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Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

nytimes.com

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Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#151

Post by pjc50 »

ecmascript wrote: post #13
fennecfoxen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberal society is ending, and you must swear allegiance to the People's Party, comrade. Otherwise, we will publicly denounce you, and will not permit you to engage in any business activity. There will be an ideological examination. Study hard!

It surely feels like it at least when every single major javascript framework has a #BLM header. Nothing that don't matter or are relevant to me since I live in northen europe.

> Nothing that don't matter or are relevant to me since I live in northen europe.

Everybody knows there are no black people in Europe! Problem solved!

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#152

Post by methehack »

salimmadjd wrote: post #108

Am I the only person who has a problem with this headline, "Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing" am I overreacting here or others feel the same? For me at the face of it's not incorrect, but it feels to me a certain deliberate wordsmithing is used to create a sense of growing momentum. What we don't know if these advertisers represent 1%, more or less than x% of Facebook's ad revenue. I do understand FB will not pro…

Do you prefer "Ad Boycott of Facebook Kind of Growing"? Or "Ad Boycott of Facebook Growing Slowly"? Or "Ad Boycott of Facebook: The Details"

It is growing, the details are accurate in the article, and I can't think of a headline that has zero editorial information in it. If they don't run any story, then they risk the opposite criticism: why didn't you tell us?!

You should worry more about the media that philosophically rejects the notion of objective reality.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#153

Post by listenallyall »

ForHackernews wrote: post #121
listenallyall wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably could replace "Facebook" with just about any company in that sentence. Having to uphold "company values", live by some boss's petty rules, take HR initiatives seriously, etc, is pretty much universally frustrating.

Nah, most companies just want their employees to do their jobs. It's only these Silicon Valley cults that expect everyone to drink the koolaid about "values" and center your personal identity around your job. If you don't believe this, go get a job at a lumber yard or a warehouse or something. Related reading: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/558867.Disciplined_Minds https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466958-bu…

You don't think there's a severe mental burden associated with having to clock in and out, reprimands for being 6 minutes late, only being allowed to visit a doctor if it's on the health plan's list, few opportunities for advancement, work quotas, can't leave early to pick up a sick kid from school, etc etc?

Not to mention most warehouse workers don't make nearly enough to have the luxury of quitting.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#154

Post by jasonv »

salimmadjd wrote: post #108

Am I the only person who has a problem with this headline, "Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing" am I overreacting here or others feel the same? For me at the face of it's not incorrect, but it feels to me a certain deliberate wordsmithing is used to create a sense of growing momentum. What we don't know if these advertisers represent 1%, more or less than x% of Facebook's ad revenue. I do understand FB will not pro…

It’s a spark, of the sort that didn’t exist a while ago.

Could turn into a real fire.

I hope it’s not an overstated headline, and I’m willing to wait, and help if I can, make it a firestorm.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#155

Post by nisten »

salimmadjd wrote: post #108

Am I the only person who has a problem with this headline, "Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing" am I overreacting here or others feel the same? For me at the face of it's not incorrect, but it feels to me a certain deliberate wordsmithing is used to create a sense of growing momentum. What we don't know if these advertisers represent 1%, more or less than x% of Facebook's ad revenue. I do understand FB will not pro…

I don't know the best way to put this, but for me the anectodal evidence i've seen, consisting mainly of tech articles and Elon Musk tweets, seems to point in this direction. Albeit facebook's data might probably show that their ad use is growing despite these setbacks.

In my opinion this all stems what I think is a lack of "emotional intelligence" on the part of facebook's CEO. They clearly don't have the ability to judge correctly how people will feel about many of their decisions, nor do they seem to have any remorse from damages they cause ( i.e. how facebook was used during the genocide in Burma)

They have a superb ability to predict changes at scale on the technical side and I think their role in the company should be restricted to this.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#156

Post by bhupy »

aero142 wrote: post #144
sneak wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (legitimate) argument is that freedom of speech extends to facebook getting to decide what, and in what order, information is displayed on facebook.com. To dictate a chronological order, or to demand that they publish every single thing that is submitted to them, is a restriction of their freedom of editorial expression on their own website .

Yes, but Facebook clearly wants you to believe that it is the user's freedom of speech being restricted, not their own freedom being restricted. At the same time, they want to be a "platform" and claim they are not legally responsible for what is being said, they just promote it.

Unless there's some other context that I'm missing, the current boycott appears to be caused by Facebook's unwillingness to delete a (non-sponsored) Facebook post by a world leader.

If they were to do this, they would 100% be restricting the free speech of the leader in question, as well as that of the audience to read that speech. Facebook empowers its users to block / mute speech that individual doesn't want to read. It does not, however, empower you to prevent me from reading something that I, personally, have no issues reading.

This seems consistent with the principles of free speech, non-chronological feed notwithstanding.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#157

Post by WhompingWindows »

pesenti wrote: post #100
tech-historian wrote: post #64

Serious questions: Are the people that work at Facebook proud to work there? What is morale like inside that place? When someone asks you what you do, and you say "I work for Facebook," what is their typical reaction? Not trying to be snarky. I'm genuinely curious how these perceptions/feelings might have changed over the past few years.

I have answered part of your question before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19036507 Happy to answer more.

Can you explain why you think FB's products are good for the world? Do you think Donald Trump would be President without FB?

Edit: Apparently someone downvoted this comment within 60 seconds...this seems contrary to HN's ethos. I asked a general question with a specific example; is someone triggered by the words "Donald Trump"? This is pushing a legitimate question about FB's effect on the world down into the gray...is that a good thing?

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#158

Post by pjc50 »

dfxm12 wrote: post #32
dmos62 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's good and well that you are independent, but the sad fact is that on average misinformation works, especially at scale. We don't really have a good grasp on the issue. It's in our culture to not regulate entertainment and media, but we're coming to terms with the fact that this can be turned against us.

It's in our culture to not regulate entertainment and media I disagree with that statement. For whatever it is worth, we (both the government and private sectors) have a long history of putting "explicit lyrics" stickers on CD's, censoring lyrics for the radio, editing scenes out of movies on TV, threatening to prevent movies from release if scenes aren't taken out, adding age ratings on videogames and films, see als…

Exactly. The right demanded those "parental advisory: explicit lyrics" be imposed, and then complain when people voluntarily put "trigger warnings" on their material.

(the originator of the campaign was actually Tipper Gore, wife of Al; reminder that the US Democrats mostly operate as a center-right party roughly corresponding to Merkel's Christian Democrats)

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#159

Post by ethbro »

satokema_work wrote: post #136
sneak wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (legitimate) argument is that freedom of speech extends to facebook getting to decide what, and in what order, information is displayed on facebook.com. To dictate a chronological order, or to demand that they publish every single thing that is submitted to them, is a restriction of their freedom of editorial expression on their own website .

The (also legitimate) argument is that freedom of speech should extend to privately-owned de facto commons, and is a concept beyond the enumeration in the American Bill of Rights.

As clear a way to put it as I've heard.

But all companies seek to become monopolies for purposes of profit, while avoiding being seen as monopolies for purposes of responsibility.

Re: Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing

#160

Post by shultays »

tech-historian wrote: post #64

Serious questions: Are the people that work at Facebook proud to work there? What is morale like inside that place? When someone asks you what you do, and you say "I work for Facebook," what is their typical reaction? Not trying to be snarky. I'm genuinely curious how these perceptions/feelings might have changed over the past few years.

I saw a more snarky comment on this topic which still makes me smirk: "Hopefully one day they will see the little skull icons on their hats and ask the question 'are we the baddies?'"
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