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Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#21

Post by mrweasel »

nr2x wrote: 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.

What makes Facebook worse, in my mind, is that people don't seem to care that it's their real name associated with terrible radical, violent and angry comment. At least on something like 4Chan you'd be anonymous, but nope, people will write the most grotesque comments, while everyone can see their real name, where they live and who they work for. Some people don't seem to care, and that's pretty scary.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#22

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mrweasel wrote: post #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…

> What's the argument for banning one social media and not another

Google’s argument would be Facebook has shown good-faith efforts to respond to the problem, e.g. by freezing Trump. Parler didn’t or couldn’t. (Counterfactual: they weren’t given much time.)

In reality, a greater fraction of Parler’s users are engaging in criminal activity. By virtue of market share. (I reckon the number of problem users is higher at Facebook. Again by virtue of size.) And disconnecting hundreds of millions of voters from their kids’ photos is a good way to get slapped.

Great arguments for breaking up Facebook.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#23

Post by krona »

hoka-one-one wrote: post #2

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…

Hysterical commentary is contributing to the radicalisation on both sides.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#25

Post by goto11 »

zests wrote: post #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.

In what direction does HN radicalize us?

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#26

Post by gadders »

docdeek wrote: post #15
hoka-one-one wrote: post #2

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.

Or even much of the past year in Portland, or even the violent BLM riots in Washington DC.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#27

Post by lr »

ForHackernews wrote: post #16
mrweasel wrote: post #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…

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.

Facebook, allegedly, has an "army" of moderators. Parler, on the other hand, relied on voluntary "flagging", and they admitted (quoted in some other article from today), that they had a backlog of some 26,000 posts to review. So, while this stuff looks arbitrary on the surface, I guess we will just have to see what comes out in discovery in these lawsuits and what happens with judge and jury.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mrweasel wrote: post #21
nr2x wrote: 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.

What makes Facebook worse, in my mind, is that people don't seem to care that it's their real name associated with terrible radical, violent and angry comment. At least on something like 4Chan you'd be anonymous, but nope, people will write the most grotesque comments, while everyone can see their real name, where they live and who they work for. Some people don't seem to care, and that's pretty scary.

> people don't seem to care that it's their real name associated with terrible radical, violent and angry comment

The hypothesis of real name policies was that people would be civil online if their real-world identities grounded them. In reality, the tail wagged the dog.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#29

Post by tomp »

So, the chickens are coming home to roost...

Big Tech had hoped that by appeasing the Democrats & the pro-woke anti-Trump mainstream media, they'll escape scrutiny and avoid anti-cartel regulation. Well, looks like it's not working out as planned, at least not for Facebook, with both NYTimes and WSJ accusing them of basically being the same as Parler.

One possible future is that this just blows over, and/or gets swept under the rug for a few months/years until another faux pas happens and Big Tech is again in the crosshairs (this time, Democrats' crosshairs - who are generally more anti-business). Another option is that FB&co fight back, and accuse the media/Democrats of tolerating/promoting violence over the summer.

Who could have predicted this? :D

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#30

Post by cecja »

goto11 wrote: post #25
zests wrote: post #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.

In what direction does HN radicalize us?

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