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Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

theguardian.com

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Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#131

Post by datavirtue »

Kalium wrote: post #128
datavirtue wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Substack is currently awesome but it isn't going to be able to pay for journalism on any significant scale, as you mentioned. Journalism needs to be paid for by philanthropy. Absolute independence from market forces and political pressures. There are enough billionaires that could fund endless journalism off a fraction of their interest earnings.

How much do you trust the independence of the Washington Post, now that it's owned and backed by Jeff Bezos? They clearly have freedom from market forces and political pressures now.

It is traditional for-profit journalism.

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#132

Post by merpnderp »

salawat wrote: post #98
merpnderp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did not say “don’t criticize” he said to “lay off the hate” which to me means make sure your criticism is measured and reasonable. Laying off the hate is likely just good advice all the time.

What is the unit of measurement for criticism? As a metrology nerd this is a very important question.

You picked the wrong definition of measured. In this context it means something like to be deliberate and constrained.

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#133

Post by tolbish »

spoonjim wrote: post #115

Is it just me or are activist women in Bay Area tech disproportionately transgender? It seems like 20% or even more when you hear these “woman fighting corrupt behavior from the inside” stories.

Well San Francisco has the highest LGBT concentration of any metro in the US by a decent margin.

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#134

Post by tribesmith »

remarkEon wrote: post #130
EastSmith wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine Radiohead's Creep playing on the background and it fits perfectly.

I thought that song was originally written by Nine Inch Nails, or am I misremembering? Edit: fellas I asked a question downvotes aren’t necessary

You are misremembering

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#135

Post by titzer »

blfr wrote: post #34

> The investigation shows how Facebook has allowed major abuses of its platform in poor, small and non-western countries in order to prioritize addressing abuses that attract media attention or affect the US and other wealthy countries. The company acted quickly to address political manipulation affecting countries such as the US, Taiwan, South Korea and Poland, while moving slowly or not at all on cases in Afghanist…

> Alternatively, Facebook itself is more interested in manipulating political outcomes in the US, Taiwan, South Korea, and Poland....

It's even worse than that, and more craven. They are only interested in maximizing shareholder revenue, and have absolutely no loyalty or political agenda beyond that. They lack any moral compass and are only held in check by the potential for consequences, be that in the marketplace or the threat of government investigations.

They absolutely do not give a shit about anything but that sweet cash money and gobble gobble growth. Anything they seem to care about at any given moment, anything they mouth in the press, anything they add to their koolaid or internal reality distortion field, is a means to that end.

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#136

Post by jimmaswell »

CFA178B wrote: post #28

There was never any point in facebook being any "force for good" or "revolution" as people might have hoped for. If you read investors reflections on early FB days strategic meetings, you see the picture much more clearly. Tech gets cheap, people are dumb, surveillance pays, what's not to like about this business?

It's happened: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Revolution

Facebook is the de facto social network and lets people connect and spread information on an unprecedented scale, for good or bad.

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#137

Post by patorjk »

remarkEon wrote: post #130
EastSmith wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine Radiohead's Creep playing on the background and it fits perfectly.

I thought that song was originally written by Nine Inch Nails, or am I misremembering? Edit: fellas I asked a question downvotes aren’t necessary

You are, it's a Radiohead tune. Though it sounds similar to "The Air That I Breathe" By The Hollies, but that song is from the 70s. NIN broke out a few years before Radiohead (Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 while Pablo Honey was released in 1993).

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#139

Post by jimmaswell »

I'm inclined to feel like the political landscape is already FUBAR in lots of these corrupt countries, so any negative from Facebook doesn't really make a difference, but the good that can come from Facebook ("Facebook revolutions"[0]) exists, so it's a net positive.

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Revolution

Re: Facebook slow to address political manipulation outside wealthy, western nations

#140

Post by rodolphoarruda »

djhn wrote: post #129
yrgulation wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not pertinent to the main issue, but I just find it funny how the guardian never forgets to include such “facts” about countries: “poor, small and non-western countries”. Does similarly when it talks about racial “equality” up to the point its readership will pretty much always associate certain countries and ethnicities with poverty. Basically, promoting stereotypes.

Calling Mexico small and poor is a weird choice. Would China and Brazil qualify as well?

I'm absolutely surprised that Brazil is not even mentioned in the article. Political manipulation since early 2019 in Brazil has been jaw dropping.
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