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Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

wsj.com

881–890 of 1001 posts

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#881
post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Why does Facebook need a VP of Integrity?

Isn’t that the CEO’s job?

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#882
post #874
post #831

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A counter-point to this is that studies show polarization has also fallen in some countries over the past years - including ones where social media (Facebook or otherwise) is popular. Studies also show some of the most polarized segments in the US to be the older population, which uses social media less. We definitely have work to do, but this suggests there are many factors at play.

You have an interest in the outcome of the research, why should we trust you to conduct or fund it properly? Your track record is terrible. The fact you are throwing around dubious research as facts is crazy. I'm sorry, but really, there's no reason to believe a word a you say. You get paid from Facebook, Facebook lied again and again, how on earth do you expect people to take you seriously? Your job and title is to…

>why should we trust you to conduct or fund it properly?

You are welcome to conduct research or fund it. You can even help current research by criticizing their research in its substance, or engage yourself politically (at least by voting) so we can have more and better research about the topic.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#883
post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

“We come to these decisions through rigorous debate where we look at all angles of how our decisions will affect people in different parts of the world”

If you had any integrity, you would delegate this governance back to the captured provinces.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#884
post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which company uses that business model and has a size comparable to Facebook?

Apple.

I thought it was obvious I meant from the sector in question. My mistake, I'll try again.

Do you know of a social media company (or ad company using a product to garner the data, if that helps) that uses that model with a comparable size to Facebook? If not, are there any that are making ground?

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#885

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that VPN app that Apple pulled from the app store, the one that Facebook was using to spy on users' internet usage to gain intel about potential competitors. When Facebook acquired the VPN app this guy came with the purchase. VP of Inegrity. Oh, the irony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo Another commenter noticed this first but the comment is buried at the bottom of the thread. You have to enable showdea…

Facebook's "VP of Integrity" Guy Rosen (guy_ro) co-founded Onavo, a spyware company that Facebook acquired in 2013. Onavo's flagship app was Onavo Protect, a VPN service that Facebook used to monitor the activity of its competitors, including Snapchat. Facebook acquired WhatsApp and copied features from Houseparty based on the data it harvested from Onavo users. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-copycats-how-faceb…

> The next time Facebook needs a public relations injection, it should consider using someone other than the co-founder of Onavo.

It seems like they knew exactly what they where doing. They want money and I don't believe for a second that the most ethical road is where the money is, you have to be able to say no to money and Facebook clearly shows us time and time again that money has the highest priority.

The highest value seems to be in companies that brand themselves as trustworthy but really isn't. No matter if it is Goldman Sachs, Facebook, Google or Nestle.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#886
post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Anyone want to hazard a guess at the total comp of a VP @Facebook? Curious

I hope there are more people at the top with the integrity to stand up for injustice like Tim Bray. I have all the respect in the world for someone who puts their neck on the line for what they believe in. Thank you Tim @tbray

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/business/amazon-tim-bray-...

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#887

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may come off as condescending, but I'm honestly just curious. From the outside looking in, it seems as though you are paid to drink cool-aid and paint FB in a positive light. How does one get to be in your position? What are the qualifications for your job?

Remember that VPN app that Apple pulled from the app store, the one that Facebook was using to spy on users' internet usage to gain intel about potential competitors. When Facebook acquired the VPN app this guy came with the purchase. VP of Inegrity. Oh, the irony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo Another commenter noticed this first but the comment is buried at the bottom of the thread. You have to enable showdea…

Unbelievable. Just when I think I've seen it all in tech, how can someone like this take their title seriously having peddled their spyware to the highest bidder. Hope the cognitive dissonance keeps these execs with a broken moral compass up at night, if not for what they've done for themselves, then for contributing to making the world a worse place for their children and beyond. Thanks for sharing, wish there was a database full of these snakes and their slimy legacy they've left behind.

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#889
post #758

Hey, Facebook VP of Integrity here (I work on this stuff). This WSJ story cites old research and falsely suggests we aren’t invested in fighting polarization. The reality is we didn’t adopt some of the product suggestions cited because we pursued alternatives we believed are more effective. What’s undeniable is we’ve made significant changes to the way FB works to improve the integrity of our products, such as fundam…

Your entire reply sounds like gaslighting and enabling. Minimizing reponsibility and deflecting.

Enabling?

Re: Facebook executives shut down efforts to make the site less divisive

#890

I really didn't realize until perhaps the last 2 years that Facebook fundamentally tapped some hidden human need/instinct to argue with people who they believe are incorrect. Specifically, and more importantly, combined with the human inability to actively decide to not pay attention when things are inconsequential or not yet worth arguing about. Sometimes, just shutting up about an issue and not discussing it is the…

I am a progressive, so liberal I verge on socialist, and I think one of the "Left's" great flaws in the US is its inability to walk away, to just ignore. Engaging vociferously is seen almost as a moral imperative; "we must fight evil wherever we find it" sort of thing. But all that does is bring attention and a form of validation to the more lunatic attempts to enrage them. They aren't accomplishing a single thing by getting so righteously angry over statements the speakers probably aren't even making in good faith.

You can even see in the memes. It's the right that loves "trolling libs," and the left that's taking the bait. I think it's telling that the stereotype hardly ever seems to go the other way; you almost never see people talk about liberals "trolling reps."

You really don't need to engage with everything in order to be a good activist. In fact, I believe taking time and emotional energy to do so is actually being a bad activist. You're just wasting effort, nothing you say or do will change anyone's minds because mostly, the whole reason they're saying whatever it is is specifically to make you upset. To trap you into unwinnable arguments just to laugh at how heated you get.

Really we all need to be better at just walking away from crazy, whatever side of whatever spectrum we find it. By regularly surrounding yourself with such conflicts and by regularly basting yourself in such a soup of intense negativity, you are quite literally doing nothing more than causing physical harm to your body and mind via the morass of cortisol, etc. you are unleashing. You are accomplishing nothing.

I agree that Facebook makes this painfully easy, although Twitter and Reddit are right there as well.

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