Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thehill.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 134 posts

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

#61

Post by mindslight »

djakjxnanjak wrote: post #29
resters wrote: 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.

Why do we need a social credit score when we already have money?

Money has inconvenient qualities for those in power:

1. Actually using it results in parting with it (rather than being able to merely present it over and over)

2. Money held by outsiders is just as valuable as money held by insiders (giving outsiders independent power)

#1 is mitigated by the inflationary treadmill policy, and #2 is mitigated by oxymoronic "money laundering" regulations. But the authoritarians in power are always seeking new ways of eroding distributed paradigms.

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

#62

Post by davidw »

dymk wrote: post #49
resters wrote: 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

Some of the other stuff (the firewall) is clearly incorrect, but after thinking about this a long time, I think it's fair to label the current administration as having some fascists or fascist-curious/adjacent/whatever people. Authoritarian works too.

Often, the term gets thrown around too freely by those on the left when they want to disparage someone on the right whose ideas they dislike, so it gets overused.

But I think with the disdain for the rule of law, friendliness and admiration of rulers who are certainly authoritarian, and the push to "believe in me, rather than your lying eyes", the term has a place in the conversation.

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

#63

Post by [deleted] »

dymk wrote: post #49
resters wrote: 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

[deleted]

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

#64

Post by mfatica »

resters wrote: post #56
dymk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 syste…

Controlling the news feed on one site is not nearly comparable to a universal firewall... Many people already have stopped using Facebook

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

#65

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Dangeranger wrote: post #34
resters wrote: 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.

We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO and it's been doing a great job of making life difficult for people who don't fit the mold for over sixty years.

> We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO

There is a material difference between FICO and what China and, potentially, Facebook are building.

FICO looks at financial factors. It's a model to estimate likelihood of repayment. Being brown or gay or female might correlate with factors that reduce the likelihood of repayment. But if those systemic problems were fixed, and FICO were left unchanged, it should yield an unbiased result.

Social credit scores, on the other hand, directly incorporate biases. Introduce a social credit score into an economically equal society and it will redistribute from the "undesirable" to the "desirable" based on zero economic facts. (Same with ad-driven social networks like Facebook and Instagram.)

It's subtle. But it makes a world of difference in terms of effect and the moral culpability of those who choose to support its development and deployment.

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

#67

Post by StanislavPetrov »

iheartpotatoes wrote: post #38
resters wrote: 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.

Only if you are forced to use facebook. Its more of a problem in developing nations. I'm glad Myanmar finally gave Facebook the boot as the default portal to the internet. When the day comes that we are forced to use a social media platform... heh, we'll all just roll over and start using it. Revolution takes too much effort.

Unfortunately Facebook does its best to track those of us who don't use it as well (even if their information on us ends up being less comprehensive than the information they have on their actual users).

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

#68

Post by JumpCrisscross »

munk-a wrote: post #36
OrgNet wrote: 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...

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

Which is why no democratic system is designed to count on nice people being in power.

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

#69

Post by longerthoughts »

Dangeranger wrote: post #34
resters wrote: 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.

We already have a social credit score. It's called FICO and it's been doing a great job of making life difficult for people who don't fit the mold for over sixty years.

What alternative would you propose?

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

#70

Post by StanislavPetrov »

silversconfused wrote: post #44
georgyo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% but just not using Facebook is not a very effective strategy. And thinking that not using Facebook protects you from Facebook could be dangerous.

Legally, it does. If they use my information in a way that is not allowed, I am not required to use arbitration. I can sue. Users cannot.

Good luck with that.
Post reply on HN