Facebook whistleblower says she wants to fix company, not harm it • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by iammisc » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:29 AM UTC

rocketpastsix wrote: post #90

kcplate wrote: 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 police opened the doors. Nancy pelosi was offered help by the executive branch to help keep the protestors at bay. She refused.

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

#152

Post by johnjj257 » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:29 AM UTC

_3u10 wrote: post #84

psyc wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pledge to not hire ex-Facebookers I agree that Facebook is a plague, but this divisive, realpolitik, tough-guy power-play nastiness really nauseates me.

It’s not even realpolitik. Talent is talent, if 90% of the market isn’t competing it provides financial edge for those willing to break the cartel. The chances of it working are near zero because there’s always some asshole capitalist like myself to f it up.

True except your not an asshole and neither is Facebook. The assholes are people crying like babies about a dumb website

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

#153

Post by farmerstan » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:29 AM UTC

This will have huge ramifications across all of big tech. They will get regulated now based on this. This is the excuse that government needed and they won’t lose this opportunity.

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

#154

Post by echelon » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

nradov wrote: post #122

runarberg wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars and Social Media is pretty hard to compare, but I’ll give it a shot: The equivalent here is not that a company produces cars, and that cars are dangerous. The equivalence is more in the line of a specific car manufacturer makes a car which they know is more dangerous to a subset of their customers, but still continue to push it to them.

Nissan knows that the Versa is more dangerous to their customers than, let's say, a Mercedes S500. Should Nissan then stop pushing the Versa in order to protect customers?

I'm sure this argument is along the lines of what Facebook employees must tell each other so they can sleep at night.

But let's be clear, Nissan is making a car that is as safe as they can make it for consumers at a certain price point. Safer than riding a small motorbike. Safer than crossing a road. Or many other alternatives. They're enabling and empowering consumers that can't afford better cars to have some measure of mobility and safety.

Facebook, on the other hand, designs features to manipulate emotions and harm consumers. Make them feel bad, stay engaged, worry more, buy more. They ran the numbers. As long as the increase in suicide count is under a certain threshold, it's not a big deal for them.

There's a big fucking difference between the two.

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

#155

Post by farmerstan » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

robbrown451 wrote: post #128

xqcgrek2 wrote: post #47

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

No but what Facebook is doing is harmful, and what she is doing is embarrassing to the company and to those who work for them. For all I know, what she did is illegal. But I'm glad she did it, it was very brave and she puts herself at a lot of risk by doing it. If Facebook goes after her, they will undoubtedly get bad press and encourage government regulation and possibly even antitrust action. Facebook and other soc…

You didn’t read the article. By law, she is allowed to whistleblow and share internal documents.

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

#156

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

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…

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a turning point, things got really ugly after that.

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

#157

Post by cratermoon » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

sayonaraman wrote: post #127

have they defined what "hate speech" and "misinformation" mean these days? More often than not these terms are used by one party to silence & suppress opposing views of another. Thankfully Zuckerberg doesn't give a damn, one would be hard-pressed to find a better CEO for social media company who can stand up to all this whining.

Oppressive Speech: https://doi.org/10.1080/00048400802370334

Performative Hate Speech Acts. Perlocutionary and Illocutionary Understandings in International Human Rights Law: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334199177_PERFORMAT...

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

#158

Post by matheusmoreira » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

scheme271 wrote: post #133

erklik wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes I know Zuckerberg cannot be ousted by typical corporate maneuvering Why is that? I am not aware of Facebook's corporate structure so I am curious. - Yes, this is a LMGTFY question, but I find that people can often provide a better answer, that's easier to understand especially when the question is more of a curiosity rather something I wish to find the answer of rapidly.

To expand on the sibling comment, Facebook has two classes of shares. Class A shares have one vote and are the shares that are traded on stock exchanges. Class B shares get 10 votes each and are held by Zuckerberg and friends. Zuckerberg has enough Class B shares that he really can't be outvoted by other investors.

> Facebook has two classes of shares

I had no idea companies could legally create vastly unequal schemes like that. How do people even find out about things like this? Is this information available somewhere? Impossible to make good investment decisions without this sort of knowledge.

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

#159

Post by echelon » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:32 AM UTC

yumraj wrote: post #130

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.

> The next best step is to pledge to not hire ex-Facebookers. I actually agree with that, and not because of any personal agenda against FB, but because I don’t want the corrupted, unethical mindset of FB to permeate my organization. I just cannot trust ex-FB employees to make ethical decisions.

Exactly my thinking. FB staff make a choice to stay. That speaks volumes.

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

#160

Post by Ductapemaster » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 3:32 AM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #141

cratermoon wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do silicon valley companies not screen for intensity of political views during job interviews in order to prevent issues like this? That's literally illegal.

In fact, it is perfectly legal in most of US. It is on paper illegal in California, but I haven’t seen this law actually being enforced.

Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

I have a relative who processes digital intakes for a CA ACLU chapter, and they get a huge number of interview-related complaints, which get referred directly to legal assistance who are interested in such cases.

My opinion is we likely don’t hear about it because each case is small, and companies have no incentive to publicize settlements.