisingly short ammount of time is the common fear, and I think its also what generally happens. Though behadings and general gore from shitposters is probably what triggers most censorship programs.

Re: “Dear Mark. I am writing this to inform you that I shall not comply”

#80
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it was HTTPS Everywhere that was causing the problem. Disabling it showed me the pictures.

That was it. I wish Google would start with the red alerts already so webmaster may start getting their shit together.

I have five privacy tools on this browser: uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript, and a free VPN. It was quite tedious to go through each of them before I figured out it was an HTTPS issue.
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