Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

nytimes.com

31–40 of 112 posts

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#31

I find that the headline and the article mischaracterizes what is happening. The "Wild Web" was reigned in long ago by commercial interests. A distributed web with many small nodes would still be hard to control and police effectively. However as much the web has been centralized by the likes of Google, Facebook, and large media conglomerates effective government censorship is once again possible. This is like a wild…

The wild Internet is definitely still there. The problem is that it got too hostile for most users due to spam, viruses, malware, phishing, trolls, doxing, and so on. It will get worse, as attackers adopt machine learning techniques and automate social engineering at scale.

So users have a problem. Companies that solved it the right way became enormous, because protection from all that crap is something people want, and they want it to be easy to use. In the early days it was anti-spam (Gmail). More recently, Snapchat helped teens avoid creating a permanent record of things.

Sure, you can go outside the walls at any time, but how many people really want to? The way to win users is to provide better protection than before, including defenses against new privacy threats, not to somehow convince people they don't need to care about it.

Sometimes providing better protection results in more freedom (of a sort). For example, a well-maintained app store means users don't have to worry about malware and viruses, so they can download whatever games they want without worrying that they'll infect their machine. This wasn't true of Windows in the old days.

Ironically, the web started out pretty safe (or so we thought) and degraded as more adtech came along. These days you can hardly click on a link without getting ads in your face. There's opportunity for someone.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#32
It is with the greatest obviousness that strategic important sectors — such as defence — can't trade with foreign countries without specific permission from the government. The tech sector is an sector of strategic importance and it can't both serve the Chinese communist party and the US democracy. The Chinese understands this.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#33
post #13
post #3

>At a White House dinner in 2015, Mr. Zuckerberg had even asked the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, whether Mr. Xi might offer a Chinese name for his soon-to-be-born first child — usually a privilege reserved for older relatives, or sometimes a fortune teller. Mr. Xi declined, according to a person briefed on the matter. Laughed out loud at this. I can understand wanting access to the market but this is just embarrass…

The secret to a good kowtow is a very slight audible confirmation that your head has touched the floor. The person performing the kowtow needs to adjust the force they use depending on both the flooring material and the hearing ability of the audience (who are often elderly).

By that reckoning there should be a good sized dent in Zuckerberg's forehead (and the floor).

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#34
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shows what kind of person Zuckerberg is. "Please sir, let Facebook enter China. Here, I'll even offer you my first born!" If he's willing to do this with his kid, what is he willing to do with our data? Sorry, I meant Facebook's data , according to their ToS.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks. http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims...

The thing about that is that people, including Zuckerberg, will say "hey he was just a kid when he wrote that". But, he was old enough to know better, and it's a real tell on his character. A lot of who you are, including your moral foundation, is well formed by that age.

And, if anything, his actions since have only underscored that fact.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#35
post #20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, to complete the thought, the behavior of those corporate centralizers has rendered it politically acceptable for the government to do so.

Censoring speech has been politically acceptable for every single Western government, besides the US^, since at least WWII. It has not yet brought about the collapse of civilization, or a descent into despotism. ^ It has also taken place in the US, but to a different extent.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#36
post #29

Facebook is most likely a net negative in this world. I don't know if it's always been true, but I think it is now. I personally didn't realize how strong my feelings were until one of their recruiters contacted me. I'm far from a 'values' driven employee, but this was by far the easiest refusal of my career.

I agree it is a net negative, but it kind of needs to be clarified because if Facebook didn't exist, it would be someone else. Maybe MySpace would have evolved to fill the niche, or maybe another company, or maybe even an open solution.

I tend to think that it would be quite possible for a company to fill the Facebook niche in a much more positive way, while still making a profit. But they certainly won't be able to do it as long as Facebook is there.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#37
I think its more of the opposite. Technology creates spheres of influence in the countries that they operate. Traditional governments attempt to reign it in (this is usually effective if they are a company with ad revenue or they want to follow local laws. But when you cut down one sphere another grows to replace it.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks. http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims...

The thing about that is that people, including Zuckerberg, will say "hey he was just a kid when he wrote that". But, he was old enough to know better, and it's a real tell on his character. A lot of who you are, including your moral foundation, is well formed by that age. And, if anything, his actions since have only underscored that fact.

Interesting to point out the age of reason culpability here.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#39

I find that the headline and the article mischaracterizes what is happening. The "Wild Web" was reigned in long ago by commercial interests. A distributed web with many small nodes would still be hard to control and police effectively. However as much the web has been centralized by the likes of Google, Facebook, and large media conglomerates effective government censorship is once again possible. This is like a wild…

what a concept, the diversity fitness of the web to various forms of assault. Good thinking.

Re: Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein in a Wild Web

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. That is gross.

Ya. Zuck is not a good person.

Personal attacks (which this is) are not allowed here, regardless of who the person is or how unlikeable you find them.

Please stick to substance and comment civilly or not at all.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Post reply on HN