Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism • Hacker News Board

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#121

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #46

esturk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citizens are conditioned to believe that police will solve all the crimes from shows like True Crime, CSI, etc. And when said criminals are such masterminds that even the police can't catch, they are then conditioned by superhero movies from Marvel, Superman, Batman, etc. that someone should rise up to catch such criminals, this is the end state. See, every kid is taught and empowered growing up that they should stan…

All true, and there's an additional factor: these shows, and news coverage about crime, make people think crime is far more prevalent (and rising) than it is. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/16/voters-perc... Local news Facebook comments are full of "there's so much crime! it was never like this when I was younger!" but the reality is completely in the opposite direction.

I showed my boomer parents the actual data and they straight up rejected it. The "society is collapsing into lawlessness" narrative has become very strong.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#122

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

xvector wrote: post #58

getcrunk wrote: post #9

It's crazy watching the world turn into a dystopia and being powerless to stop it. It not just about this company. If they fail another will replace it. Society seems to be on a convergent path with dystopian scifi. This, Chicago police automated policing program (detects crime before it happenes and actually hurt innocent people), racially biased facial recognition. I read an article today about some DNA software be…

> and being powerless to stop it. You are only powerless so long as you decide to stay within the comfortable confines of the law. The crowd of Hacker News alone certainly has enough ability to cause serious problems for Citizen, whether through activism within their own megacorporations or independent ability.

[deleted]

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#123

Post by jfrunyon » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

> In addition, we are focused on reducing the reach of notifications about violent incidents, and increasing the reach of notifications about incidents such as missing people or pets being reunited with their families—we could all use some more good news.

"We would rather provide engaging info than useful info." At least they're honest.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#124

Post by jkr42 » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:57 PM UTC

vmception wrote: post #119

underwater wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people are smart enough to manipulate others, but don't because they're not assholes. Manipulating people for personal gain doesn't make you smart. It just makes you a psychopath.

Bring it up with the publicist. They're all third party and they all share the same tactics with each other for engagement. I have been willing to concede that there are a lot of people inspired by people that look like them and otherwise wouldn't even notice if it weren't for categorized headlines and lists. It is icing on the cake that different people are triggered by that, and even greater icing on the cake that…

And who pays and directs said publicist? You were in cahoots reflecting on the intelligence of your marks fifteen minutes ago, remember?

Go ahead, walk back the psychopathy because you couldn’t stick to it. We all totally buy the assignment of liability to a third party and respect your commitment to the troll. The only thing more amusing than a troll is a troll that collapses like a limp noodle under sustained fire from more experienced trolls.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#125

Post by neltnerb » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:57 PM UTC

manuelabeledo wrote: post #108

jakelazaroff wrote: post #6

> Citizen, using a new livestreaming service it had just launched called OnAir, would catch the suspect live on air, with thousands of people watching. I'm sorry, is this describing real life or an episode of Black Mirror? It's so blatantly dystopian that I'm at a loss for words.

RoboCop comes to mind, which is ironic since the movie was obviously a parody. Also, isn't this what reality shows like Cops were about? There is a large market for morbidity.

A... parody? Of what?

I thought it was a fairly straightforward story about the military industrial complex abusing civil rights and losing in the end "because human brains are special", but I was a kid when it came out so I surely missed what source material it was a parody of.

I took it for a movie intended to be serious that was making not-especially-original commentary on policing and both government and corporate malfeasance, but not that it was parodying anything in particular, I thought the story was as original as most.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#126

Post by isoskeles » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

Seattle3503 wrote: post #103

vmception wrote: post #21

> Citizen does moderate comments, but "two people having an argument about whether or not someone’s comment is racist drives engagement," LOL, my publicist does this on linkedin and other places for us because people are gullible. Source article: Executive of does a thing 0 engagement, nobody knows Social Media version: [First] Executive of does a thing 15,000 comments, 2 million reach, supporters and detractors argu…

Who are you?

An asshole.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#127

Post by donw » Thu, May 27, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

wearywanderer wrote: post #87

munk-a wrote: post #12

I know this is beside the main point of the article - but the fact that the CEO's surname is Frame is one of these truth is stranger than fiction moments. If you wrote up a drama about someone writing an app like this and gave the CEO that surname you'd be called a hack.

Seems like an unfortunate case of nominative determinism.

If only he had been accepted to that art college...

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#128

Post by labster » Thu, May 27, 2021, 10:00 PM UTC

the_snooze wrote: post #70

johncessna wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole idea behind Protect is that you could convince people to pay for the product once you’ve gotten them to the highest point of anxiety you can possibly get them to," one former employee said, referring to Citizen's subscription service. "Citizen can’t make money unless it makes its users believe there are constant, urgent threats around them at all times," There are a lot of businesses built on this model.…

Everything is "BREAKING NEWS" these days, complete with fancy graphics and soundtracks. But there just isn't enough news day-to-day to warrant that level of importance. Not everyday is 9/11, much to news outlets' dismay.

BREAKING NEWS is just a synonym for “news”. The addition of the word “breaking” is just a stylistic choice and conveys no additional meaning.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#129

Post by evan_ » Thu, May 27, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

neltnerb wrote: post #125

manuelabeledo wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RoboCop comes to mind, which is ironic since the movie was obviously a parody. Also, isn't this what reality shows like Cops were about? There is a large market for morbidity.

A... parody? Of what? I thought it was a fairly straightforward story about the military industrial complex abusing civil rights and losing in the end "because human brains are special", but I was a kid when it came out so I surely missed what source material it was a parody of. I took it for a movie intended to be serious that was making not-especially-original commentary on policing and both government and corporat…

it's satire, not parody.

Re: Citizen’s dangerous effort to cash in on vigilantism

#130

Post by vmception » Thu, May 27, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

jkr42 wrote: post #124

vmception wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bring it up with the publicist. They're all third party and they all share the same tactics with each other for engagement. I have been willing to concede that there are a lot of people inspired by people that look like them and otherwise wouldn't even notice if it weren't for categorized headlines and lists. It is icing on the cake that different people are triggered by that, and even greater icing on the cake that…

And who pays and directs said publicist? You were in cahoots reflecting on the intelligence of your marks fifteen minutes ago, remember? Go ahead, walk back the psychopathy because you couldn’t stick to it. We all totally buy the assignment of liability to a third party and respect your commitment to the troll. The only thing more amusing than a troll is a troll that collapses like a limp noodle under sustained fire…

yours and my comments are flagged, nobody is walking back anything, we just can't read them any more

I find the outcome amusing

Citizen found the same result