Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 262 posts

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#181

Post by deanCommie »

indigochill wrote: post #179
deanCommie wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although parlor was only used for hate > Right. I used parler to do such things as . I stopped using Twitter for because I figured that ... it was only a matter of time before they were banned (for ) I know you don't think it's hate. I know you think trans rights are a subjective ethical issue. But what if you're wrong? What if it's an objectively human rights issue? Like sexuality, and race? I know there is still…

Sexual mores have been fluid throughout history. There's no particular reason to think one side is more on the "right side" than the other from an absolute sense, looking at the historical track record. For that matter, the notion of human rights as we conceive of them is a relatively modern invention. Liberalism isn't even 400 years old yet (and the notion of universal rule of law as codified in the Magna Carta is i…

Transgenderism is not a sexual more, though.

Is the trend of human history on the scale of thousands of years old relevant? Is that no different than saying "It's pointless to worry about climate change because the sun will explode and then there will be the heat death of the universe?"

Surely there is some evidence that society and humanity is "stabilizing" to a certain plateau of morality and ethics not driven by religion but driven by humanism?

Lastly, "Particularly if someone believes that it's a religious issue dictated by a deity who takes an active interest in the world, then they'll definitely believe they're on the right side of history." is exactly why I ask!

Because the perspective of what is acceptable from these religious institutions is rapidly changing!

50 years ago a Christian church that is "gay-friendly" would be inconceivable. Today there are many. Of course there are those that would dismiss those out of hand, but by default the ethical positions of groups that supposedly represent eternal immortal deities is shifting - from evolution, to birth control, to homosexuality.

I'm genuinely wondering if people believe that transgender acceptance is somehow unique.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#182

Post by iujjkfjdkkdkf »

sschueller wrote: post #6

I guess you could argue Facebook should be shutdown as parlor was. Although parlor was only used for hate, Facebook didn't do anything to stop it either. I think a big issue is how facebooks algo (and others) are built for maximum profit which at the same time also radicalizes people in their filter bubble.

> only used for hate

This reminds me of "BitTorrent is only used by illegal downloaders", "bitcoin is only used by criminals" etc.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#183

Post by worker767424 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #158
worker767424 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cambridge Analytica happened because of an API and users who will click anything to learn if they're a Samantha or a Carrie.

Does it mean we should keep technology backwards because a stupid minority will misuse it? In this case should we also ban cash machines, since idiots may withdraw all their cash & throw it in the wind?

> stupid minority

It's a stupid majority.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#184

Post by rodgerd »

sschueller wrote: post #6

I guess you could argue Facebook should be shutdown as parlor was. Although parlor was only used for hate, Facebook didn't do anything to stop it either. I think a big issue is how facebooks algo (and others) are built for maximum profit which at the same time also radicalizes people in their filter bubble.

There has been a persistent campaign by people to get Facebook to take responsibility for the consequences of allowing this sort of thing - in this instance, they have served the same role that certain radio stations did during the genocides in Rwanda.

None of this is news to folks who have been grappling with the responsibilities of social media companies, the tension between the value of grass-roots organising (often positive, as we've seen in the likes of the Arab Spring, or Hong Kongers agitating for their rights) as it pivots into these kind of actions.

The sudden interest in this mostly ends up looking like concern trolling from people who have been comfortable enjoying the dominance of "their side" in the political process for decades; "their side" in the overwhelming media presence directly controlled by, or underwritten by, the Mercers, Murdochs; the think tanks underwritten by the Kochs, and so on.

I find it hard to grant much credibility when folks who have, for example, seemed comfortable with the idea that bakers should be able to turn away wedding cakes because of the sexual orientation of the purchaser, or that employers ought to be able to refuse contraceptives to employees because of the religious opinions of the owners now suddenly affecting concern for a slow-motion genocide in a country they likely couldn't locate on a map yesterday.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#186

Post by rodgerd »

surge wrote: post #122
nend wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Who gets to define "hate"? I really dislike this argument. A lot of democratic countries have defined hate speech. In the US, individual companies define it and moderate it as they see fit. In other countries, their legislators and courts define it. The US has defined lots of difficult terms to define already. >And why ban speech that is actually legal (even if highly offensive) anyway? I mean if we're talking about…

>A lot of democratic countries have defined hate speech. They have very poor subjective definitions that boil down to anything any group considers offensive which is a moving needle, and that make make things like satire and certain forms of comedy illegal and have a chilling effect on valid criticism. It's also compelled speech, and in some cases leaves violence as the only resort, as opposed to a conversation and d…

> You people need to look at history.

Yeah, Weimar Germany could teach you some lessons, apparently.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#187

Post by rodgerd »

worker767424 wrote: post #131
fsflover wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Facebook should be broken up but I havent heard any good ideas yet regarding how to somehow regulate social networks. I think a better idea is to force them to provide an API for interoperability, alternative clients and exporting the user data. Together with the federated social networks, it will change everything: https://the-federation.info .

Cambridge Analytica happened because of an API and users who will click anything to learn if they're a Samantha or a Carrie.

Cambridge Analytica happened because the same folks who fund Steve Bannon and Parler wanted it to happen.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#188

Post by lxe »

sschueller wrote: post #6

I guess you could argue Facebook should be shutdown as parlor was. Although parlor was only used for hate, Facebook didn't do anything to stop it either. I think a big issue is how facebooks algo (and others) are built for maximum profit which at the same time also radicalizes people in their filter bubble.

Parler was used to sell t-shirts by fake trump accounts.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#189

Post by polemic »

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #182
sschueller wrote: post #6

I guess you could argue Facebook should be shutdown as parlor was. Although parlor was only used for hate, Facebook didn't do anything to stop it either. I think a big issue is how facebooks algo (and others) are built for maximum profit which at the same time also radicalizes people in their filter bubble.

> only used for hate This reminds me of "BitTorrent is only used by illegal downloaders", "bitcoin is only used by criminals" etc.

Where's the lie.

Re: Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (2018)

#190

Post by Alupis »

polemic wrote: post #189
iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> only used for hate This reminds me of "BitTorrent is only used by illegal downloaders", "bitcoin is only used by criminals" etc.

Where's the lie.

>>> only used for hate

>> This reminds me of "BitTorrent is only used by illegal downloaders", "bitcoin is only used by criminals" etc.

> Where's the lie.

Right here: https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_full_armhf/images/...

There are all sorts of legitimate use cases for torrents, including downloading large linux distro install images.

Post reply on HN