Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#11

Post by trhway » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 5:49 PM UTC

decebalus1 wrote: post #7

Remember this? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15790687 To some extent it's still going on. Protests are still happening (and it's really bad) so lately I've been noticing a bunch of - what I think are - shill accounts. Couple of days before I went through some of the posts in news post about the protests and identified several profiles with no personal pictures, no posts, posting in broken Romanian about: - ant…

> are getting their accounts disabled every couple of weeks and require photo ID proof to re-enable.

Sounds like hi tech version if voter ID and serving basically the same purpose.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#12

Post by 734786710934 » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

fortythirteen wrote: post #2

Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.

The writers for most prime-time sitcoms are Democrats. They do it for free.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#13

Post by stevenwoo » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 5:58 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #10

Here's what I don't get. I got back onto facebook about six months ago after deleting my previous account. I was using the account to auth into news article commenting systems. Within 24 hours I apparently had ticked someone off who had reported me, because my account was locked until I scanned a photo ID of myself and uploaded it. If that happened to me, why isn't it happening to _everyone_?

I hypothesize the shills/bot makers have figured out that accounts need to show recent and a relatively long activity history before unleashing them on comment systems, unlike your account.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#14

Post by problems » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:04 PM UTC

pythonaut_16 wrote: post #8

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do that all the time: Al Gore - 30 Rock Joe Biden/Michelle Obama - Parks and Rec Newt Gengrich - Murphy Brown Donna Brazil - Good Wife etc....

For 30 Rock and Parks and Rec, weren't those appearances after the people were already prominent and/or in office? The 30 Rock/Al Gore example in particular happened years after he was done running for public office. And even Parks and Rec wasn't so much advocating for Joe Biden/Michelle Obama as having a left leaning, political character be excited about the opportunity to meet them. I can also remember John McCain…

30 Rock also pushed Obama a bit if I recall correctly and before the election - but they also cracked a joke about how Tina Fey's character would tell everyone she was voting for Obama but then secretly vote Republican.

So think what you will of that.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#15

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:09 PM UTC

734786710934 wrote: post #12

fortythirteen wrote: post #2

Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.

The writers for most prime-time sitcoms are Democrats. They do it for free.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#16

Post by LeoJiWoo » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:09 PM UTC

Its a time of political upheaval worldwide.

Nationalists are rising or at least becoming more vocal in at least Britain, India, United States, Austria, Germany, Korea, and Japan.

They are direct threats to the established status quo. Censoring their political speech will cause a "Streisand Effect" and only further galvanize a backlash against the establishment.

Social Media will probably be broken up by country (Ex. The chinese model), so that national laws on speech can be enforced.

However pros and cons of the new political groups must be debated on a public stage.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#17

Post by joshAg » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:15 PM UTC

foodislove wrote: post #4

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "money is everything" attitude and that everything has a price.

well, yeah. He's just another dude in SV that either has no clue about, or pretends to have no clue about, ethics.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#18

Post by rndmize » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:22 PM UTC

foodislove wrote: post #4

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "money is everything" attitude and that everything has a price.

Come now, Zuckerberg doesn't even need public office. He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Just based on the information in the article, he could offer technical embeds to campaigns he likes and ignore the ones he doesn't, or provide them with a much smaller degree of assistance, with no one the wiser. I don't think there's a single person in the world with as much potential to impact elections and policy choices as Zuckerberg today.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#19

Post by tomrod » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:22 PM UTC

734786710934 wrote: post #12

fortythirteen wrote: post #2

Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.

The writers for most prime-time sitcoms are Democrats. They do it for free.

[Citation Needed]

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#20

Post by pulisse » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:23 PM UTC

fortythirteen wrote: post #9

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do that all the time: Al Gore - 30 Rock Joe Biden/Michelle Obama - Parks and Rec Newt Gengrich - Murphy Brown Donna Brazil - Good Wife etc....

A writer pushing their political agenda is one thing and something you can't quantify. Is there a department at ABC whose sole job is getting politicians to pay for guest appearances?

This is key. It's one thing to have creative staff that lean left, it's another for the injection of political propaganda to be the product itself. In that case, there's incentive for ever increasing amounts of propaganda (until it becomes so omnipresent that there's no marginal benefit to the buyer to having more of it, which would be pretty dystopian).