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

#601

Post by jessaustin » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 9:10 AM UTC

fieldcny wrote: post #515

u801e wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the fact is both wars were hugely popular when they started That was the case in Afghanistan, but not in Iraq. There were significant protests against the planned invasion.

there were protests, and quite large ones but they were almost exclusively from the left and were generally categorized as just being people that didn't like Bush. Gallup polling shows 50-60% of Americans supported going in just to remove Hussein, in the first half of 2003 only 23-27% of Americans thought it was a mistake to go in to Iraq. see here for tons of polls done https://news.gallup.com/poll/1633/iraq.aspx De…

...the country was scared and generally whipped into a frenzy...

Yes that's what is discussed above: who did the whipping, and how they did it.

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

#602

Post by azernik » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 9:23 AM UTC

michaelmrose wrote: post #574

azernik wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every single thing you proposed is radioactively unconstitutional in the United States.

Harmful misinformation is fire in a crowded theater and threats and incitement to violence have never been protected. There have always been limits to free speech and it has always been possible to set ground rules for how companies operate.

"Fire in a crowded theater" is an assertion that there are limits to protected speech. It says nothing about what those limits are. Harmful misinformation is well inside those limits. (And in any case it's from a decision that was overturned 50 years ago.)

For a somewhat snarky lawyer's explanation, see: https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-ha...

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

#603

Post by ethanbond » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 10:59 AM UTC

kcplate wrote: post #591

ethanbond wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

Well, I am going to fixate on the selfies because there were a bunch of dimwits taking selfies. “Armed” folks armed with what? Yeah, I’m pretty sure the most powerful nation ever to occupy the earth wasn’t going to fall to a bunch of pitchfork wielding social media posting hayseeds demanding to have Frankenstein’s monster handed over to them.

Just pipe bombs, loaded hand guns with high capacity magazines, boxes of Molotov cocktails, bear spray, tasers, zip ties.

Note that most crimes are still crimes even if you suck at committing them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/04/fac...

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

#604

Post by kcplate » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 12:47 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #603

kcplate wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I am going to fixate on the selfies because there were a bunch of dimwits taking selfies. “Armed” folks armed with what? Yeah, I’m pretty sure the most powerful nation ever to occupy the earth wasn’t going to fall to a bunch of pitchfork wielding social media posting hayseeds demanding to have Frankenstein’s monster handed over to them.

Just pipe bombs, loaded hand guns with high capacity magazines, boxes of Molotov cocktails, bear spray, tasers, zip ties. Note that most crimes are still crimes even if you suck at committing them. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/04/fac...

Hundreds of dipshits taking goofy selfies and you post a fact check that talks about 3 people charged with weapons outside the capital grounds and a single person on the capital grounds that had a holstered weapon. Also someone using a flag pole to gain entry.

Let’s agree that at least a thousand people breached the capitol. So at least 99.96% of the crowed were angry pitchfork waving villagers and .04% were some dorky Van Helsing wannabes.

In what world does that constitute a threat to topple to most powerful country ever to exist on this earth? It’s not.

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

#605

Post by ethanbond » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

kcplate wrote: post #604

ethanbond wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just pipe bombs, loaded hand guns with high capacity magazines, boxes of Molotov cocktails, bear spray, tasers, zip ties. Note that most crimes are still crimes even if you suck at committing them. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/03/04/fac...

Hundreds of dipshits taking goofy selfies and you post a fact check that talks about 3 people charged with weapons outside the capital grounds and a single person on the capital grounds that had a holstered weapon. Also someone using a flag pole to gain entry. Let’s agree that at least a thousand people breached the capitol. So at least 99.96% of the crowed were angry pitchfork waving villagers and .04% were some dor…

A world that’s governed by complex legal codes, procedures, and norms with a variety of loopholes and undefined states. One that’s not safeguarded by rah rah “we are most powerful country ever” therefore our bureaucracy is immune to bureaucratic failure!

We simply don’t really know what would’ve happened if e.g. the ballots were destroyed. They would’ve had to get duplicate ballots from the states. Would all the state election boards have stuck with their previous results now seeing an apparent opportunity to install their leader and feeling galvanized by the “fraud” of vote-by-mail?

It’s interesting how many people will complain about clear bureaucratic failure in basic day-to-day tasks like the DMV, and then imagine that the most complex bureaucracy in history is held together by patriot power and not, you know, bureaucracy, with all of its strengths and vulnerabilities.

