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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

#71

Post by StanislavPetrov »

runarberg wrote: post #65
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…

I thought that foreign manipulation of the 2016 election was well in fact documented. If you don’t believe that the Russian government interfered with the election, you must at least believe that a private company located in the UK did so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Ana...

Unfortunately private companies and foreign governments from Tel Aviv to Dubai spent countless millions to influence our elections and buy our lawmakers.

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

#72

Post by ineedasername »

fredgrott wrote: post #36
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…

the solution is re thinking the business model, we already have a successful model its called Discord. No ads, just premium services for users.

Discord doesn't appear to be profitable yet. Or, at least they don't appear to have ever said they were, and have taken about $500m in funding w/ about $220m in revenue since 2016.

They seem to be on a solid path, but I think it's too soon to hold them up as an archetype of a social networking service that can be massively successful on a freemium/subscription revenue model.

I also can't think of any company close to the size of facebook that is free for "users" rather than charging for their software/services. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but we're looking for a black swan event to change that, and it's unclear if Discord is going to have the hockey stick growth to make that happen, or if its recent increase in revenue is even sustainable as Covid becomes less disruptive.

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

#73

Post by StanislavPetrov »

mehphp wrote: post #57
mdoms wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Didn’t the Senate Intelligence Committee release a bipartisan report that concluded Russia did indeed attempt interfere with our election? How was it a bogus story?

The Committee did indeed release a bipartisan report making those assertions. Their assertions were bogus because no evidence is cited anywhere in the report. Claims of secret evidence are not evidence.

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

#74

Post by cybernautique »

wesleywt wrote: post #59
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…

Do you not care about people attacking your biggest symbol of power. Within in reach of many of your representatives. Driven by years of hate and misinformation? You should care. Russian interference is well documented by American intelligence agencies and private individuals.

I think Jan 6 was a problem in its origin, not in its means or ends. As an American, I truly do not care about people attacking Congress, or the White House, or any politician, because they are not symbols of my power anymore than my local carwash or plumber is a symbol of my power. They are public servants, worthy of no more respect than the pizza delivery person (a lot less, actually, since the pizza delivery person is working to make a living).

If they were attempting to overthrow actual despots, about whom everyone agreed something Must Be Done, the popular reaction would be much different. I think the current reaction is on the money: they are violent, idiotic, hooligans.

But the ability to storm the capitol is a necessity.

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

#75

Post by rvz »

I thought that was Gab’s job? Looks like Facebook is in its own league of ‘enabling hate’ and is profiting off of it.

On top of knowing that Instagram is bad for teens, there is no limit to the scandals, leaks, whistleblowers, lawsuits or penalties that will bring the Facebook mafia down.

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

#76

Post by salawat »

temp8964 wrote: post #60
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…

If what you said is true, how is Zuckerberg "the root of the problem"?

He has majority control of the company. There is no balancing input. As long as Facebook is around with Zuckerberg at the helm, he is by definition the root of the problem.

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

#77

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#78

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#79

Post by ineedasername »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #73
mehphp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn’t the Senate Intelligence Committee release a bipartisan report that concluded Russia did indeed attempt interfere with our election? How was it a bogus story?

The Committee did indeed release a bipartisan report making those assertions. Their assertions were bogus because no evidence is cited anywhere in the report. Claims of secret evidence are not evidence.

Considering the polarizing nature of the topic, it seems unlikely there would be a bipartisan agreement on the issue without classified intel to get people on both sides of the aisle behind it.

That, of course, is not proof. But we have also had reports of activity traced back to Russia from other organizations.

They could all be lying, but then that claim takes us strongly into the conspiracy theory territory at the same time that it runs afoul of the "lack of evidence" problem quite a bit more than alternative explanation.

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

#80

Post by meowtimemania »

runarberg wrote: post #54
thomasjudge wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree with this part of the statement from the company: "If any research had identified an exact solution to these complex challenges, the tech industry, governments, and society would have solved them a long time ago." The social costs of social media are complex, and solutions are not obvious. Unfortunately it's likely that if the companies can't meaningfully address these problems on their own, congress will…

idk. If you found out that your product is harmful, I would expect you to stop producing it. This is the case for every other consumer products except maybe cigarettes and alcohol. For example, if they find out a car is not safe, they pull it of the market at the very least, sometimes they even issue a recall. Why do we not hold social media products to the same standards?

But cars aren’t safe, many people die from cars every year.
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