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Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

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Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#641

Post by triceratops »

sio8ohPi wrote: post #639
asdff wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treat addictive social media companies like addictive cigarette companies. Lets see some huge warning labels about how mentally harmful it is to continue scrolling on facebook right on the first result where its unavoidable to see. Lets tax the hell out of social media companies to generate local revenue just like sin taxes. It won't be a huge change but it will be a great starting point and will come with revenue th…

I'm curious if you think HN needs to have such a warning banner.

HN isn't particularly designed to be addictive.

It doesn't notify you when someone responds to one of your posts. It doesn't send you any nagging emails (indeed, doesn't even require an email to sign up). It has the noprocrast setting to let you set limits on your own usage. It doesn't (afaik) try to optimize for engagement - dang tries to maintain civil discourse as much as possible.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#642

Post by wombatpm »

amerkhalid wrote: post #564
philwelch wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's astounding to me that too little censorship is characterized as "antithetical to our values", "highly dubious ethically", and worthy of potential legal sanction in the top-ranked comment on HN.

What if it is not censorship but rather we apply same standards for Facebook feed that we have for newspapers. If a newspaper publishes something false that hurts someone, they can sue newspapers because editors should have caught false information. Facebook or social media algorithms now optimize feeds for engagement even if information is false or harmful. To me algorithms are new editors. So people who are hurt by…

Facebook is essentially a media company. All of the ad revenue and none of the regulations or responsibilities. Facebook may claim otherwise— but if it looks like a duck …

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#643

Post by ethbr0 »

parineum wrote: post #551
ethbr0 wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because making it illegal to accidentally kill someone with your car while intoxicated doesn't solve the problem.

How do we solve the problem of people accidentally killing someone with their car?

We require driving licenses, age restrict operation of vehicles, require vehicles to operate within parameters (speed limits, gross vehicle weights) and according to standards (traffic signals and markings), and prohibit operation while under the influence of decision or reaction-impairing substances.

Because these are all statistical precursors to accidentally killing someone with a car.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#644

Post by ashtonkem »

fighterpilot wrote: post #629
ashtonkem wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m strongly inclined to disagree. I generally find that the best way to prevent an organization from abusing its power is to deny it power.

If we split insta from FB, what incentives change that will cause a change in behavior?

It’s my external opinion that the real issue is the combination of the ad sales platform with the social media. If Instagram wasn’t owned by a company with an ad sales program, they would not have the capability to do what Facebook does today.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#645

Post by idiotsecant »

swiley wrote: post #555
kyleee wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the US governance model is devolving to "decrees from the king" thanks to exec orders

We'll see how much longer the states accept that for.

State governments are much more interested in participating in the cable news culture wars to pump up next election numbers then they are in actually governing. I doubt it.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#648

Post by Zerverus »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #365
chacham15 wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I often see it as written rules (laws) and unwritten rules (ethics). I think this is a very dangerous line to walk. A common phrase in law is "the law often allows what honor forbids" and that is because there is a difference between the law and ethics and IMO that is a good thing. Is it ethical to eat all the cookies in the cookie jar and leave none for anyone else? No. Should it be illegal? No.

We've slowly seen an alternate interpretation promulgated by many: anything that is not illegal is ethical. The endpoint is practically the same (anything legal is ethical and vice versa) but it arguably makes for a worse society.

See Congress every day. Do as your told, not as you see, works on nation state level too, meaning it doesn’t work.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#649

Post by sillysaurusx »

kentonv wrote: post #195

I highly recommend watching the Senate hearing from today, and I'm a person who normally can't stand these things. This was totally different from any other hearing I've seen -- little grandstanding, no partisan bickering, no evading of questions. Most of the Senators seemed genuinely interested in what Frances had to say, and she gave meaningful insights backed by real data. A lot of what she's saying is stuff that…

Just wanted to thank you for the comment. You weren't kidding; everything she says seems data driven. I especially liked her observation (around ~1h) that FB can determine the real age of users by "working backwards" and doing cohort analyses.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#650

Post by therealdrag0 »

coolspot wrote: post #304
cratermoon wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it's possible to question whether or not any illegal behavior has been revealed doesn't mean that Facebook didn't cause – and is not causing – any harm doesn't mean there's no basis to Haugen's revelations. Rather, it means that under the current regulatory regime, there are no penalties for behavior harmful to consumers. That the only recourse is to file with the SEC alleging harm to the stockholders i…

IMO Twitter and Reddit cause more mental harm than all FB properties combined.

Also in terms of disinformation I feel like YouTube is under targeted compared to FB.
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