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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

#301

Post by code_duck »

>Frances Haugen: So, you know, you have your phone. You might see only 100 pieces of content if you sit and scroll on for, you know, five minutes. But Facebook has thousands of options it could show you.

>The algorithm picks from those options based on the kind of content you've engaged with the most in the past.

This is the primary reason I stopped using Facebook. I did everything I could to signal I did not wish to see political content - unfollow people, hide posts, even unfriend and block people. Next thing I'd see on the News Feed? The exact same irritating political posts, now from some person I barely even knew. Meanwhile I'd manually look at the profiles of people I actually knew in real life and cared about, and major events I would love to have known about happened in their lives weeks before.

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

#302

Post by otterley »

aviraldg wrote: post #9
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.

Please stop assuming everyone shares your values and beliefs. Personally, I think that while there is some mismanagement at Facebook (that can be fixed) most of the issues brought up can probably be expected from anyone in this problem space at this scale. Facebook has allowed me to discover a lot of opportunities and connect with some long lost friends, so I would say the cost is worth it.

Facebook was awesome in the first few years, when the feed was merely a chronological timeline of your friends’ status updates and photos. Then, they started putting crap in the News Feed that users didn’t explicitly subscribe to, down-ranked updates by actual friends, and made it far too easy for people to amplify garbage via the Share button.

The problem is not that Facebook exists; it’s that they wrested control from their users and assigned it to themselves and their advertisers.

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

#303

Post by k4lk »

bagels wrote: post #298
k4lk wrote: post #230

It's an unfortunate but inevitable outcome of the attention economys race to the bottom. This area needs better regulation. The best approach is to stay out of technical implementation and focus on what principles companies should adhere to. As James Williams argue: it should be a civil right to have "freedom of chance". We already knew all too well what it does to our democracy that a large part of the public only g…

Many people are saying "regulation" What would that regulation actually require social media companies to do?

It's not an easy answer, but an important discussion to have. In any case, what is made abundantly clear from this information is that Facebook and others like them neither will or can protect the public interest.

I like the argument that we have freedom of choice but we by no means have freedom of chance. To me that would be a place to start in terms of finding regulation that can protect the public.

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

#304

Post by epa »

snowwrestler wrote: post #87

Facebook is going to become a hollowed out shell of itself if they do not change. They’ll get hollowed out by litigation, legislation, investors, or all of the above. They need new leadership. The tactics that got them here will not carry them further. There are tons of examples of the positive impact of new leadership, on companies like Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Disney, Ford, etc. And there are certainly plenty of exa…

I cant wait to see if this comment rings true in 20 years, i bet zuck will still be doing his thing.

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

#306

Post by donw »

agrippanux wrote: post #266
donw wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, why not. During the riots, Trump kept tweeting out "LAW AND ORDER!", like a crippled old man furious at the neighborhood kids for trashing his roses. He's angry, but doesn't have the means to do anything about it. This made Trump look weak and impotent. All he did was hide in his bunker and shake his tiny fist on Twitter while chaos raged. The rioters placed Trump in a dilemma action. Smart. If Trump does nothi…

LOL, the chaos was the plan . It’s why Junior and the others were celebrating when shit was hitting the fan. The whole thing was an attempt to cause enough disorder that there would be cover for throwing the votes back to R-lead state legislatures - look at the Eastman documents. The whole thing failed cause Pence wouldn’t play ball, the Trump rabble started hunting for him (and Congresspeople on both sides) in the C…

> The statement about how Trump was “like a crippled old man furious at his neighborhood kids” is hilariously off the mark. He was furious that Pence didn’t back him up.

Maybe? I didn't get the sense that Trump had a game plan at all. Looked like pure reaction the entire time.

The optics from the outside were "angry old man clutching his cane, shouting at the neighborhood troublemakers".

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

#307

Post by otterley »

shephardjhon wrote: post #288
runarberg wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not really well versed in the history of consumerism, so I ask: Is there a common pattern to what happens with companies which produce harmful products for their customers? Facebook is by no means the first company to do something like this. E.g. Which cigarette company went furthest in marketing to children, are they still in business? Did any car companies refuse to include seat belts after their safety records…

Camel is out of business and they had a cartoon mascot. Also i cant remember the name but one used the Flintstones, they are also out of business.

Camel cigarettes are still sold all over the place. Joe Camel as an advertising mascot is dead, but the cigarettes are still very much alive.

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

#308

Post by Kiro »

yibg wrote: post #286
snowwrestler wrote: post #87

Facebook is going to become a hollowed out shell of itself if they do not change. They’ll get hollowed out by litigation, legislation, investors, or all of the above. They need new leadership. The tactics that got them here will not carry them further. There are tons of examples of the positive impact of new leadership, on companies like Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Disney, Ford, etc. And there are certainly plenty of exa…

You know, I would like to believe this is the case. That some combination of litagation, legislation etc will bring down FB. But outside of the HN bubble I'm unfortunately doubtful it'll actually happen. My friends and family outside of tech has no issues with what FB is doing. Wallstreet also seems to have no issues with what FB is doing. It really just seems to be the techies on HN that are yelling and screaming.

If no-one outside HN has a problem with FB, who are we to tell them they are wrong? Maybe we are wrong.

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

#309

Post by peter_retief »

Facebook are playing politics, the fact checkers are a facile attempt to hide their true agenda. My question is, who actually uses facebook? Not me or any of my family or friends, I deleted my account years ago and just have a fake profile for a reason I cannot remember. My teenage children are completely disinterersted in facebook. For me facebook had a bad energy and now there is no reason for me to go back there

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

#310

Post by peter_retief »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #278

The real takeaway: Parents protect your children from social media. Talk to them. Give them rules to keep them safe. Say "No." Don't wait for Zuckerberg to do it. Don't wait for Congress to do it. Get yourself away from it, and get your children off it. Find some other way to share pictures with grandma and grandpa. We need regulation, yes, but this is the same as people smoking themselves into an early grave, but on…

Teenagers are not interested in facebook at all.
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