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Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

nytimes.com

31–40 of 472 posts

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#31

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…

Because people, not Hacker news people, but real people like Facebook. That's the reason.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#32
Emotional content elicits a larger response, says the article with the provocative headline. There is nothing new here.

Why does the responsibility never lie with the people who say these things, only where they say it? It reminds of of the Columbine shootings, where many articles where written about the violent video games that must of inspired the shooters to do it. Those arguments sucked then and they still suck now.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#33
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.

Likes and upvotes. I was off the social media for a couple of years and now I can say for sure that it's screwing with peoples heads. For some reason it makes you care about some meaningless numbers and that incentivizes people on the social media to go along with the status quo.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#34
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, with #BlackLivesMatter and #KillAllMen, I kind-of doubt the former assertion...

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#35
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.

> I've witnessed many people change their political beliefs to match whichever group they belong to.

Social animals conform to the social norms of their pack.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#36

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…

Didn't they freeze Trump only after the entire backlash? and last I checked, Trump was not on Parler was he? Infact, that was the big issue - Trump not moving to Parler or Gab while calling out Twitter.

It's funny because if he did do the move earlier, he'd have hurt twitter where it counts - their stock price. But I guess the attention on Twitter was just too much to ignore.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#37

Facebook is intrinsically a passion-group generator. Where "passion" is the edges of "adoration" to "enmity". Anything that "triggers" you (to interact w/ the platform), be it pottery or anarchy, FB will find "your people". If you are prone to fits of passion, FB will find your passion-mates... mated to you by fear, anxiety, rage ... or joy.

I really don't know about this. There are certainly fringe groups active on Facebook but at least in my immediate circle it's mostly a tool to connect families, friends and communities. I really don't see it as a forum for ideas or activism, unlike Twitter or reddit. but maybe that's just the bubble I'm in.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#38
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

They don't realize their comment is terrible or radical. To them it seems perfectly rational to be this angry or to respond to "attacks" with violence of their own.

They think they are voices of reason in a world that's losing its mind.

If you're a brave hero in an unjust world, why not use your real name?

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Very astute observation.

Re: Facebook Incubated the Insurrection

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Didn't they freeze Trump only after the entire backlash? and last I checked, Trump was not on Parler was he? Infact, that was the big issue - Trump not moving to Parler or Gab while calling out Twitter. It's funny because if he did do the move earlier, he'd have hurt twitter where it counts - their stock price. But I guess the attention on Twitter was just too much to ignore.

> Didn't they freeze Trump only after the entire backlash?

Yes. To be fair, Parler didn’t do much including after the backlash. But I’m not going to argue this is another advantage Facebook accrues due to its size.

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