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Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

wsj.com

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Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#41

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

moonchild wrote: post #29
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #25

We have seen this story before. Person joins Facebook thinking they can "help". Then quits. Facebook is a public company whose purpose is serve advertisers. Online ads is the only way they can generate revenue. It is not some woo-woo about connecting the world, giving people a voice, or whatever. That's what the internet enables, not a single website controlled by someone else. Facebook tries to take credit for what…

> use other means to communicate over the internet that do not require middlemen The internet is a middleman.

Then any communications medium is a middleman — postal mail, telephone, even telegraph. Maybe the only exception is speaking face-to-face. There’s no middle-man there.

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#42

Post by lukestevens »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #25

We have seen this story before. Person joins Facebook thinking they can "help". Then quits. Facebook is a public company whose purpose is serve advertisers. Online ads is the only way they can generate revenue. It is not some woo-woo about connecting the world, giving people a voice, or whatever. That's what the internet enables, not a single website controlled by someone else. Facebook tries to take credit for what…

It’s a strange pattern [0]:

[Sophie Zhang] joined Facebook in 2018 after the financial strain of living on part-time contract work in the Bay Area had worn her down. When she received Facebook’s offer, she was upfront with her recruiter: she didn’t think the company was making the world better, but she would join to help fix it.

“They told me, ‘You’d be surprised how many people at Facebook say that,’” she remembers.

[0] https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/29/1030260/facebook...

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#43

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

dragonwriter wrote: post #16
_moof wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook might be a factor in the division we see today in America but don't kid yourself: we were pretty f*in' divided during the Bush years—the Supreme Court had to decide that election, and the 9/11 unity lasted about a day and a half—and the GOP stopped at nothing to go after Clinton. This has been going on since the 1980s. Facebook may be an accelerant, but it didn't start this fire—not by a long shot.

> we were pretty f*in' divided during the Bush years, and the GOP stopped at nothing to go after Clinton. Its quite weird, because the exact same narrative of unprecedented polarization has been used under Clinton (during the bipartisan neoliberal policy consensus), Bush, Obama, and Trump (with Biden, its at least usually acknowledged as a continuation of that under Trump, not new), with most major voices just seemin…

> that's not as sexy a narrative as “suddenly we woke up in this election cycle with divisiveness that just came out of nowhere”

Because a lot of people want to believe that the time in which they live is more special and more different than the ones that came before.

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#44

Post by changoplatanero »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #27
anaganisk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me one company that places its profits/shareholder below the best interest of people. We just restart the cycle starting new.

Patagonia and Clif Bar sacrifice profits for principles.

Or is that just part of their marketing?

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#45

Post by ClumsyPilot »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #41
moonchild wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> use other means to communicate over the internet that do not require middlemen The internet is a middleman.

Then any communications medium is a middleman — postal mail, telephone, even telegraph. Maybe the only exception is speaking face-to-face. There’s no middle-man there.

Sound waves are the middleman, only direct telepathy will do.

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#46

Post by buitreVirtual »

avalys wrote: post #23
buitreVirtual wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is more than a factor. It is central to the problem as the largest social media corporation. Its amplification of psychopathic content to maximize the sickest forms of engagement for profit has people effectively living in a destructive cult. Remember when first came the tea party with their death panels talk, then birtherism, then Trump, QAnon and coup attempts?

The tea party and birtherism predate all of Facebook’s content ranking algorithms - so I would say you’ve proved the GP’s point.

All that garbage was circulating and being amplified in early Facebook and for many years later, even today, generating engagement and profit regardless of algorithms. They just made it worse over time. Why do you also dismiss the rest of the list?

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#48

Post by vln »

lukestevens wrote: post #42
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #25

We have seen this story before. Person joins Facebook thinking they can "help". Then quits. Facebook is a public company whose purpose is serve advertisers. Online ads is the only way they can generate revenue. It is not some woo-woo about connecting the world, giving people a voice, or whatever. That's what the internet enables, not a single website controlled by someone else. Facebook tries to take credit for what…

It’s a strange pattern [0]: [Sophie Zhang] joined Facebook in 2018 after the financial strain of living on part-time contract work in the Bay Area had worn her down. When she received Facebook’s offer, she was upfront with her recruiter: she didn’t think the company was making the world better, but she would join to help fix it. “They told me, ‘You’d be surprised how many people at Facebook say that,’” she remembers.…

I said the same thing. It's how I rationalized selling out for a company that does harm to the world.

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#49

Post by [deleted] »

_moof wrote: post #11
echelon wrote: post #3

If you want to save society, the mental health of our children, and preserve a sane and functional democracy, etc, etc. Stop working for Facebook. Quit working for that leadership. Let their talent erode and their technical debt lead to atrophy. Don't expend your finite life living and slaving for this empire of evil. The next best step is to pledge to not hire ex-Facebookers.

Facebook might be a factor in the division we see today in America but don't kid yourself: we were pretty f*in' divided during the Bush years—the Supreme Court had to decide that election, and the 9/11 unity lasted about a day and a half—and the GOP stopped at nothing to go after Clinton. This has been going on since the 1980s. Facebook may be an accelerant, but it didn't start this fire—not by a long shot.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it

#50

Post by mdoms »

iammisc wrote: post #30

The biggest conspiracy theory and insurrection attempt was the fake Russian conspiracy and the conspiracy to affect the election outcome conveniently described by time magazine. I'm completely uninterested in a ragtag group of curly haired shirtless weirdos who stormed congress. I am concerned about large corporations, rich interest groups and large multi media conglomerates that have actual power to affect political…

It's a perfectly legitimate concern and it's a shame you're being downvoted. Anyone who is concerned about fake news and misinformation should be appalled by the media's treatment of the bogus Russian interference story.
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