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Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

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Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#211

Post by [deleted] »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #158
ipsum2 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your full time job is to lead corporate accountants / head a large corporate accountancy firm and you've done it for several years, I'd consider you an accountancy expert.

I guess that makes the guy who manages my software engineering team a software engineering expert too? As far as I can tell, the person who actually leads the Gates Foundation health division is Trevor Mundel. Even then, the work of the Gates Foundation has been in funding projects lead by other organisations, rather than in implementing those projects themselves.

[deleted]

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#212

Post by brandonmenc »

ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

> What motivates a statement like this?

Because billionaires don't need encryption to keep themselves safe. The billions take care of that just fine.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#213

Post by tptacek »

codebolt wrote: post #79
mdoms wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

Like it or not, he's become a highly controversial figure for a large fraction of the population, particularly within the societies that his foundation works. In my opinion, they'd do good to pick a figure whose name is less tarnished if they want the message to be more broadly accepted.

So, the Heckler's Veto, then?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#214

Post by amiga_500 »

reillyse wrote: post #109
ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

I don't think he is saying that encrypted communication should be illegal. He's saying that spreading lies through encrypted channels should be stopped. It would not be hard for WhatsApp to prevent people from spreading bogus videos, because they have access to the unencrypted information before and after sending. So either preventing people from sharing misinformation or preventing people from reading the misinforma…

Surely American culture is the problem. Conspiracy nuts predate the internet. This is a deeper problem.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#215

Post by solarhoma »

tptacek wrote: post #207
ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

What's frustrating about this question is that it (inevitably!) commands the top of the HN thread with a discussion of the least interesting thing in the article. It's an article about COVID and Facebook, and here we're recapitulating the end-to-end encryption debate for the 8-zillionth time.

I would argue that this statement from Bill is the most interesting. This statement shows Bill Gates, someone who has influence on legislatures, making a statement against encryption.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#216

Post by AmericanChopper »

ipsum2 wrote: post #204
AmericanChopper wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that makes the guy who manages my software engineering team a software engineering expert too? As far as I can tell, the person who actually leads the Gates Foundation health division is Trevor Mundel. Even then, the work of the Gates Foundation has been in funding projects lead by other organisations, rather than in implementing those projects themselves.

> I guess that makes the guy who manages my software engineering team a software engineering expert too? If they do it very well and can point to measurable results of success, I would think so!

So if an engineering team is successful, then their manager is necessarily an engineering expert? You’re really not providing any rationale to support this rather extreme position. Bill Gates experience in the field of public health is choosing projects to finance, and even then he is not the primary person responsible for that in his foundation. Bill Gates has no credentials you could point to, and has done no work you could point to, that would support an assertion of him being a public health expert. It is frankly a ridiculous proposition.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#217

Post by sukilot »

tptacek wrote: post #207
ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

What's frustrating about this question is that it (inevitably!) commands the top of the HN thread with a discussion of the least interesting thing in the article. It's an article about COVID and Facebook, and here we're recapitulating the end-to-end encryption debate for the 8-zillionth time.

Bill Gates was the one who linked encryption to Covid, not HN.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#218

Post by slg »

Orou wrote: post #133
reillyse wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he is saying that encrypted communication should be illegal. He's saying that spreading lies through encrypted channels should be stopped. It would not be hard for WhatsApp to prevent people from spreading bogus videos, because they have access to the unencrypted information before and after sending. So either preventing people from sharing misinformation or preventing people from reading the misinforma…

You'd think given the amount of time he's spent working on Coronavirus that he might see the distinction between treating the symptoms and treating the cause, so to speak. I've yet to see anyone provide any kind of evidence that suggests censorship changes people's minds about conspiracies - if anything it seems to be doing exactly the opposite.

He is thinking about the root cause, but it's at a higher level. We don't have to change people's minds about conspiracies if they are never exposed to those false conspiracies in the first place. This also applies to other corrupting influences like hate and bigotry.

Very few people are actively seeking to become radicalized into some fringe movement. It instead happens more passively or through active recruitment by another member. Negative content is normalized when it appears on a platform intertwined with mainstream content. People stop viewing it as fringe and it becomes easier for people to be passively radicalized or recruited. When that content is only available on sites dedicated to that content, people aren't going to stumble upon it without recognizing what it truly is. There are plenty of stories about people being accidentally radicalized by what they see on Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, etc. You aren't going to accidentally be radicalized by visiting Storm Front.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#219

Post by 127 »

tptacek wrote: post #207
ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

What's frustrating about this question is that it (inevitably!) commands the top of the HN thread with a discussion of the least interesting thing in the article. It's an article about COVID and Facebook, and here we're recapitulating the end-to-end encryption debate for the 8-zillionth time.

It will remain very interesting up to the moment where someone comes up with a solution on how to escape a tyrannical panopticon totalitarian state.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#220

Post by bluedevil2k »

EarthIsHome wrote: post #179
bluedevil2k wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you taking about? The man devotes his time and considerable resources to public health and solving the tough to solve issues instead of spending his time owning sports teams and racing yachts. Yet...you still look for the negatives in his motives? “Great Business?” The man is literally giving away his money, all this pandemic is doing is taking more of his precious time up than normal.

I would not call it "giving away money." This is what giving away money is and what really makes a difference in people's lives: John Oliver buys and forgives $15m worth of medical debt [0]. Now, just imagine what a billionaire like Bill Gates could do. Actual material change in people's lives. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/john-oliver-...

Nonsense, it’s almost like you’ve never heard the “give a man a fish, teach a man to fish” parable.

Yes, he can pay off debt of we’ll say 1M Americans. Then he’s out of money and people are still getting sick. Now what?

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