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Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

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Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#191

Post by SoftTalker »

stephenhuey wrote: post #175
SoftTalker wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what anyone expects Meta to do differently here. Meta has basically two choices: they can obey the local law in places where they operate, or they can choose to not operate there.

So why not make the positive choice? Zuckerberg claimed time and time again he wanted to connect the world, and it was part of the earliest mission statements: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/02/mark-zuck... It was on the hoodie! https://www.cnet.com/culture/zuckerberg-hoodie-makes-mountai... Mark said, "But there’s this mission belief that connecting the world is really important, and that is somethi…

Maybe he's choosing to connect the 99.998% of Facebook users in Saudi Arabia and UAE who have not been ordered blocked by their governments.

But, honestly, I think all he ever really wanted to do was make money, and control the narrative. The connecting the world stuff makes a nice sound bite, and it was the motivation for some of the others at the company though. Read Careless People.

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#192

Post by philipallstar »

stephenhuey wrote: post #175
SoftTalker wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what anyone expects Meta to do differently here. Meta has basically two choices: they can obey the local law in places where they operate, or they can choose to not operate there.

So why not make the positive choice? Zuckerberg claimed time and time again he wanted to connect the world, and it was part of the earliest mission statements: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/02/mark-zuck... It was on the hoodie! https://www.cnet.com/culture/zuckerberg-hoodie-makes-mountai... Mark said, "But there’s this mission belief that connecting the world is really important, and that is somethi…

Meta took less than $100m from VC money over a decade ago. It makes billions in profit a quarter.

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#193

Post by dotcoma »

999900000999 wrote: post #158
dotcoma wrote: post #118

Remember when they told us that social media would "spread democracy" ?

Who told you that, the entire point was to talk to girls you lacked the courage to strike up a conversation with. Saying ‘hi, I also like that band you have a shirt of’ was just too hard so we had to create trillion dollar monstrosities.

I thought that was true only for Zuck …

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#194

Post by pibaker »

idle_zealot wrote: post #182
repeekad wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you ban psyops? Require every user register with a gov ID so there’s someone to go after? What’s a psyop vs a grassroots contrarian movement like LGBT used to be? Anonymity online seems the ultimate double edge sword. I prefer privacy over government prescribed safety.

You investigate and punish groups found to be running psyops, simple as. No need to automate the whole process with ID checks, these organizations make and spend money so the tracks are there to find. If suspected drag them into discovery and gather evidence like you would for financial fraud or criminal conspiracy.

Sure, let's just give the state a pretext to jail anyone espousing opinions they don't like for running a psyop. Surely no government will abuse this power and brand anyone in their opposition as a psyop bot army that needs to be removed from the internet.

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#197

Post by ornornor »

aurareturn wrote: post #153
ornornor wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they had a moral compass. They’ve proven time and again they don’t.

Meta should exit the US too because the US does {x} that I don't agree with. But Meta doesn't have a moral compass.

> But Meta doesn't have a moral compass.

Exactly.

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#198

Post by ptero »

reaperducer wrote: post #159
dpoloncsak wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Just ban the lot of them and move on. How do you define social network, though? Is Facebook a social network, even though it includes a marketplace? Is HN a social network? Is Newgrounds a social network....? Seems difficult to stomp out effectively

Seems difficult to stomp out effectively So just give up because something is hard? Sounds like the tech industry and its never-ending quest for low-hanging fruit. "We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas."

> So just give up because something is hard?

No, but a good first step would be to widely acknowledge that the problem is hard. And thus is not solvable by a quick fix of a type "let's ban ". Otherwise we will keep trying quick fixes and local optimizations that will be just as quickly subverted by the deep pocketed incumbents.

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#199

Post by dotcoma »

krapp wrote: post #189
dotcoma wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember cases in which it "accelerated political action" ?

There have been plenty. Surely you aren't arguing that social media has never done so. Arguably social media has been one of the most catalyzing political forces in human history. And bearing in mind that "political action" can be in any direction, I found some examples. I didn't work very hard because this could have literally been a Google search on your part. Arab Spring Nepalese Discord Protests Euromaidan revolu…

The case of Iran in 2009 is notoriously false. See for example what ForeignPolicy has to say about it.

More in general, Malcolm Gladwell is not convinced about the power of social media...

https://archive.is/GryvI#selection-323.0-355.16

Re: Meta blocks human rights accounts from reaching audiences in Saudi Arabia, UAE

#200

Post by iAMkenough »

noname120 wrote: post #180

Do they have a choice? It’s either that or they are shown the door, in which case they will probably be replaced by worse local alternatives in terms of freedom of speech and gov influence

Yes, they have a choice. Profits are more important than values.
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