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Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

thehill.com

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Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#51
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As all administrations have done and will continue to do for the foreseeable future...

Two{four, five, ten} wrongs do not a right make...

Absolutely, I'm waiting for a real leader to get into office who will actually strike these recent security theatre laws down. My comment wasn't greatly worded, but in no way is Obama innocent or deserving of defense here - but at the same time Bush definitely deserves the biggest blame, Obama and Trump share blame equally.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#52
post #42
post #3

Facebook is the defense contractor that is building America's Great Firewall and social credit system, so it makes sense that there is a revolving door with the authoritarian regime.

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The original comment is relevant and very much on the topic, so what are you complaining about? The above article is about Facebook hiring a lawyer who worked on a law that took the USA in an authoritarian direction. The original comment simply emphasizes what is already implied.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#53
post #36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Obama promised to repeal the "PATRIOT" Act but instead signed to extend and expand it... If he had not signed anything, it would have expired all by itself... edit: sorry if you don't like the truth (I know that a lot of you commit to only one political party, but still... the truth is the truth.).

As all administrations have done and will continue to do for the foreseeable future...

right... sometimes I think the NSA is the true leader of this country

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#54
post #49
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that my comment is pretty much the relevant thing to discuss based on the article. If you disagree please explain why.

1) Asserting the presence of an "American Great Firewall" 2) Asserting the development of an American "social credit system" 3) Describing America's political atmosphere as an "authoritarian regime" 4) Describing Facebook as a "defense contractor" Come on, you know what you're doing

What you're doing is far worse

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#55
post #45
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think that my comment is pretty much the relevant thing to discuss based on the article. If you disagree please explain why.

It's a bunch of vague analogies, asserted without evidence. This isn't useful. We already know lots of people hate Facebook.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#56
post #49
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that my comment is pretty much the relevant thing to discuss based on the article. If you disagree please explain why.

1) Asserting the presence of an "American Great Firewall" 2) Asserting the development of an American "social credit system" 3) Describing America's political atmosphere as an "authoritarian regime" 4) Describing Facebook as a "defense contractor" Come on, you know what you're doing

Anyone is free to draw a line in the sand to claim that my statements are hyperbole. I don't consider them so. When we read about China, the narrative of American Exceptionalism tells us that it is reasonable to think that China would seriously implement a social credit score but America would not. I think it is foolish to believe that kind of stuff. Let's just look at the facts.

We must ask how a social credit system would be useful to any government and wonder how any government would turn down the chance to obtain one. There is already hard evidence that the US Government wants to influence FB's news feed algorithm. Strictly speaking that is not a firewall, but the effect (censorship) is the same.

So feel free to belabor the difference between government meddling in the news feed algorithm to promote/demote various ideas and the technology known as China's great firewall. In my view that is a tangential and distracting discussion.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#57
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two{four, five, ten} wrongs do not a right make...

Absolutely, I'm waiting for a real leader to get into office who will actually strike these recent security theatre laws down. My comment wasn't greatly worded, but in no way is Obama innocent or deserving of defense here - but at the same time Bush definitely deserves the biggest blame, Obama and Trump share blame equally.

Obama is more to blame because he did the opposite of what he promised during his campaign... I don't recall Trump making any promises to reduce spying on citizens... Actually, I voted for Trump because I thought that he would make the breaking point come sooner rather then later (because the way it's going, that's how it's going to end anyways).

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#58
post #49
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that my comment is pretty much the relevant thing to discuss based on the article. If you disagree please explain why.

1) Asserting the presence of an "American Great Firewall" 2) Asserting the development of an American "social credit system" 3) Describing America's political atmosphere as an "authoritarian regime" 4) Describing Facebook as a "defense contractor" Come on, you know what you're doing

Your comment is disingenuous to a degree that’s comical. You complain about the use of the phrase Great American Firewall. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since 2016 you should be aware of the fears in Congress regarding “Fake News” and the extent to which Congress is trying to outsource the work of censorship to Facebook and other social media outlets. There are multiple articles, each week, that make the front page of Hacker News, on this very topic.

Re: Facebook taps lawyer who helped write Patriot Act as new general counsel

#60
post #35
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook's social graph and engagement data combined with data already obtained by governments makes an elaborate social credit score easy to generate. As for the great firewall, Facebook has been in talks with lawmakers who want Facebook to do more to prevent "fake news" which is another way of saying that lawmakers want to use Facebook to control the news narrative. So far, Facebook has been extremely complaint wit…

I’d say it’s the media and general public that want Facebook to curb “fake news”, more so than Washington.

'The Media' includes The Daily Mail and Fox News. The general public on average don't want facebook to curb 'their' news, perhaps those other people's.

Washington has been shouting fake news from both sides for a while. Is worth noting that Trump just copied something already being said by others and mashed the definition.

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