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Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

nytimes.com

11–20 of 472 posts

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#11
Yes, social media and maybe even the internet as a whole will radicalize its users. Facebook is a groupthink incubator. So is hacker news. I've witnessed many people change their political beliefs to match whichever group they belong to.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#13
post #8
post #5

Somebody from Facebook recently told me they developed the best system to flag radical/violent content in the world, I pointed out they first developed the best system to spread it.

Well they didn't develop the platform specifically for spreading radical/violent content. They build a generic platform for spreading thoughts among friends, and racist/violent people used the generic platform to spread their thoughts.

Not quite. They tweaked the way it was run to keep people addicted.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#14
So is Google going to throw them out of the Play store? What's the argument for banning one social media and not another. Where do you draw the line that manages to keep Facebooks app available, while still being able to defend the removal of Parler.

I know many will think I'm defending Parler, I'm not. I just don't see why Facebook is continuously given a free pass for all the horrible stuff on their platform. Is it just because Facebook has other uses, because they're bigger or because an app store that doesn't have a Facebook app will experience a huge backlash from consumers?

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#15

Terrible. The storming of the capitol was probably the most frightening single event in American history in recent times. I just got off the phone with my friend who lives in China. He was in tears. He didn't understand how someone could have such disregard for the value of human life and democracy to walk inside the capitol building in DC. It's completely against the law. For those in the dark, the event caused seri…

>> The storming of the capitol was probably the most frightening single event in American history in recent times.

This is surely hyperbole or else recent times doesn’t include much of the 21st century.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#16

So is Google going to throw them out of the Play store? What's the argument for banning one social media and not another. Where do you draw the line that manages to keep Facebooks app available, while still being able to defend the removal of Parler. I know many will think I'm defending Parler, I'm not. I just don't see why Facebook is continuously given a free pass for all the horrible stuff on their platform. Is it…

Facebook is big, wealthy and mainstream. Parler was small, poor and fringe.

Same reason tech firms are happy to "stand up" for democracy in small developing nations but won't say boo to China.

If you're looking to big business for some consistent moral principle, you're looking in the wrong place.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#17

Terrible. The storming of the capitol was probably the most frightening single event in American history in recent times. I just got off the phone with my friend who lives in China. He was in tears. He didn't understand how someone could have such disregard for the value of human life and democracy to walk inside the capitol building in DC. It's completely against the law. For those in the dark, the event caused seri…

I suspect living through the collapse of Libya as an innocent resident of that country, was probably one of the most frightening events in recent American history.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#18

Terrible. The storming of the capitol was probably the most frightening single event in American history in recent times. I just got off the phone with my friend who lives in China. He was in tears. He didn't understand how someone could have such disregard for the value of human life and democracy to walk inside the capitol building in DC. It's completely against the law. For those in the dark, the event caused seri…

Explain it to an engineer. A few people in a mostly peaceful protest got out of hand and this is the most frightening event ever? I'd say the congressmen shooting was 10x scarier yet received 100x less news coverage.

Just to be clear, sarcasm and unduly extreme language do not work as well on an engineer :)

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#19

Terrible. The storming of the capitol was probably the most frightening single event in American history in recent times. I just got off the phone with my friend who lives in China. He was in tears. He didn't understand how someone could have such disregard for the value of human life and democracy to walk inside the capitol building in DC. It's completely against the law. For those in the dark, the event caused seri…

> He didn't understand how someone could have such disregard for the value of human life and democracy...

Maybe he hasn't heard about Tiananmen Square[1], since in China it never happened[2].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...

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