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Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#61

Post by humanrebar »

WallWextra wrote: post #15

Here is, roughly, the media's playbook: 1. Never stop talking about Trump. Mention his name 300 times an hour on CNN. He's not a serious candidate, but he is entertaining so they give him free publicity until he is a serious candidate. 2. Start blathering about Hillary's emails, as if that were somehow important. 3. Now Trump is elected. In these tough times, it is more important than ever to support high-quality ind…

> Start blathering about Hillary's emails, as if that were somehow important.

Well, it was certainly an incident of corruption and/or incompetence. People do (and should) get fired for mishandling sensitive information.

Maybe the HN community in general wants to give Clinton a pass on it, but investigating facts that illustrate the character and competence of presidential candidates is certainly newsworthy.

There was plenty of similar corruption and incompetence to report on for Trump, but its generally easier and more salacious to report on his Cinco de Mayo taco salad.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#63

Post by DerfNet »

zombieprocesses wrote: post #20
WallWextra wrote: post #15

Here is, roughly, the media's playbook: 1. Never stop talking about Trump. Mention his name 300 times an hour on CNN. He's not a serious candidate, but he is entertaining so they give him free publicity until he is a serious candidate. 2. Start blathering about Hillary's emails, as if that were somehow important. 3. Now Trump is elected. In these tough times, it is more important than ever to support high-quality ind…

Don't forget conjuring up an external enemy to distract the public and get the population riled up. 5. Russia and Hackers and Collusion Oh My! > Not the fault of the media who would never shut up about Trump. But look at the ratings and the ad money they are getting? It's the same thing with school shootings. Massive 24/7 coverage turning the shooter into a celebrity. Then they wonder why shootings happen. Oh it coul…

Uh oh, you suggested "Russian collusion" might be a load of crap. Good thing people are here to "downvote" and silence you.

We're literally in the middle of yet another Red Scare. You can speak out against such nonsense without being a Trump supporter.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#64

Post by seanmcdirmid »

humanrebar wrote: post #61
WallWextra wrote: post #15

Here is, roughly, the media's playbook: 1. Never stop talking about Trump. Mention his name 300 times an hour on CNN. He's not a serious candidate, but he is entertaining so they give him free publicity until he is a serious candidate. 2. Start blathering about Hillary's emails, as if that were somehow important. 3. Now Trump is elected. In these tough times, it is more important than ever to support high-quality ind…

> Start blathering about Hillary's emails, as if that were somehow important. Well, it was certainly an incident of corruption and/or incompetence. People do (and should) get fired for mishandling sensitive information. Maybe the HN community in general wants to give Clinton a pass on it, but investigating facts that illustrate the character and competence of presidential candidates is certainly newsworthy. There was…

I yearn for the Obama days when this and Beghasi were the biggest scandals that anyone could come up with. Now it’s collusion, financial opacity in business dealings, sex with playmates, etc... it really is too much.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#65

Post by PunchTornado »

bshastry wrote: post #21

I like the critical thinking in this article. Problem is, I am critical about it's critique. Just because Ted Cruz made use of the same platform and did not win, does not mean there is no problem with what Facebook is doing. They are still thieving people's data and selling it for a nice sum.

What the hell are you talking about? There is no stealing. People agreed to give their data to facebook and do whatever with it. read the terms and conditions of using fb.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#66

Post by blunte »

"A new communications medium" ... "panic"...?

Since when is Facebook a new communciation(s [sic]) medium?

Her word choices and her not so deft deflections make me almost wonder if this is very subtle satire. The only other conclusion I can come up with is that she's a Mercer or Koch shill.

The tactics employed with this CA/FB saga were far seedier and subversive than just standard targeted advertising (and I believe she knows this).

What tripe.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#67

Post by jonny_eh »

jerf wrote: post #50
awinder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obama for America was upfront about what they were doing, and the user initiated the action willingly. Cambridge Analytics was not, and people had no idea what their data was being used for. This is not some capricious delineation.

Not an accurate summation: https://twitter.com/cld276/status/975565844632821760 "The entire social graph" did not agree to be used by the Obama campaign. What the Obama campaign did was worse that what CA could have done because by the time CA rolled around the API holes had been closed. (As I said yesterday, CA was deceptive and the Obama campaign wasn't, sure, because the Obama campaign didn't have to ask at all .…

CA used data that was collected for research purposes only. OfA didn't violate any rules.

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#68

Post by [deleted] »

g09980 wrote: post #34
Agustus wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Look at the playbook from an agnostic position instead. The reason the media gave candidate Trump the press was because, just like candidate Obama, sold eyeballs; Trump more so because he got both sides mad. Recall the puff pieces and the discussion of Michelle Obama's fantastic arms, that is nothing but puff and she moved the papers, so they covered the candidate more; to Hilary's detriment. 2. You need to think…

So the use of Facebook data was lauded as genius and now isn't. [1] Now you got me curious if the media would be saying all the same things if Cambridge helped the other candidate get elected. [1] http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/379245-whats-genius-fo...

[deleted]

Re: Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour

#70

Post by blunte »

PunchTornado wrote: post #65
bshastry wrote: post #21

I like the critical thinking in this article. Problem is, I am critical about it's critique. Just because Ted Cruz made use of the same platform and did not win, does not mean there is no problem with what Facebook is doing. They are still thieving people's data and selling it for a nice sum.

What the hell are you talking about? There is no stealing. People agreed to give their data to facebook and do whatever with it. read the terms and conditions of using fb.

It's not that simple. Facebook's shifting privacy defaults are what enabled some of the deeper reach of the CA mining tactics and are arguably what gave them much more information than probably even Facebook had intended.

That's not to say that people are pretty careless about privacy management (and security), but this went well beyond what the informed public thought was happening (or possible) on FB during those years.

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