Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

Post by pbourke » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 3:20 AM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #94

thisgoodlife wrote: post #43

I find it scary that those big tech companies are trying their best to put everything under their control. I understand that they are private companies. But does that mean they can do whatever they want and get away with it?

Depends on which argument you agree with. "It's a private company it can do whatever it wants" makes it seem like yes, they can. However Facebook is answerable to two distinct groups: The people who use the service, and the stock market. If people stopped using Facebook then it's possible that would push ad revenue down, which would then push the stock price down, which might then incite the investors to demand Faceb…

Post by bravura » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 3:20 AM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #120

wvenable wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be fishy but there is also a lot new interest in WSB and everything related. So much interest that /r/WSB voluntarily shut themselves down for a while because they couldn't handle the moderation situation. So why it's happening now can more multifaceted than the more conspiratorial reasons. Even increased media attention is enough for someone to act -- The Hackernews community uses that all the time to get a…

Sure. I don't mean that it's unequivocally part of a conspiracy. But like I said, It can't go unaddressed. This isn't a Hacker news story about a banned app. It's international news, and the news isn't about WSB's (admittedly) bad language.

Post by dvt » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 3:21 AM UTC

kibwen wrote: post #140

dvt wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Free speech is a nuanced topic, and not as cut-and-dry as you have been led to believe. It is, actually. Your edge cases are disingenuous (or maybe you've just misunderstood them). It's like saying killing someone is a nuanced topic. Sure, there's moral complexities with things like abortion, war, or euthanasia, but, generally speaking, killing someone is pretty black-and-white wrong. Free speech is the same way. L…

> but, generally speaking, killing someone is pretty black-and-white wrong. Ironically, this has left me speechless. Surely you realize the inherent contradiction of arguing that something is emphatically all-or-nothing, and then turning around and moderating your position with a strategically-placed "generally speaking"? Which is it? Is it nuanced or isn't it?

Post by exabrial » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

Post by starfallg » Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #93

pfraze wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay so I completely agree but I want to add something to what’s going on Half the fun of WSB is that it is enormously offensive. The foundation of the community is that a forum talking about stock investing strategies is, at its heart, really dumb. It’s harder than most people can manage to evaluate all the “DD” flying around and any advice other than playing it safe (r/investing) is stupid to take from a rando on a…

Agreed on WSB culture but.... The "real question," imo is not about how FB, discord or reddit handle WSB's culture. It's why have they all decided to act right now, just as this gamestop maneuver is happening? That is the fishy part... and it's too fishy to leave it unaddressed and talk content. Either way, this just shows why we can't have a handful of companies moderating most of the internet under a TOS regime.