Live data from Hacker News

Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

buzzfeednews.com

21–30 of 96 posts

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#21
post #9

I saw this yesterday. There were a shocking number of people bringing up and defending people like James Damore, the misogynist Google memo guy who guest starred on white power podcasts like Stefan Molyneux's. I don't like to be an an echo chamber, but I feel like praising that sort of thing is definitely in the relm of "far right" and makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting?

Molyneux most definitely is an extremist, some choice quotes from the SPLC: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/indi... It's got nothing to do with echo chambers. The response to his memo might have been a little overblown, but anyone who associates with someone like Molyneux makes quite clear where they stand. >makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting? I'm not sure about HN,…

If we're honest, a lot of that is less extreme than a lot of what happens on the "crazy", "woke", "left" these days that we're all kinda accepting and in a lot of cases promoting.

The difference is one is "kinda" accepted and promoted under the guise of "justice", whilst the other is shunned as "extremist" and "far right".

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#22
post #6

I saw this yesterday. There were a shocking number of people bringing up and defending people like James Damore, the misogynist Google memo guy who guest starred on white power podcasts like Stefan Molyneux's. I don't like to be an an echo chamber, but I feel like praising that sort of thing is definitely in the relm of "far right" and makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting?

I see you're already getting downvoted? It's funny because the same people who support James Damore are also anti unionizing which would give them a stronger voice....

What's funny? Unionizing in the advertising/tech industry to push a political agenda is acting like sheep! How does anyone get fooled into this kind of philosophy? Mob rules? Look at the big picture and think for yourself for a change.

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#23

The title buzzfeed came up with is misleading as the article isn't really about an employee getting fired or their evidence. Its more a general editorial on Facebook and the US election.

Did you read the entire article?

The engineer joined the company in 2016 and most recently worked on Instagram. He left the company on Wednesday. One employee on an internal thread seen by BuzzFeed News said that they received permission from the engineer to say that the dismissal “was not voluntary.”

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#24
post #3

It feels like you have to squint fairly hard at this point to continue to see Facebook in the same terms that they define themselves as just being interested in "presenting the marketplace of ideas". This seems to be the latest in a pretty long series of actions that seem contrary to that idea and that something else might be the real motivating factor.

"CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF FACEBOOK, INC. ARTICLE III: The purpose of the Corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized under the Delaware General Corporation Law." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512... Facebook is no different than any other Delaware corporation. Facebook exists to do anything and everything that will profit its shareho…

This language is not exclusive to Delaware corporations, or even corporations. It is standard practice when incorporating any kind of business entity.

Source: if you look at the articles of incorporation for my solely-owned and operated LLC, you'd find an identical purpose statement.

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#25
post #21
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Molyneux most definitely is an extremist, some choice quotes from the SPLC: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/indi... It's got nothing to do with echo chambers. The response to his memo might have been a little overblown, but anyone who associates with someone like Molyneux makes quite clear where they stand. >makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting? I'm not sure about HN,…

If we're honest, a lot of that is less extreme than a lot of what happens on the "crazy", "woke", "left" these days that we're all kinda accepting and in a lot of cases promoting. The difference is one is "kinda" accepted and promoted under the guise of "justice", whilst the other is shunned as "extremist" and "far right".

This is not "less extreme" than what you're referencing:

“You cannot run a high IQ [white] society with low IQ [non-white] people…these [non-white] immigrants are going to fail...and they're not just going to fail a little, they are going to fail hard…they're not staying on welfare because they’re lazy...they’re doing what is economically the best option for them...you are importing a gene set that is incompatible with success in a free-market economy.”

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#26
post #9

I saw this yesterday. There were a shocking number of people bringing up and defending people like James Damore, the misogynist Google memo guy who guest starred on white power podcasts like Stefan Molyneux's. I don't like to be an an echo chamber, but I feel like praising that sort of thing is definitely in the relm of "far right" and makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting?

Molyneux most definitely is an extremist, some choice quotes from the SPLC: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/indi... It's got nothing to do with echo chambers. The response to his memo might have been a little overblown, but anyone who associates with someone like Molyneux makes quite clear where they stand. >makes me wonder if that's the sort of people HN is attracting? I'm not sure about HN,…

As if Southern Poverty Law Center was an objective reference.

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#27
post #20

It is mildly off-topic, but it is not intended to derail this conversation. Did anyone else notice that Buzzfeednews and Yahoo news gotten somewhat decent ( as in, Yahoo actually had an in-depth analysis that wasn't all talking points ).

From my basic understanding is that Buzzfeed != Buzzfeed News. News is apparently a well run organization and it’s a shame that it uses the same brand for this very reason.

Yes but Buzzfeed News has also been caught asking Buzzfeed to report a story so Buzzfeed news can do the "According to Buzzfeed...." kind of game.

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#28
post #18
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're painting with a very broad brush there. There are a lot of reasonable, good people that would disagree with your interpretations of those people/podcasts/events. I.e. the debate is far from settled, and it should be open for discussion such as we have here on HN.

These are from the SPLC’s list of quotes: “I don’t view humanity as a single species...” —Podcast FDR2768, “Collective Guilt for Fun and Profit”, Saturday call-in show, August 9, 2014 “The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the f--- up!” —Podcast FDR2740, “Conformity and the Cult of ‘Friendship’,” Wednesday call-in show July 2, 2014 "Screaming 'racism' at people because blacks are collectively le…

Molyneux is detestable but SLPC has no credibility. They recently settled a defamation lawsuit against Majid Nawaz an anti-extremism Muslim reformer who they labeled as an anti-muslim extremist. It's in the same vein as people who call Ben Shapiro, an orthodox jew, a Nazi. It's simply ridiculous hysterics.

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#29

It sounds like the issue is that fact-checkers are being overridden sometimes when they flag right-wing news sources. I think that if you asked a right-wing person, they would tell you that many of these fact-checker organizations have a distinct left-wing bias. Maybe they (the fact-checkers) aren’t infallible and get it wrong sometimes?

If the basic work of fact-checking itself justifies removing right wing content the problem isn't the fact checkers.

What about the fact checkers who rated the EFF as wrong on the warrantless surveillance issues?

Re: Facebook fired an employee who posted evidence of preferential treatment

#30
post #18
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're painting with a very broad brush there. There are a lot of reasonable, good people that would disagree with your interpretations of those people/podcasts/events. I.e. the debate is far from settled, and it should be open for discussion such as we have here on HN.

These are from the SPLC’s list of quotes: “I don’t view humanity as a single species...” —Podcast FDR2768, “Collective Guilt for Fun and Profit”, Saturday call-in show, August 9, 2014 “The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the f--- up!” —Podcast FDR2740, “Conformity and the Cult of ‘Friendship’,” Wednesday call-in show July 2, 2014 "Screaming 'racism' at people because blacks are collectively le…

That's Molyneux though, not Damore, right? Because the GP comment spoke about Damore and all the people who "defended" (aka didn't condemn and had actually read the memo) him. That suddenly turned into "praising that sort of thing" and suddenly it's "far right", which turns into back seat moderation in the form of (paraphrased) "do we really want the literal Nazis here?"

It's a terrible comment that belongs on Reddit, not HN.

Post reply on HN