The links to the full testimony from expert witness (https://techoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Exhibit...) is certainly worth a good skim-through (and if you have the time, full read). Very insightful and eye-opening data and quotes from staff at Meta.
Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
281–290 of 342 posts
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
There should be leeway because sexual content is subjective and it gives a few chances to allow users to learn where the line is.
Let me clarify - why should we offer Meta leeway to implement such a flawed review system.
Why shouldn't we? It seems an incredibly difficult problem. They have reviewers who make subjective calls on subjective rules. The leeway not only gives the opportunity for the user to improve but also gives the reviewers leeway to flag borderline posts without harshly punishing users.
17 is a weird number but having a number is perfectly reasonable to me.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#283https://senate.ucsf.edu/tobacco-ceo-statement-to-congress Tobacco CEO's Statement to Congress 1994 News Clip "Nicotine is not addictive."
Richard Nixon: "I'm not a crook." [1]
Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." [2]
Donald Trump: let's not even start.
I find it weird that institutions still insist the people they question must swear to tell the truth. It obviously doesn't help. Quite the opposite, it makes the liars look stronger (until they're caught).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton%E2%80%93Lewinsky_scand...
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
KOSA has regulations regarding "users that the covered platform knows is a minor". Nothing in KOSA suggests that a platform has to proactively maintain each user's age or that ID checks have to be used. If you're still curious, Meta has a page talking about how they might determine a user's age, specifically without ID: https://about.fb.com/news/2021/07/age-verification
Discord also announced that they would use algorithmic decision making to decide which accounts are old enough to not require ID. This didn't change the uproar at all. If you think KOSA style regulations would allow social networks to avoid ID checks, I don't think you're paying attention. Just read the article we're all commenting on to see how people are willing to attack Facebook for even having internal statistic…
Actions taken unilaterally by private platforms are distinct from government regulation. That is an important distinction that your posts are not addressing. What Meta or another company would decide to do on their own is not "regulation" & is up to them. You haven't addressed the fact that KOSA is calling for regulation for kids online without forcing everyone to go through age verification with anything but your own assertions grounded in nothing in particular & other unrelated topics.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the line that facebook, and functionally every platform based on user content always tries to walk. They want sexual content because it drives engagement, positive and negative, more than almost anything. But they don't want to be held liable for the content, so they put weak policies in place so that they have the appearance of doing something to prevent it. This makes almost every current social media and cont…
If you're ignoring the giant societal can of worms, you're not getting a good understanding of the situation. In the 2010s the zeitgeist was that they were too prudish , and Instagram in particular faced a number of controversies for taking down topless photos that the subject of the photo felt should have been allowed. I guarantee that, for almost every piece of sexual content you've seen on Meta platforms, there's…
The law in my country is quite simple- sex work is 21.
It used to be at 18 but then you got the "she looked 18" defense.
And yes there is a large and passionate group of pedos.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
There lies much of the problem. Nobody in Salem wanted to be seen to stand up for witches. I have never had a Facebook account because I never liked what they do, but this 'evidence' against them seems like they are relying on the seriousness of the allegations more than the accuracy.
The problem with witch hunts is witches aren't real; every witch you find is guaranteed to be a false positive. A witch hunt that finds actual witches everywhere isn't really a "witch hunt" in the sense the term is usually used.
You are saying that from our perspective. I don't think the argument that witches are not real would have gained you much ground back then.
We don't have the years of analysis of what actually happened for things happening right now.
While a lot of people feel a lot of certainty about all manner of social media harms, the scientific consensus is much less clear. Sure you can pull up studies showing something that looks pretty bad, but you can also find ones that say that climate change is not occurring. The best we have to go on is scientific consensus. The consensus, is not there yet. How do you tell if Jonathan Haidt is another Andrew Wakefield?
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with witch hunts is witches aren't real; every witch you find is guaranteed to be a false positive. A witch hunt that finds actual witches everywhere isn't really a "witch hunt" in the sense the term is usually used.
You are saying that from our perspective. I don't think the argument that witches are not real would have gained you much ground back then. We don't have the years of analysis of what actually happened for things happening right now. While a lot of people feel a lot of certainty about all manner of social media harms, the scientific consensus is much less clear. Sure you can pull up studies showing something that loo…
The most important question is, how do you know you're not the next Andrew Wakefield?
I'm genuinely curious how you keep your own epistemic house in order.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#288Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
Discord also announced that they would use algorithmic decision making to decide which accounts are old enough to not require ID. This didn't change the uproar at all. If you think KOSA style regulations would allow social networks to avoid ID checks, I don't think you're paying attention. Just read the article we're all commenting on to see how people are willing to attack Facebook for even having internal statistic…
Actions taken unilaterally by private platforms are distinct from government regulation. That is an important distinction that your posts are not addressing. What Meta or another company would decide to do on their own is not "regulation" & is up to them. You haven't addressed the fact that KOSA is calling for regulation for kids online without forcing everyone to go through age verification with anything but your ow…
> You haven't addressed the fact that KOSA is calling for regulation for kids online without forcing everyone to go through age verification
And you're still ignoring the fact that any regulations targeted at kids online inherently requires that all users' ages are known somehow.
You can't have regulations that require companies to do something for kids' accounts without implicitly requiring that they identify which accounts belong to kids.
You can't identify which accounts belong to kids without having all accounts verify their age.
If this was presented as a "parental controls option" bill I could believe the angle you're trying to go with. However, any regulations that say platforms must do something for kids' accounts will inherently lead to a requirement to verify all accounts
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You would have to really strain even to call Zuckerberg's statement a statement of fact, and the factual elements are just "we invest [an amount]" and "we do [efforts]". You think such a weak claim is still a strain? That's the weakest possible factual interpretation. But I don't think we should ignore "so much [...] to make sure" or "industry leading". If there was nobody prioritizing teen safety, or if that team…
> But I don't think we should ignore "so much [...] to make sure" or "industry leading". You're wrong; one is tautologous and the other is clearly non-factual. More specifically, if you say "that's why we do so much to make sure [that xxx...]", the literal meaning of "so much" is "as much as we do" - the claim can never be false. Meanwhile, "industry leading" is puffery.
Being nonspecific is not a tautology. "so much" has a minimum to not be a lie.
Is it still puffery when there are objective measurements and you're not anywhere near leader? Well when you're testifying to congress and you puff that hard I think you should be punished regardless of definitions.