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How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

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Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#31

Post by amelius »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #17
jdhn wrote: post #13

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Personally, I feel that a lot of this hate towards Facebook is done by media types who are jealous that Facebook has stolen their role as a place to find news, no matter if it's fake or real.

Yeah, as much as I dislike Facebook, at this point I'm kind of concerned about how much bad press is coming out about one company. Most other tech companies (especially the ones still in the "hustling" phase) are just as bad as FB if not worse. It's starting to feel like a coordinated smear campaign, even if all of it is accurate.

> It's starting to feel like a coordinated smear campaign, even if all of it is accurate.

I don't get it. If it's all accurate then what is the problem exactly? That all the anger is directed at FB? They are the largest social media company, and in the good times I have never heard them say "but other social media companies deserve some love too". Running a business is not supposed to be easy.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#32

Post by stochastic_monk »

buboard wrote: post #6

Facebook is proving to be a bestseller with the media. Not a day goes by without 3-4 of those stories becoming "news for hackers"

It seems that this content source is only concerned about news about prominent tech companies, which matches their Palo Alto location. Facebook’s been going through the grinder because they’ve recently had a lot of evidence against them come out; of course technically interested people care about a leader in research and industry.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mondaynote.com

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#33

Post by ahje »

vtesucks wrote: post #11

Populist has a derogatory connotation and insulting peoples will seems improper

The basic idea is that the will of the people may change at a whim, and that we therefore need safeguards to protect liberal parlamentarism and the basic order of society from changes that would otherwise be disruptive. This obviously protects the so-called elites from angry mobs, which is the main argument against this system, but it also make sure that our economies don't collapse due to various governments doing things like forced take-overs of international banks in times of financial unrest.

Alas, this order is often defended in the name of "democracy" when it's outright anti-democratic and patronizing.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#34

Post by easytiger »

dao- wrote: post #20
purplethinking wrote: post #16

I don't like Facebook more than anyone else, but at this point aren't we just blaming them for enabling communication? By all means, criticize Facebook for privacy issues, but not for stuff like this, unless you actually want censorship on the largest scale ever in history.

It's not just plain communication. Facebook controls what you see and their algorithms encourage rage because it gets users engaged.

It's monetisation of the little rush of chemicals your body injects when you feel outraged. Apparently its quite addictive!

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#35

Post by saagarjha »

baq wrote: post #24
hardwaresofton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, as much as I dislike Facebook, at this point I'm kind of concerned about how much bad press is coming out about one company. Most other tech companies (especially the ones still in the "hustling" phase) are just as bad as FB if not worse. It's starting to feel like a coordinated smear campaign, even if all of it is accurate.

yeah, google and amazon and dare I say it apple have access to a similar amount of data about their users. Apple is the one I trust with privacy the most, but how are you going to prove that they aren't selling my profile...?

The only way to know this is by not providing companies with your data in the first place. Unfortunately auditing this is kind of difficult to do today with most operating systems being closed-source and hard to inspect, but it’s still possible to do general checks on what they are sending out.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#36

Post by sanxiyn »

close04 wrote: post #10
janzij wrote: post #2

How is this any different from the Arab Spring? Why should this be silenced while the Arab Spring had to amplified?

Because the protests against the democratically elected leadership during the Arab spring... Oh wait. You may hate something equally under any regime but there's a huge difference when that something is done in a democracy versus basically any other common form or government. In democracies issues can be (are?) solved at the election booth. Not so much in a dictatorship, a monarchy, or any "pseudo-democracy" (see Chi…

Protesting is very democratic. South Korea showed that to the world.

Sure, South Koreans could wait one more year and solve the problem at the election booth, but protesting solved the problem faster.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#37

Post by Veen »

janzij wrote: post #2

How is this any different from the Arab Spring? Why should this be silenced while the Arab Spring had to amplified?

Because there is no moral equivalence between the despotisms of the middle east and the elected government of a secular democratic republic. Overturning tyrany is good. Attempting to overturn democracies in favor of mob rule is bad.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#38

Post by fabricexpert »

zabana wrote: post #23
close04 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the protests against the democratically elected leadership during the Arab spring... Oh wait. You may hate something equally under any regime but there's a huge difference when that something is done in a democracy versus basically any other common form or government. In democracies issues can be (are?) solved at the election booth. Not so much in a dictatorship, a monarchy, or any "pseudo-democracy" (see Chi…

> In democracies issues can be (are?) solved at the election booth. Not so much in a dictatorship, a monarchy, or any "pseudo-democracy" (see China), etc. These people were in these very same election booths last year so clearly issues aren't being solved that way. Also, we need to step down our high moral horse and stop patronizing other nations by bringing up our holy "democracies". There has been an increasing and…

Go look in the mirror, you'll see much greater freedoms in western countries than any you've mentioned. The west doesn't actively persecute homosexuals, protects women's rights and supports a free press. The list goes on.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#39

Post by zabana »

Genuine question: Is it just me or the whole 'fake-news' concept seems like an excuse for ~old~ traditional (failing?) media to continue to act as gatekeepers of information ? I've seen an increasing number of alternative / independent journalists and websites being given the label of "fake-news site" recently and I'm a bit worried to see that trend continue.

Re: How Facebook Is Fueling the French Populist Rage

#40

Post by ceejayoz »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #17
jdhn wrote: post #13

Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Personally, I feel that a lot of this hate towards Facebook is done by media types who are jealous that Facebook has stolen their role as a place to find news, no matter if it's fake or real.

Yeah, as much as I dislike Facebook, at this point I'm kind of concerned about how much bad press is coming out about one company. Most other tech companies (especially the ones still in the "hustling" phase) are just as bad as FB if not worse. It's starting to feel like a coordinated smear campaign, even if all of it is accurate.

Bad news naturally tends to snowball. Scrutiny results in further scrutiny, insiders decide to leak or whistleblow, other media organizations start taking a look, etc.

"Others are just as bad" may be true, but they largely (barring Google/Amazon/etc.) don't have the power Facebook does.

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