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Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

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Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#131

Post by joeblau »

avianbc wrote: post #101
samstave wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please share all your FB entries to block

I use FanBoy's filters w/uBlock origin. Check them here: https://www.fanboy.co.nz

The reason I go with Safari Content blockers and /etc/hosts is because both of those solutions stop network requests before they even attempt to make a network request. uBlock is a good backup solution, but I want my computer to think Facebook doesn't even exist as a url, regardless of context.

For example uBlock won't stop iMessage from trying to load Facebook's inline media content when someone messages me a Facebook link.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#132

Post by omg_ketchup »

jondubois wrote: post #130
imgabe wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft abused its position as the dominant OS maker to shut competitors out of a different market (web browsers). I agree the pervasiveness of Facebook is a problem (one of many). But from a legal standpoint, what have they done that can bring a viable antitrust complaint?

Facebook monopolized social advertising. Facebook makes your friends want things that they don't need and in doing so is distorting society's values and encouraging mindless consumerism.

That's not a monopoly, that's just advertising.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#133

Post by bussierem »

sg47 wrote: post #89
simonsarris wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you buy a coke, is there an email from coke in your inbox the next day? When you interact with coke does it gently tailor what you see and what you do not see, month after month? If you cannot understand how people are influenced, maybe you'll never see the influencing happening. That doesn't make you immune, on the contrary...

No, but it does make me want to drink a coke the next day and maybe more than one a day. I don't have the same problem with broccoli.

His point is not that Coca-cola has _no_effect on you, but their effect on you is pretty much limited to getting you to drink Coke, because that's their goal.

Facebook can, has, and certainly will continue to monitor and influence MOST aspects of peoples lives - social, political, religious, economic, etc. Just ads and subtle filtering of walls and ads alone is provably HUGE impact-wise.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#134

Post by louithethrid »

bpicolo wrote: post #99
justboxing wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook censors content, such as nipples But leaked documents from their internal policy allows for displaying the Female nipple under certain circumstances. See => https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/fb-art-... Source: Leaked Document Lays Out Facebook’s Policy on Sex and Nudity in Art => https://hyperallergic.com/380911/leaked-document-lays-out-fa... How do they / their algorithm decide if the n…

Algorithm is certainly mostly machine learning.

Algorithm is presorting, cheap third world labour is final sorting.

Cheap third world labour radicalizes with this impression of a corrupt west.

Cheap thirld word labour joins terrorists and produces horrifying pictures/videos - posted to facebook.

Thus the circle is closed.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#135

Post by roddux »

loeg wrote: post #53
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #32

It is both amazing and deeply concerning that one corporation has influence over 1/4 of the world's population. It is even more concerning when you consider the outsized voting power of 1 person at that company.

Facebook is a platform. They don't do a lot of attempting to influence, as far as I can tell. Consider Google as well, which probably reaches even more of the world's population. Or Microsoft. Apple might be getting close, too. Or plenty of non-tech companies, as the sibling commenter points out. Coke, Samsung, Frito-Lay, etc.

Both Facebook and Google have actively influenced political events.

>[..] on election day in 2010, Facebook sent ‘go out and vote’ reminders to more than 60 million of its users. The reminders caused about 340,000 people to vote who otherwise would not have. : https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-...

For more interesting stuff on this topic, look up the company 'The Groundwork'.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#137

Post by drusepth »

colinbartlett wrote: post #30
manigandham wrote: post #12

Consensus is monthly active users: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/ Remains to be seen how many are real humans though.

It frustrates me to think I count in this number even though I only have a fake Facebook account under a fake name and with no friends, simply because my job requires that I log into their developer account occasionally.

I legitimately wonder how many of these accounts are "real" (e.g. not bots, not developer accounts, not "old" accounts, not parody accounts, etc). I know I have 3 accounts myself (various developer accounts), but even nontechnical friends "remake" their FB every year or so pretty regularly (my sister has a good 5-6 accounts that she no longer uses anymore). And that's completely ignoring however many spam/bots there are out there spamming FB messenger, groups, friend requests, etc.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#138

Post by fitchjo »

jondubois wrote: post #130
imgabe wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft abused its position as the dominant OS maker to shut competitors out of a different market (web browsers). I agree the pervasiveness of Facebook is a problem (one of many). But from a legal standpoint, what have they done that can bring a viable antitrust complaint?

Facebook monopolized social advertising. Facebook makes your friends want things that they don't need and in doing so is distorting society's values and encouraging mindless consumerism.

So you want to make all advertising illegal?

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#139

Post by ChuckMcM »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #32

It is both amazing and deeply concerning that one corporation has influence over 1/4 of the world's population. It is even more concerning when you consider the outsized voting power of 1 person at that company.

I think it is an overreach to go from 'access to' to 'influence over'. Facebook has access to 1/4 of the worlds population but having access does not imply influence. Only that you can reach them.

It is remarkable that one corporation owns the infrastructure on which 1/4 of the world's population communicates. That makes it an exceptionally good platform for surveillance because even people who are good at keeping their activities hidden now have to make sure that everyone they know is as good as they are.

No doubt because of that risk, any good operational security training will include an example involving leakage through Facebook.

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