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Facebook chooses profits over people

peoplesworld.org

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Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#81

Post by Grustaf »

barney54 wrote: post #23
kybernetyk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like those bullshit PR feelgood ads really do work on some people. I don't know how naive you would have to be to believe that $CORP really cares about you.

Since we are talking about the UK, as Adam Smith said, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.“

I don't know if Adam Smith meant it in the sense that present day libertarians and other naive people take it, but I am sure nobody would want to shop from a psychopathic butcher that only cares about profits.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#82

Post by yosito »

My reaction to this headline is, if you want someone to care about you, call your mother.

Most of the world doesn't care about you, and it's not a scandal, it's just how reality works.

The whole problem with Facebook is that we somehow ever trusted that it was not motivated by profit, and shared the most intimate details of our lives with it. Stupid fucks, us.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#83

Post by ModernMech »

mach1ne wrote: post #56
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44

These headlines naïvely miss the point. The problem isn’t Facebook, a private company, seeking profits. The problem is its deeply-entrenched psychopathy and pathological record of lying [1]. And it really appears to be a Facebook problem. Instagram for Kids wasn’t the fever dream of a deranged Instagrammer. It was pushed by a Facebook implant [2]. I don’t know if being in proximity to Facebook’s leadership corrupts p…

In any dictatorship, the behavior of the organization will grow to reflect that of the dictator. And Mark has the majority of voting shares.

There’s an old saying that captures this idea: the fish rots from the head.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#84

Post by Coolerbythelake »

stevesimmons wrote: post #18
amne wrote: post #9

Isn't it illegal for a CEO to lead the company away from profit?

It isn't illegal. And even if it were, the key question is over what timeframe is profit maximised. Next quarter can be made far more profitable by taking short-term actions that destroy future customer, employee and supplier goodwill. But that just digs a big hole for future profits.

This is about deliberate mind control and behavioral manipulation. For profit. It's disingenuous to claim it's all about free market consumers when you are brainwashing and twisting people. Keep in mind the users are really not the customers anymore. The people posting here are quite a bit higher on the intelligence scale than the general public, who don't really have good critical thinking skills. When you see what happened on Jan 6 I can't find an illustration to prove the point better. FB needs to be regulated for the safety of country. Unless we're all for nihilism. FB is a parasite.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#85

Post by FabHK »

rvz wrote: post #6

No shit. Small and large companies are always on the side of profit and companies like Facebook are certainly not your friends. It is naive to think that they will ever change. It is only going to get worse.

> It is naive to think that they will ever change. It is only going to get worse.

Why? Exploitative monopolies have been dismantled in the past, robber barons have been held to account. It takes further innovation combined with collective action, political will, and forceful regulation.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#86

Post by JumpCrisscross »

amznbyebyebye wrote: post #79

As long as you don’t break the laws and.. You have some “values” which allow you to ignore anything else that may compromise your profits for the sake of them And as long as you have a free market (gasp) and investors that only care about EPS and other profit related metrics.. Under these constraints you get companies that promote these toxic environments under the slogans of “bring communities closer together” etc e…

> As long as you don’t break the laws

Facebook getting fined for breaking laws may as well be a weekly column at this point.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#87

Post by Crusoe123 »

Grustaf wrote: post #75
dghughes wrote: post #38

That's any for profit company no matter what anyone believes. Any company its only purpose is profit. It's the same with company HR it's there to protect the company. It's not personnel anymore it's called human resources for a reason you're just company inventory. And "corporate culture" there is none they are not your family there is no culture they'll fire you in a heartbeat.

> Any company its only purpose is profit. This isn't true for any company, not even investment banks. When people start companies, money is seldom a major reason, and as they grow they get a life of their own. Even large companies are run by people, people with feelings, insecurities, ambitions. An incredibly wealthy leader of a large corporation is not really motivated by money, he wants more status, he want to look…

Of course they do. That leader would get the boot ASAP if he chooses any goal other than making money as he is behest to investors who expect a maximized return to their investment.

Companies where your scenario can play out are the exception and not the rule. Not that the motivations you wrote are much better for society.

I am speaking here about large companies that can have impact on a societal level, not your small mom and pop business.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#88

Post by techbio »

jamesandthewolf wrote: post #62
corobo wrote: post #37

People do this too to be fair. The most notable people in the world are people who hoard wealth. We put all our points into commercialism, of course people would sell their own grandma for a few quid. We wanted this apparently.

If I hoard a billion news papers clippings I'm a mad man but if I hoard billions of dollars I'm a hero this seams like a bit of a paradox in itself no?

So do both?

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#89

Post by smt88 »

rightbyte wrote: post #71
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #44

These headlines naïvely miss the point. The problem isn’t Facebook, a private company, seeking profits. The problem is its deeply-entrenched psychopathy and pathological record of lying [1]. And it really appears to be a Facebook problem. Instagram for Kids wasn’t the fever dream of a deranged Instagrammer. It was pushed by a Facebook implant [2]. I don’t know if being in proximity to Facebook’s leadership corrupts p…

> I don’t know if being in proximity to Facebook’s leadership corrupts people. I guess you need to be a bad person from the get-go to be able to keep a smiling face in that place. I mean, it is not even that Facebook employees are forced be necessity to work there. They have plenty of options. It is just that honest work, like say a weapon manufacturer, pays so much less than ratting out your friends and family to Zu…

> I guess you need to be a bad person from the get-go to be able to keep a smiling face in that place.

I have a close friend who works there. He's a moral person and disagrees with the social changes that Facebook has caused.

But if you ask him why he works there, he has a few standard responses:

- Most of the employees at Facebook are good and push back against Zuckerberg's harmful decisions.

- If all the good people leave, who will be left to push back?

- If I don't do this work, someone else will.

- These decisions have nothing to do with me.

All of these things are true and (I'd argue) bullshit. But history's greatest crimes and genocides were perpetrated by organizations of people who made many of these same excuses.

The core problem is that any large organization is guaranteed to be psychopathic. It's large and therefore powerful, which means small ethical compromises can cause a lot of harm. And also because it's large, every constituent can say, "Well, I didn't decide to do this." It's like a massive ouji board or a firing squad, where everyone is contributing to a concerted action, but no one feels responsible.

Re: Facebook chooses profits over people

#90

Post by MaysonL »

aceazzameen wrote: post #32
jamesandthewolf wrote: post #4

I'm not a fan of Facebook and starting to see linkedin heading the same way, I just don't get the look at my one it's bigger then yours I don't understand this so don't join in the game. I personally feel like Facebook and lots of social media is more a fashion statement or cheap thrill. I kind of am liking it here as it's more meaningful and feels like more of an education then a show off session. Facebook's ideas s…

You made me think, is it even possible to create a social media network geared towards education (sharing skills and ideas) for the masses? I suppose YouTube is somewhat there. But it's blended with so much crap.

OfficeHours.global is working on it…
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