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

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

#111
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps I am of the minority opinion, but I damn sure was never worried about a bunch of selfie-taking unarmed rednecks destroying the United States of America. My faith in this country goes a little deeper than that.

People are much less concerned about the unarmed rednecks taking selfies than they’re concerned about the armed folks searching the grounds for certain representatives, the people planting pipe bombs around DC, and anti-government militias comprised heavily of former military and law enforcement. Oh yeah, said militia members stashed guns at a nearby hotel (according to their own testimony and video footage).

This could’ve gotten way uglier and who knows what the ramifications would be. Let’s not fixate on the selfies.

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

#113

This individual is not a 'whistleblower'. Nothing revealed is illegal or fraudulent.

Are there no consumer protection laws which forbids a company from pushing a product to market that they know to be harmful to their customers? IANAL but it seems pretty illegal to my eyes.

I hate Facebook, but your statement begs the question: "who defines what is harmful"

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

#114
post #23

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.

They do not, however, predate opportunistic actors begging for shares of their content on the platform, and of the platform's users happily doing so. I know; my dad was one of them.

There's a difference of kind to mass broadcast on a platform one incidentally scrolls (and thus receives incidental exposure from) versus, say, chain emails. The latter have a lot lower impact and require way more activation energy to push onward than a one-click Share.

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

#115
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps I am of the minority opinion, but I damn sure was never worried about a bunch of selfie-taking unarmed rednecks destroying the United States of America. My faith in this country goes a little deeper than that.

Marie Antoinette was similarly not worried about the visceral expressions of very real problems across the nation of France. It's not a problem until it's a problem.

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

#116
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I am of the minority opinion, but I damn sure was never worried about a bunch of selfie-taking unarmed rednecks destroying the United States of America. My faith in this country goes a little deeper than that.

I wonder if your opinion would be different if those unarmed rednecks were able to get to Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell or VP Pence? Those "unarmed rednecks" were able to do something not even the various armies of the Confederacy couldn't: get inside the capitol. People are not terrified enough, because this group of people saw they could do it and I have a strong feeling they will try ag…

The capitol is (normally) a public building. There is a sitting senator who has been arrested at a protest in the building. Likewise it was not long ago that the capitol was full of protesters accosting senators in the lead up the the supreme court pick.

It's not meant to be a secure building that takes an army to get into.

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Its been 6 years and not a single US person has been charged in this alleged interference, just a bunch of charges against Russian nationals (which is much like charging Kim Jong Un with murder, itll never see a court).

Who has been charged? Hillary Clintons lawyer for making it up

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lawyer-firm-represented-clin...

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

#118
post #96
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not commenting on the whole FB thing, but your comparison is very very poor. Altria (one of the largest tobacco product seller) is the owner of the Juul company. They literally were told to stop marketing to children and then turned the ship around to push cotton candy-tasting nicotine to minors.

so you are saying they are still marketing e-cigarette to children?

Vape shops certainly do. This place down the road from Netflix HQ has kid-friendly posters of baby Groot, Spiderman, etc. in its windows.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.2803855,-121.9498283,3a,37.5...

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

#119
I'm glad she shared what she shared. Facebook is a cancer on society IMO.

In many cases, although perhaps not this one, whistleblowers have had an extremely active and political Twitter account when hired, or are literally being hired _because_ of their wokeness.

Do silicon valley companies not screen for intensity of political views during job interviews in order to prevent issues like this? They certainly don't seem to. Political views and ideological values are subjective, so in a large enough organization you can't avoid some people getting very upset. It would seem like it would be better for business to just not let people join the organization if they're relatively likely to one day go on a moral crusade.

I think it's only a matter of time before people who are militantly political or ideological -- on either side of the spectrum -- are going to be seen as toxic by any company big enough to care.

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

#120

This individual is not a 'whistleblower'. Nothing revealed is illegal or fraudulent.

The claim lodged with the SEC is that Facebook Inc defrauded investors. Dodd Frank set up a whistleblower program for allegations of this kind.
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