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Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

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Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#231

Post by pmlnr »

madeofpalk wrote: post #227
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75

Was talking about this with a friend today, and I think this incident highlights why I sometimes get really depressed about my career and technology. I'm a Gen X-er, and I started my career in the late 90s. Before that I was a ham radio operator in junior high and HS (back when they had Morse code tests!). I remember the heady euphoria around the Internet then, and the vision of "tech utopia" was certainly the domina…

> In the 90s we all thought the Internet would lead to a decentralization of power, but literally the exact opposite happened I completely disagree. Corporate power changed , and sure, companies like Google and Facebook probably hold more power globally than companies in a single country. But, individuals have gotten more power also. People can be more informed, and affect more change than they could previously, whic…

> People can be more informed

Manipulated.

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#232

Post by leokennis »

madeofpalk wrote: post #230
leokennis wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one thing, many governments will have laws about availability of key infrastructure (roads, snail mail, 4G and 5G, wired internet, financial services etc.) which result in resilience decisions: * Have at least 2 or 3 mobile networks; if 1 fails, people can still dial 112 (911) over the remaining one(s) * If banks break down, you can still withdraw up to €xyz from an ATM during the emergency * Even if all mail isn…

I'm confused - SMS and other telephone services already go down. Regulating something doesn't make it more reliable. Arguably the regulation of "classic" telephony services is what lead to the innovations of Whatsapp and everything else.

When had all sms or phone service in your country gone down? Sure a carrier might have issues - but there are other carriers who can pick up the load and there are likely government contingency plans for just that situation.

Same doesn’t apply to WA.

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#233

Post by franklampard »

Jugurtha wrote: post #68

How does the author come to the conclusion to break Facebook down and regulate it after the outage ? There are a lot of power outages in the world by companies that are regulated, sometimes even state-owned.

Dumbness

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#234

Post by rendall »

streamofdigits wrote: post #226
rendall wrote: post #198

I despise the company that Facebook is, and hope that it crashes and burns in ignominy such that by comparison we remember AOL fondly. That said, I'm utterly alarmed by calls such as this to "regulate" Facebook. We really want to legitimize f*cking Facebook like that by nationalizing / turning it into a utility? Then we'll be stuck with it for-goddamn- ever Let's stick to principles, enforce existing (or write effect…

agree, there is only one stab at the vampire, and it better be the right instrument at the right place imho its the freaking business model that is the core of the problem. everything else (monopoly, poor regulation, dark patterns etc) are things the world has seen before, again and again but we have never (in recent times) seen such amoral political and market endorsement of what is essentially a dehumanizing societ…

Well said! ::golf clap::

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#235

Post by vdddv »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #228
vdddv wrote: post #225

I don't understand how "No Whatsapp = no way to communicate to relatives". Are SMS not available in some countries?

At certain age and health conditions, the only viable communication media you have left are voice and/or visual.

and you can't use your voice on phone if whatsapp is down?

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#236

Post by smt88 »

rendall wrote: post #198

I despise the company that Facebook is, and hope that it crashes and burns in ignominy such that by comparison we remember AOL fondly. That said, I'm utterly alarmed by calls such as this to "regulate" Facebook. We really want to legitimize f*cking Facebook like that by nationalizing / turning it into a utility? Then we'll be stuck with it for-goddamn- ever Let's stick to principles, enforce existing (or write effect…

> That said, I'm utterly alarmed by calls such as this to "regulate" Facebook. We really want to legitimize fcking Facebook like that by nationalizing / turning it into a utility?*

The govt is attempting to regulate Facebook by breaking it up, not by centralizing it. Facebook is guaranteed to maintain its market share if it can continue to buy and operate competitors.

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#237

Post by C19is20 »

GeckoEidechse wrote: post #180
pjc50 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, telcos sucked, but there were tons of them spread across all corners of the globe Local monopolies rather than a global one. What if there was a global, international messaging system available to everyone with a phone, that strove for five-nines reliability? And wasn't funded by advertising? And didn't deplatform anyone(+)? Oh wait it's called SMS and everyone hates it, largely for good reasons. The internet…

I mean a reason SMS gets its hate is because the moment you send a message across international borders you start paying ridiculously large sums of money (compared to the amount of data transferred) for every single message. If you now take Europe for example where it's easy to have friends in another country that you talk to regularly and you can see why WhatsApp quickly gained in popularity there simply because it…

I dont pay for Euro-cross-border anything. Well, €5.99 a month, but that comes with 100Gb of data. Current offers here: www.kenamobile.it/offerte/

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#238

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

tomjen3 wrote: post #170
snek_case wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to feel blasé about the internet, but it's also played a huge role in making information easily accessible. I learned about electronics from online tutorials. Taught myself programming. Also learned a lot about home repairs and renovations. Made a lot of contacts, landed jobs, etc. I met my partner through a dating app. I would say the internet has brought a lot of positive things in my life so far. The ope…

I sometimes think the Internet is like the Mirror of Erised from Harry Potter. It can show us what we want: if what we want is knowledge it will show us that, if what we want is proof that we are right it will show us that and if we want to see how horrible other people are, that is what we will see. It was just that people turned out to value less truth less, than being told they were right. You can fault the engine…

I think the problem is also that we also are shown what other people want to see. I genuinely don’t want to see political positions of my relatives, or my neighbors getting into heated internet fights. But I do want to see my relatives small joys, and I do want to know important neighborhood news and activities. That I can’t filter appropriately makes social media toxic, as I can feel my social animal brain see heightened emotions and want to participate in social heightened emotions online, even though it doesn’t do anything for anybody. Even fighting the urge to post and participate just makes my day just that little bit less fulfilling.

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#239

Post by andrepd »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75

Was talking about this with a friend today, and I think this incident highlights why I sometimes get really depressed about my career and technology. I'm a Gen X-er, and I started my career in the late 90s. Before that I was a ham radio operator in junior high and HS (back when they had Morse code tests!). I remember the heady euphoria around the Internet then, and the vision of "tech utopia" was certainly the domina…

> I remember the heady euphoria around the Internet then, and the vision of "tech utopia" was certainly the dominant one: the Internet would bring a "democratization of information" where anyone with a computer could connect to the Internet, publish a website, and communicate with people across the world.

Thanks for making me feel depressed right in the morning.

Re: Facebook going down meant more than just a social network being unavailable

#240

Post by madeofpalk »

leokennis wrote: post #232
madeofpalk wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused - SMS and other telephone services already go down. Regulating something doesn't make it more reliable. Arguably the regulation of "classic" telephony services is what lead to the innovations of Whatsapp and everything else.

When had all sms or phone service in your country gone down? Sure a carrier might have issues - but there are other carriers who can pick up the load and there are likely government contingency plans for just that situation. Same doesn’t apply to WA.

If my carrier goes down, it doesn't help me I can't just switch at the drop of a hat to another carrier who is still up.

Likewise, when Whatsapp goes down I can still talk to people on iMessage or Discord or SMS.

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