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Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

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Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#451

Post by sassy_quat »

LewisVerstappen wrote: post #78
yellow_lead wrote: post #32

Her actual whistleblower declaration contains a lot of the evidence some may be looking for: https://live-whistleblower-aid.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/up... To sum up the first few pages after skimming it, Facebook tried to bribe her (well "fund" her research), she refused. Later she had a meeting with the former head of comms at Facebook, who was now on the Dean's council, where he became incredibly angry with her r…

If you're familiar with this woman's past research, you'd realize she is quite.... biased politically. She strongly believes in increased content moderation by "fact checkers". She's spread misinformation herself like - Suggesting Russian disinformation on Facebook shifted the 2016 election (anyone who's run a facebook ad in their life knows how absurdly ridiculous this is) - Advocating for increased censorship of in…

[dead]

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#452

Post by Der_Einzige »

specialist wrote: post #367
throw4847285 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're more like hedge funds that do some light educating on the side. Especially ones as rich as Harvard.

That's an unfair assessment. Harvard et al also launder reputations, incubate reactionary movements, serve as a finishing school for the rich and powerful, stoke credentialing (eg grade inflation), and accelerate social inequity. For starters.

Uhh, reactionary movements are incubated in Christian right wing schools, not by Harvard professors writing yet another book about post modernism.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#453

Post by 1970-01-01 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #449
1970-01-01 wrote: post #170

Laws capping these massive donations need to pass or nothing will change. $500M is more than enough money to operate any school, and Harvard simply does not need more money in its pockets. https://www.statista.com/statistics/221147/the-20-richest-co...

I’d support the full destruction of Harvard and MIT taking all of its assists and land. I want our universities to accept based on merit, not fat donations. The traditional ivys are simply bad for society and our elite schools should be elite because the majority of students their are truly gifted (i.e Stanford, caltech, MIT) not because their from the ultra rich

Comparing MIT and Harvard is apples and oranges. Or perhaps Ivy and Apples.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#454

Post by _aavaa_ »

bko wrote: post #351
_aavaa_ wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You didn't answer my question. Why should it be done at universities? Let me try again. One of the reasons research is supposed to be done at universities is specifically to remove financial incentives. Tenure is meant to insulate academia from having to worry about financial incentives and what is popular so they can focus on what is true . > Prob a lot easier and cheaper to capture a uni than sue some short selle…

> Let me try again. One of the reasons research is supposed to be done at universities is specifically to remove financial incentives. Wasn't this whole thing preempted by financial incentives playing a role in Harvard dropping the case. My point is financial incentives exist either way. The difference is that FB can point and say "Harvard says we're great and they have no financial incentives to lie *wink*" or we ca…

The deifference for me is that this is, allegedly, Harvard acting unethically and against how we expect them, as a research university, to act.

There exists no such expectations on other private companies.

This is a failure of the model, not business as usual.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#455

Post by AlbertCory »

capableweb wrote: post #446
scottyah wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They purposely did not make the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation a non-profit so as to not be encumbered by all the laws that affect those organizations.

Isn't "Foundation" a word that is usually for non-profits? I understood the different between "Charity" and "Foundation" just to be about "Public" vs "Private" organization, but both of them being non-profits. Am I misunderstanding what "Foundation" means here?

I think I could start the Evil Foundation and as long as I don't file for 501(c)(3) status, I'm still for-profit.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#456

Post by karaterobot »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #448
karaterobot wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to say that you're completely correct and making a very reasonable statement which is not controversial. I would love to hear about an economic system in which bribery did not exist or have influence, but I have not seen any examples of that yet, in the present day or in history. I don't agree that bribes can't have unintended social consequences. They do have specific goals, yes. But some unintended cons…

Uhh, Singapore? Not everywhere is corrupt you know!

Singapore's not an economic system, but rather a country. In any case, it's still got corruption. Bribery is one form of corruption, and I have no doubt whatsoever that you can bribe someone in Singapore.

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022/index/sgp

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#457

Post by ajb »

boringg wrote: post #417
macksd wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sidelining the lead researcher and giving the project to another group is accurately described at "gutting a team". No, they didn't end the project, but the series of events described seems to be insinuating that she could have led the project if she was willing to have her work funded by Facebook, listen to one of their former people, etc. So if that was their goal, and they just got someone else to do the w…

FWIW that's definitely not gutting a team. Swapping out leaders makes a big impact but it isn't gutting a team. It could lead to the same outcome.

An academic team isn't the same as a team in a company though, right? My understanding (which could be incorrect) is that a PI is almost like the CEO of a startup which happens to have the goal of doing research, and operates in the context of a university. A PI is not like a team lead in a company . Each PI-led team is doing research independently of the rest of the department. I have the impression it's not even expected to outlive the PI's employment there.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#458

Post by rsynnott »

amir734jj wrote: post #34

People forget that private universities are for profit businesses.

So, coming from a country where universities are either non-profit or owned by the state… how does this work? Like, surely Harvard isn’t paying anyone dividends? It’s not actually a literal for-profit entity, is it?

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#459

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

yellow_lead wrote: post #32

Her actual whistleblower declaration contains a lot of the evidence some may be looking for: https://live-whistleblower-aid.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/up... To sum up the first few pages after skimming it, Facebook tried to bribe her (well "fund" her research), she refused. Later she had a meeting with the former head of comms at Facebook, who was now on the Dean's council, where he became incredibly angry with her r…

Exhibits

https://live-whistleblower-aid.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/up...

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