Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments • Hacker News Board

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#131

Post by pjc50 » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

rubber_duck wrote: post #101

phone8675309 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Who the hell should be the truth police? You? People that have the same beliefs as you? Except Facebook is a private platform. That people use it does not make it a public platform. That would be like arguing that Six Flags over Georgia can't remove you from their park because you started protesting in it. Yes, there are people there, but no, just because they're there and it's a popular place doesn't mean they can'…

Umm first of all social media is nothing like a park (public or private), and government has a lot of ammunition to fire at them if they decide to play politics. When companies start getting hijacked by hipster activists, entering political arena and stepping on policy maker toes they are going to get smacked down - and rightfully so - the last thing we need is some anonymous nobody from twitter deciding what to fact…

> has a lot of ammunition to fire at them if they decide to play politics.

In a very literal sense. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-minneapolis-police-protest...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#132

Post by lesstenseflow » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:48 PM UTC

neilsimp1 wrote: post #12

spamizbad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of location, Facebook is hiring from demographics that typically don't support Trump. Young, STEM-educated people skew left. If you want Trump supporters to even things out you're probably going to either: A) hire older devs from less traditional software dev backgrounds. B) Still pull from Young+STEM but filter out anyone whose social media indicates them as being left-ish.

> but filter out anyone whose social media indicates them as being left-ish. Hiring based on political beliefs, or in this case, presumed political beliefs, sounds like a dangerous road to go down. And I am saying this as a young, STEM-educated person who skews left.

> Hiring based on political beliefs, or in this case, presumed political beliefs, sounds like a dangerous road to go down.

You don’t think this is happening already? I’m not sure what companies you’ve looked at but most big tech firms have left wing political cultures on an official level, with “culture“ departments and events promoting and sharing various culturally left-wing talking points everyone is supposed to be on board with. Try saying “I actually don’t think america is a deeply racist country in 2020, there’s a huge amount of opportunity here which is evidenced by the number of people (ostensible victims of racism from India, mexico, etc) who line up to come here. Oh and by the way I think natal women are entitled to privacy from men in their bathrooms (like 95% of Americans believe)” during a lunch interview and see how fast you get the “thanks for your time we’ll be in touch.” Or just say “I voted for the current president” if you prefer something shorter.

Alternately, talk about supporting BLM, BDS, and how terrible America is as a country—no one will bat an eye.

For the record I hold views from both of the above “columns” but I know which ones I’m allowed to share at work (the left leaning “progressive” ones) and which ones I need to keep to myself, namely, everything else.

EDIT: downvoters: please set me straight here and let me know what part of my comment is inaccurate or untrue.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#133

Post by commandlinefan » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

spamizbad wrote: post #10

narrator wrote: post #2

Probably why he's going to start hiring outside of tech hubs.

Regardless of location, Facebook is hiring from demographics that typically don't support Trump. Young, STEM-educated people skew left. If you want Trump supporters to even things out you're probably going to either: A) hire older devs from less traditional software dev backgrounds. B) Still pull from Young+STEM but filter out anyone whose social media indicates them as being left-ish.

> Young, STEM-educated people skew left.

That's a surprising conclusion... I always thought they skewed libertarian.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#134

Post by vharuck » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

austincheney wrote: post #45

blueterminal wrote: post #24

People really want Zuckerberg to decide whether posts of the president should be deleted or not? Is this for real? We really need mainstream decentralized applications more than ever. Thoughts of people should not be censored. Who the hell should be the truth police? You? People that have the same beliefs as you? This is just ridiculous. I don't like Facebook but great decision by Mark. Same as they decided to not re…

Or have congress roll back Section 230. If online publishers were held to the same libel standards as print publishers this problem would be instantly fixed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communica...

230 covers a lot of situations. For example, it has been cited by a judge who ruled in favor a library, which was the defendant[0]. This protected the library's choice to let patrons use the internet on library computers. It's summarized in the Wikipedia article you shared.

If 230 disappears, I don't see how any websites would allow user comments. I really don't see how we'd have any websites where user content is the service's value (Pinterest, recipe sharing sites, LinkedIn, Reddit).

[0] http://www.techlawjournal.com/courts/kathleenr/20010306op.as...

Edited: removed repeated sentence

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#135

Post by nikivi » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

leesec wrote: post #117

mjayhn wrote: post #7

People on twitter at other $bigtech seem more than happy to bring you all on board but you've been sucking that $270k+ top-end-even-for-FAANG salary with no concern for the ethics or morality of your business for years. This isn't new. I'm less than excited to see Facebook show up on a resume and haven't been for years. Not to mention the people I've interviewed from there seem to get so accustomed to working on Face…

Lol at Fbook's "attacks on democracy". You're the one that needs to prove your insane conspiracy theories bud. All Zuck said is that he doesn't think they should be the arbiter of truth, which is SMART, because otherwise they have to start censoring content for hundreds of millions of people, which they are bound to get wrong. Watch some of Alex Stamos talks if you think this such an easy problem to solve. Remind me…

The truth is that they do censor content so words have no meaning.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#136

Post by caenorst » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

Except that the "glorification of violence" depends on the interpretation. It can also be a warning that people will start to defend themselves with violence or that the military will intervene. If that's the case those warning are here to AVOID violence by discouraging people to engage in looting...

Facebook shouldn't make such decision based on the interpretation of some emotionally biased employees.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#137

Post by easterncalculus » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

The point of social networks then is the same as it is now, to host content that does not break the terms of service of the site. Anything further than that is extra. Just leave it as things were and people are fine.

We've been saying that what's on the internet is not bond since before the inception of Facebook and Twitter, so there's no reason to try and change it now. When did people forget that there was no use in doing this?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#138

Post by lagadu » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:51 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #77

blueterminal wrote: post #24

People really want Zuckerberg to decide whether posts of the president should be deleted or not? Is this for real? We really need mainstream decentralized applications more than ever. Thoughts of people should not be censored. Who the hell should be the truth police? You? People that have the same beliefs as you? This is just ridiculous. I don't like Facebook but great decision by Mark. Same as they decided to not re…

Maybe the real issue is, the President shouldn't be tweeting official pronouncements. Maybe use some responsible apparatus for disseminating considered decisions? Fact is, I give no credence to tweeted nonsense anyway. Might as well say "Who should be allowed to censor pictures the President takes at the midway during the Cedar Country Fair?!" Lets not pretend there's some God-given right to spout hate over a public…

Why not? The president intends to address to the people he serves and facebook, among others, is an effective means of doing so.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#139

Post by walls » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:51 PM UTC

elteto wrote: post #109

mjayhn wrote: post #7

People on twitter at other $bigtech seem more than happy to bring you all on board but you've been sucking that $270k+ top-end-even-for-FAANG salary with no concern for the ethics or morality of your business for years. This isn't new. I'm less than excited to see Facebook show up on a resume and haven't been for years. Not to mention the people I've interviewed from there seem to get so accustomed to working on Face…

Passing judgment on thousands of employees like this is really no better either, you are just imposing your own morals on them.

Ah the "I was just doing my job" defense.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments

#140

Post by malloreon » Mon, Jun 01, 2020, 1:51 PM UTC

Reminder: it is incumbent on every single person who doesn't approve of what facebook does to stop using its platform - no fb, instagram, WhatsApp, or messenger.

every time they record an ad impression because of you or send a message that reinforces their network effect, you enable these people. It's not worth it.