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Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

nytimes.com

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Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#211

Post by sgustard »

HNthrow22 wrote: post #123

FB is the sacrificial lamb, popular scapegoat and effective distraction in this new era of SV policies shaping public opinion, ideas and as a result global politics. It seems misplaced, the amount of vitriol and negative press directed at facebook when from my perspective Google/Twitter/Amazon and even Reddit are far, far worse in terms of aggressively monopolistic behavior and negative effects on society and democra…

My mom wakes up on Facebook and goes to sleep on Facebook. She's spending hours a day there and it dominates her entire worldview of current events and politics. That level of engagement blows away Google/Twitter/Amazon/etc. FB is responsible for elections of right-wing dictators around the world, the rise of white nationalism, the jailing and killing of dissidents, climate change denial. In no way does any other company achieve that level of poisonous influence.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#212

Post by root_axis »

solipsism wrote: post #187
HNthrow22 wrote: post #123

FB is the sacrificial lamb, popular scapegoat and effective distraction in this new era of SV policies shaping public opinion, ideas and as a result global politics. It seems misplaced, the amount of vitriol and negative press directed at facebook when from my perspective Google/Twitter/Amazon and even Reddit are far, far worse in terms of aggressively monopolistic behavior and negative effects on society and democra…

If you believe it, say it from your real account. This ubiquitous practice of commenting on contentious topics using throwaways reveals much of that's wrong with HN culture.

This comment is pretty ironic in the context of a discussion on internet privacy.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#213

Post by stvswn »

Jommi wrote: post #131
erwan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know for others but personally, I think it's pure hysteria and scapegoating. If you don't like Facebook, don't use it. I don't think private property should be forcibly removed away because it is the current news cycle ennemy-of-the-day. The standards for overruling consent should be extremely high - if they should exist at all. I got fed up with Facebook a while ago and deleted my account. No problem. If Fac…

You are really not missing the forest for the trees. Facebook has grown so large that it's no longer an individual's decision to be there or not. Your data is there whatever you do, growing as a phantom profile based on data you give to advertisers or what your friends share. It's become such a huge power that it's a huge part of social life. It influences our society in ways we coulndt even imagine before.

This is insane. No, you don't have to use it. You can reset cookies and device identifiers whenever you want if you don't want "phantom profiles."

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#214

Post by markbnj »

patwolf wrote: post #64

"Mark Zuckerberg is a good guy. But his company is a threat to our economy and democracy." "Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks." I always find it difficult to take an argument seriously when someone is defined simply as "good". It glosses over a lot of things, like what motivates a person and how we define "good". For example, if w…

> b) Mark does care about privacy, but if he doesn't grow the company, he'll be forced out and someone less good will take the helm. (good)

Can he be? He owns twice as many shares as the next largest holder (Accel I think). I seem to recall reading that he had various governance structures in place that guaranteed him control, but idk exactly what that referred to.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#215

Post by drngdds »

>But there is no constitutional right to harass others or live-stream violence.

Pretty sure the Supreme Court would disagree with you on that one, bud. They aren't fond of adding new categories of unprotected speech. See Trope #3 in this article: https://www.popehat.com/2015/05/19/how-to-spot-and-critique-...

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#216

Post by mtberatwork »

jmastrangelo wrote: post #168
xiaolingxiao wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's the median age (in your estimation) of a level I director at FB? and what's "absurd amount of money" for good engineers? Something like 400 - 600K?

From my (likely poor) estimation, an internally promoted director likely has ~10 - 15 years of experience, and externally hired directors can range from that little to much much more. These are usually very talented people who could be C-suite executives at smaller companies so their compensation makes sense. When I said "absurd amount of money" it was more of a rhetorical device, I don't actually think that its unre…

> I'm more making the point that tech used to pay middlingly compared to other professional jobs (doctor/lawyer etc.)

Outside of SV, how is it not "middlingly"? Where can you make $500k+/year in tech working at some corporation??

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#217

Post by jmastrangelo »

codr7 wrote: post #195
hodgesrm wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear that many of the people you are describing would have joined a startup anyway. There's big difference in the personalities who thrive in startups and those that thrive in large bureaucracies. An alternative view is that Silicon Valley and other tech centers are increasing dominated by the latter type of person.

I'd go further and note that online software discussions in general seem increasingly dominated by complete beginners who couldn't care less about code except as a stepping stone to money and fame. How this is all going to lead anywhere worth going is anyone's guess...

I think the change will have two effects. The first is the cynical one, where tons of unqualified people come into the field just for the money, write poor software, and probably don't actually enjoy their lives that much because they're not good at what they do and lack that internal satisfaction.

But, a more positive change is that there will be some high-impact multitalented genius individuals that choose to pursue tech instead of high finance or politics or something like that. Jeff Bezos left a hedge fund to start Amazon. Now he may be a ruthless son-of-a-bitch when it comes to competing, but for consumers the positive impact has been enormous. He's likely done far more good than he would have being a lifer at D.E. Shaw.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#218

Post by jmastrangelo »

mtberatwork wrote: post #216
jmastrangelo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my (likely poor) estimation, an internally promoted director likely has ~10 - 15 years of experience, and externally hired directors can range from that little to much much more. These are usually very talented people who could be C-suite executives at smaller companies so their compensation makes sense. When I said "absurd amount of money" it was more of a rhetorical device, I don't actually think that its unre…

> I'm more making the point that tech used to pay middlingly compared to other professional jobs (doctor/lawyer etc.) Outside of SV, how is it not "middlingly"? Where can you make $500k+/year in tech working at some corporation??

Outside SV, Seattle and NYC it pretty much does still pay middlingly. But these same places that don't compete with SV on pay also often don't have an many resources for the startup oriented as well.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#219

Post by chupasaurus »

bluGill wrote: post #144
bjz_ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So while we're at it we should look at breaking up Google as well.

I only use google for youtube and cloud print. I'd like to break up with the latter but I haven't figured out how (history says google will force this in the near future). YouTube has a lot of great content (mixed in with even more worthless garbage) that isn't elsewhere, so I can't figure out how I'd break up with it.

On the other side, Google is tracking you on a lot of sites unless you use measures to counter it.

Re: Chris Hughes Says It’s Time to Break Up Facebook

#220

Post by TheTruth1234 »

patwolf wrote: post #64

"Mark Zuckerberg is a good guy. But his company is a threat to our economy and democracy." "Mark is a good, kind person. But I’m angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks." I always find it difficult to take an argument seriously when someone is defined simply as "good". It glosses over a lot of things, like what motivates a person and how we define "good". For example, if w…

Mark is a d!ckhead and Facebook should be broken up.

You're welcome.

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