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France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

reuters.com

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Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#161

Post by bubble_talk »

Jonanin wrote: post #152
50656E6973 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>hating on Facebook is an excellent excuse for people to feel superior to the general population. "I know better than those ignorant proles, I wish they'd do what I think is best for them instead of what they want to do." Ironic; that's the same ethos being espoused and implemented by those who run Facebook.

Do you have any examples of that ethos being "espoused" by Facebook?

"Remember, what Facebook is doing has never been done before. There are going to be mistakes."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19321420

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#162

Post by spoonie »

Avamander wrote: post #26
aniforprez wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AH the bit about the goal being to make payments fast makes a ton of sense. The rest of the world has left the US in the dust with extremely fast payments systems. In India, the UPI system has taken the country by storm with direct,instant bank-to-bank money transfers which take seconds to complete and have no fees attached for the consumer

Europe has SEPA (Instant). The Chinese have WeChat Pay and similar? I'm curious, what other solutions other countries have?

Canada has free “Interac E-transfers” that you can send to an email address or mobile phone number.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#163

Post by trophycase »

noisem4ker wrote: post #5
grezql wrote: post #3

I wish they just blocked facebook altogether. It has caused people more pain than good

Blocking a communication platform doesn't sound right in a free society. There's nothing inherently wrong with connecting people. On the other hand, there should be heavy regulation and enforcement in place so that users don't get their data unknowingly exploited for commercial interest.

Facebook is an addictive social reinforcement casino first, communication platform second. Though I don't disagree with you. I think banning it is too far.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#164

Post by benj111 »

WanderPanda wrote: post #99
dannyr wrote: post #90

I dislike Facebook but I kind of feel sorry for them now because any ambitious thing that they'll attempt will probably be blocked by governments now. Facebook and Zuckerberg deserves it though.

They probably should have started it without that huge buzz and in a couple of selected countries.

Very good point.

What happens when the unstoppable force of 21st century silicon valley tech-topia meets the immovable object of western financial regulations? We are finding out. Big, shouty, trying to do an end run round the regulators isn't a great opening gambit.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#166

Post by dragonwriter »

aazaa wrote: post #27

> “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations” What a bizarre statement. Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations, but private security firms flourish. It's also odd in the context of Germany in particular where a private currency has been used for many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer I suspect there's a lot more behind this sta…

> Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations

No, it's not: providing security is a goal, several powers inherent to sovereignty might be applied toward that goal (conscription power, warmaking power, the power to impose punishment, and various other incidents of the monopoly on legitimate violence; even the monetary power is applied to that end), but the goal is distinct from the inherent powers of sovereignty.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#168

Post by Jerry2 »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

Best thing I've read on Libra: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/24/971554-facebook-bitcoin...

Love this quote:

>As Sarah Jamie Lewis, the director of the Canadian nonprofit Open Privacy, put it: “Can’t wait for a cryptocurrency with the ethics of Uber, the censorship resistance of Paypal, and the centralization of Visa, all tied together under the proven privacy of Facebook.”

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#169

Post by logicchains »

cj wrote: post #149
logicchains wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed? Most people I know happily use it to communicate and post funny (or at least trying to be funny) posts, or are older people who post lots of family pictures. The views of people on Hackernews don't seem very representative of those of the general population, maybe because hating on Facebook is an excellent excuse for people to feel superior to the general population. "I know better than those ignoran…

Since you disagree with the parent and are claiming the opposite as him (also without a citation), I decided to Google around for some actual data. Here are some findings from a NBC/WSJ poll [0]... > 57 percent of Americans say they agree with the statement that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the country > Fifty-five percent believe social media does more to spread lies and falsehoods,…

> 36 percent of adults view Facebook positively, while 33 percent see it negatively. And Twitter’s rating is 24 percent positive, 27 percent negative.

Am I correct in reading here that more adults view Facebook positively than negatively?

Interestingly, it also shows 68% of respondents agreed with "The federal government should not break these companies up because competition should be left to the free market without government choosing winners and losers", vs only 28% disagreeing, and for all such breakup questions asked there was 59% that totally agree with not breaking up, vs 30% that agree with breaking up. This is a clear majority in favour of not breaking them up, whereas the majority on HN seem to favour breaking thhem up.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#170

Post by johnnycab »

aazaa wrote: post #27

> “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations” What a bizarre statement. Providing for security is also inherent to sovereignty of nations, but private security firms flourish. It's also odd in the context of Germany in particular where a private currency has been used for many years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiemgauer I suspect there's a lot more behind this sta…

This clip from Mr. Robot S02e11 regarding eCoin, substituted with Libra in this case, maps suprisingly well to the hypothetical narrative on the shifting nature of skewed monetary power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ee-cHbCI0s

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