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Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

theguardian.com

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Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#131

Post by treetalker »

hliyan wrote: post #80
DiabloD3 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its the same way "embrace, extend, and extinguish" was coined. "Embrace and extend", without extinguish/exterminate, was used in Microsoft corp docs that were handed to the DOJ during the famous antitrust case, but it was the DOJ that turned it into EEE after realizing what "embrace and extend" actually meant in the broader context of Microsoft's machinations. The DOJ's clever hook won them the case.

Not unlike "delay, deny, defend".

Would explain Zuck’s late interest in martial arts …

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#132

Post by deaux »

rr808 wrote: post #48
josefritzishere wrote: post #3

More CEOs need to go to prison.

Luckily we have rule of law here so if you say someone in particular needs to go to prison there needs to be a law that you have proven to break. Just because you dont like someone you can't just lock them up.

> we have rule of law here

You're in the lead for funniest comment of the year award!

How's Ghislaine Maxwell doing nowadays? Last I heard, living a very comfy VIP "prison" life. How are her mates? Right, running free. Now let's look at how people jailed for marijuana possession are doing.

Everyone commits crimes, yet prosecution is hilariously selective. Everyone knows this. White collar crimes have a prosecution rate of There is absolutely no meaningful rule of law in the US. The absurd degree of selective prosecution is antithetical to this.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#133

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

scotty79 wrote: post #54
PeterHolzwarth wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In China, "harmed society or the economy" is very very often the excuse used to put political enemies into prison.

So? It works. Their economy is starting to lap the West one. Maybe cutting a little bit off the top works regardless of who exactly is being cut?

It sounds appealing when you imagine that nobody you like would ever be cut, but that's not how the Chinese system works. I would guess that at some point in the past you've laughed at memes making fun of political leaders; in China, this is not allowed, because the authorities believe that posting mean things about the system or its leadership damages the trust in government which is required for a healthy society.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#134

Post by windexh8er »

voakbasda wrote: post #99
gtowey wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The antidote to that would be for Meta to reveal all their internal communications. But they'll never do that because their own words and actions are likely far more damning than any story the DOJ could weave. The trend I have noticed is anytime the actual truth leaks from these actors and companies, it's so much more evil than I could have imagined. Like the recent tell-all book from someone who worked directly with…

The fun part is their internal communication might be relatively exculpatory, but a good prosecutor can find the crumb or two to hang them. "Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find something in them to hang him." — Cardinal Richelieu (Armand Jean du Plessis)

> The fun part is their internal communication might be relatively exculpatory, but a good prosecutor can find the crumb or two to hang them.

To the first part of that sentence: maybe, but I highly doubt it and these would be the last people on earth to give the benefit of the doubt to. Zuckerberg, and his peers, are operating in an "us vs them" mentality and we should also prosecute them in the exact same manner. They don't care about their users and they don't view them as humans or equals in any regard. They are parasites who only consume, cast blame, have zero interest in what's fair and treat everything around them as a capitalistic game of who can hoard the most. I would love to see Zuckerberg have to defend himself in a court of law and, instead of dodge every question, have to answer to his worldly peers in a truthful manner. The hatred towards a person like that must weigh on him. The best part about him is Facebook was an initiative in his own failings amongst his personal life. And it never filled that void. Zuckerberg is probably still socially broke on the inside. He's a terrible human through and through.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#135

Post by EA-3167 »

Loughla wrote: post #121
ambicapter wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[citation needed]

It's hard to prove a negative, you know.

Seems like a good argument for tempering claims around negatives then, if people want to be taken seriously.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#136

Post by TFNA »

SoftTalker wrote: post #110
MissTake wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A myriad of small businesses also use Facebook as their public facing website.

Only out of convenience. There are many alternatives, and search engines will find them. And (although it won't happen) if Facebook were ordered to shut down, hundreds of entrepreneurs would offer alternatives for "small business web presence"

Small businesses have complained about being buried in search results for long years. In some industries like restaurants, scammers create a higher-ranking website that looks like the real thing, in order to skim revenue.

Not everyone has SEO-fu, and hiring a contractor is an additional cost for small businesses. At least on Facebook one normally finds what one is looking for.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#137

Post by TFNA »

toast0 wrote: post #107
TFNA wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The world no longer needs Facebook and its leaders. It does not need its technology." Meta owns WhatsApp, which is core infrastructure in many countries now where it has basically replaced the PSTN. If WhatsApp went down without a long transition process first, it would take myriad small businesses down with it. I would love to see harsh punishments and jailed executives, but the world still needs the company for th…

> If WhatsApp went down without a long transition process first The transition mechanism is that your contacts are in your phone address book, and you can call or text them or find them on other platforms indexed by phone number. Although, not for username contacts. Would it be disruptive? Yes. Would it be world ending? No.

That is all well and good for individuals chatting with family, friends or small groups. But alot of small businesses all over the world are using WhatsApp for Business with features and data storage that cannot be immediately moved to another platform. If it disappeared tomorrow, you would see business failures and immediate economic impact in developing-world regions that can hardly afford such a hit.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#138

Post by deaux »

miltonlost wrote: post #89
rr808 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily we have rule of law here so if you say someone in particular needs to go to prison there needs to be a law that you have proven to break. Just because you dont like someone you can't just lock them up.

We have rule of law here? have you seen the non-independent DOJ today? The Supreme court's rubber stamp and bribed justices? Trump's blatant illegalities? (Yes, Clarence Thomas has been bribed. That's what the RV and the trips are.)

It's funny isn't it, what the word China triggers in people. They'll say that the US is going down the gutter, but then the very next sentence if China is mentioned, it's all "we have rule of law, we're a just, democratic, lawful country, unlike them". There's still far too much pride.

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#139

Post by gruez »

deaux wrote: post #130
gruez wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which seems exactly like the sort of thing an authoritarian regime would do to placate the masses. Make an example of some big boss, but conveniently fail to fix or even acknowledge the issues that led to the crisis in the first place. In the example of the property bubble, it's domestic financial repression making real estate the only option for savings, and local governments being hooked (heh) on land sales to fund…

That's a cop out. You can do both. Do you really think they haven't tried to fix the issues? There's no reason why they wouldn't. They try to fix the issues and rightly jail the CEO. To act as if he was just an unknowing cog in the system is nonsensical.

>That's a cop out. You can do both. Do you really think they haven't tried to fix the issues? There's no reason why they wouldn't.

Except you know, all the incentives for keeping the current system in place. Financial repression still exists. Same with the local government funding model. Also the government's intervention was arguably what led to the crisis, by abruptly disrupting real estate companies' cashflow. The problem needed to be solved, but in typical CCP fashion, rash decisions made the situation worse. Same as with the one child policy.

Finally, what makes you think meta "haven't tried to fix the issues"? They're trying very hard with age verification :^)

Re: Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta's alleged strategy laid out in first week

#140

Post by deaux »

cmiles74 wrote: post #13
rvz wrote: post #7

Morals at Meta is an oxymoron. No person with 'morals' would join this company in 2026, unless with the next RSU cliff, the morality hormone immediately gets triggered when the bank account reaches 7 figures.

I don’t think any company has “morals”. For sure individuals might but a big advantage of the corporate structure is this diffusion of decision making and blame. Anthropomorphizing corporations isn’t helping us get a clearer picture of how they work or why they do what they do.

A company is made up out of people. Some are made up out of people with morals (yes, these exist). Those companies have morals. Some, like Meta, consist of people with no morals. Those companies have no morals.
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