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

#606

Post by ethanbond » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

kcplate wrote: post #592

llamaimperative wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right-wing terrorism scare? We all watched angry mobs attempt to disrupt the peaceful transition of power on live TV. These are the same people who proudly fly the flag of literal traitors to our country and call the press the “enemy of the free state.” If all it takes for your movement to attempt to kidnap elected officials or disrupt transfer of power is a few undercover agents nudging along, your movement is a hug…

> If all it takes for your movement to attempt to kidnap elected officials or disrupt transfer of power is a few undercover agents nudging along, your movement is a huge problem. If it takes more agents then perpetrators to pull off your sting, and if the agents conceptualized, planned, financed, managed the operation, and participated in it… Well, let’s just say I am going to be the wrong person to sit on your jury…

You are aware that informant != agent, right?

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

#607

Post by Shaddox » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #336

AlbertCory wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simplest solution is the one FB will never accept, and yet the harm to the public would be virtually zero: Eliminate all news, politics, and other public policy groups and apps. Return to being just a way to connect with friends and family. No one needs to get their news from Facebook. There are plenty of other sites on the Web for that. Same for all these other "engagement" services. Of course, this would cut th…

> The simplest solution … : Eliminate all news, politics, and other public policy groups and apps. I assume users want this content. I never see news, politics, etc because I’m not interested and FB has learnt I won’t engage in it. I’m not trying to say this makes me good or bad or special. I’m saying that they use feedback each user individually and it seems allot of people want that stuff.

I'm in the same boat.

Honestly people like to say "x social media sucks" but in actuality it's far simpler than that : people suck in general. Only now you get to see it for yourself at a more general level as opposed to anecdotal experience.

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

#608

Post by Grieving » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #606

kcplate wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If all it takes for your movement to attempt to kidnap elected officials or disrupt transfer of power is a few undercover agents nudging along, your movement is a huge problem. If it takes more agents then perpetrators to pull off your sting, and if the agents conceptualized, planned, financed, managed the operation, and participated in it… Well, let’s just say I am going to be the wrong person to sit on your jury…

You are aware that informant != agent, right?

They aren't strictly synonymous but, as you should know, in this context an "informant" is a kind of agent, both on paper and in practice. They aren't informants in a conventional understanding of the term, just feeding information back to the government. They receive training and are employed to proactively infiltrate and participate in criminal organizations much as any investigator would (or, in these cases, steer non-criminal organizations into criminality).

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

#609

Post by matheusmoreira » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

manquer wrote: post #596

matheusmoreira wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> native advertising or do product placement I'm sure people will figure out a solution. Maybe some machine learning thing that identifies brands and just deletes them. We already have extensions such as sponsor block. > Google is removing web APIs and actively making its browser poorer Yeah, that sucks. I've already switched to Firefox and I also keep Brave around. Google made it easy for me when it killed sync for…

Standards control has been never always direct since JScript days, the dominant players do what they please, and by the nature of dominance web app developers have to comply follow their tools, and standards get established de-facto. Specifically, moves like changes in manifest V3 and removal of chrome.webRequest is aimed squarely at adblocking, Forcing DRM in HTML5 is a step in this direction as well and can become…

This would make ad blockers straight up illegal under the DMCA since they cannot circumvent these protections. I already oppose copyright and DRM for many reasons, I never expected advertising to become one of them.

God I hate these "industries".

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

#610

Post by kcplate » Tue, Oct 05, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #605

kcplate wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hundreds of dipshits taking goofy selfies and you post a fact check that talks about 3 people charged with weapons outside the capital grounds and a single person on the capital grounds that had a holstered weapon. Also someone using a flag pole to gain entry. Let’s agree that at least a thousand people breached the capitol. So at least 99.96% of the crowed were angry pitchfork waving villagers and .04% were some dor…

A world that’s governed by complex legal codes, procedures, and norms with a variety of loopholes and undefined states. One that’s not safeguarded by rah rah “we are most powerful country ever” therefore our bureaucracy is immune to bureaucratic failure! We simply don’t really know what would’ve happened if e.g. the ballots were destroyed. They would’ve had to get duplicate ballots from the states. Would all the stat…

The point is that this event is characterized as an insurrection and a threat to the the United States. It wasn’t.

If you want to shift the conversation to election integrity, that’s fine…but that was actually the whole point of the demonstrations. You have one group that felt that they had legitimate concerns about the election’s integrity. The other side downplayed those concerns, does not want to improve election integrity, and actually wants to erode it further.

I am pretty sure that if you want the bulk of America to feel that elections have integrity you should make it a priority and not downplay concerns just because your candidate won and I apply that standard to both parties since both are guilty over the last few election cycles.