Some opinions on this article are naive but I do agree regulation is an important step forward. Unless there is regulation like the Fiduciary Rule in place for tech companies, they can say "we are making the world a better place" however and whenever they like but they are not obliged to actually do it. These companies will be your friend if there are economic incentive to do so, or it would incur legal costs if they weren't to comply to their role as a fiduciary to their clients.
Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
151–160 of 221 posts
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#152I wonder how "Wall Street is not your friend" would play in the NY Times. I mean I get it, greed and flexible morality result in exploitation of the masses, but it is not unique to tech. During the dot.com boom it was pretty clear that there were people here in the Bay Area whose only goal was to sell some investors on an idea, pump it up, take it public on a story, pocket some big profits and then blow town. My frie…
> I wonder how "Wall Street is not your friend" would play in the NY Times.
That's exactly what I had in mind when I was reading the article! Businesses are in existence to make money, it's up to us (which includes govt. regulations) to reign them in when necessary. This shouldn't be a surprise that businesses are exploiting the masses.
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
We aren't just talking about some random FB ads. These were targeted specifically at undecided voters in swing states based on data from hacked voter rolls. It was a surgical operation designed to shift the balance while leaving a small footprint. It obviously wasn't the only factor, but given the extremely thin margins in the pivotal states, it's not unreasonable to wonder whether it could have been the straw that b…
On top of that, we're not just talking about pro-Trump, anti-Clinton ads. Some of the Russian ads were clearly designed to incite racism[1,2]. There was an anti-Islam rally in Houston[3], organized by a Facebook group called "Heart of Texas", which was later revealed to be a fake account operating out of Russia. This isn't just an abstract game of geopolitics, they're literally trying to incite racial violence. 1: ht…
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is naive, at best. I have a network of people in my life that I must maintain contact with, and their platforms of choice are these platforms. We don't always get to choose our battles, and this is one I won't win. And trying, in earnest, to avoid putting yourself on a stage is a far cry from publishing posts incessantly, looking to be a social media celebrity of some kind.
>This is naive, at best. I have a network of people in my life that I must maintain contact with, and their platforms of choice are these platforms. Must maintain? With who? Do you use FB to exclusively chat to your wife and boss or something? Will the stasi knock at your door for not checking in with Lord Zuckerberg every 5 minutes? I find it incredibly difficult to believe that there are people who's ONLY platform…
Not op but there are people who I like to communicate with on Facebook and Snapchat and the like who if I got off that platform I would never see again because that is their primary platform for communication.
I have tried to lose these applications for a week or month at a time and I do miss out on the latest happenings with them. I have tried to switch them to different services but for one reason or another they don't like it and want to go back.
Commonly this is the switching cost of learning how a new app works but to lose those friendships are not worth the anonymity that I gain from not using the services.
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#155Are you?
If NYT could switch places with any of the Silicon Valley top companies, it would without skipping a heart beat. Just ask Washington Post.
Silicon Valley has it's problems and advantages. Newspaper and print media has it's problems and advantages.
Thanks NYT. I promise to keep my guards up as much as I can. Happy?
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#156This article begs the question: Is it possible to maintain a cultural sense of ethics in any highly profitable corporation? Are there any examples in history of notably ethical corporations that changed the world?
How big and how much change? There's Ben and Jerry's and Newman's Own, some people might say Costco.
Ok, that's interesting. I wonder what is the common thread among those three. Could it be benevolent founders who don't hand the reins over to investment partners?
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#157I wonder how "Wall Street is not your friend" would play in the NY Times. I mean I get it, greed and flexible morality result in exploitation of the masses, but it is not unique to tech. During the dot.com boom it was pretty clear that there were people here in the Bay Area whose only goal was to sell some investors on an idea, pump it up, take it public on a story, pocket some big profits and then blow town. My frie…
The generalized case is both obviously the case, and not an examined axiom in contemporary politics: corporations operating without a value function that incorporates the public good and the commons, are not your friend.
Well, unless 'you' are one of the very few (statistically speaking) benefiting.
It's neither impossible nor unreasonable to constrain organizational behavior to incorporate collective goals.
It's just politically toxic in an America where self interest has been cultivated to be the ultimate moral litmus test.
That economic theories predicated on the aggregated consequence of self interest providing for collective benefit have been utterly disproven has not affected the received ideology.
Who would want to question the belief that acting in their own benefit is not morally unimpeachable?
QED the lionized cowboy culture at Über, to name an egregious example among a bottomless pool of them.
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#158"For profit organizations are not your friend" is usually true. It's not restricted to tech companies or silicon valley.
Non-profits too.
A more accurate worldview might be "Your friends are your friends. [1] Everyone else might be an ally, an enemy, a competitor, a customer, a business partner, an Internet acquaintance, a relative, a romantic partner, a dependent, a bedfellow, or most likely just someone you're indifferent to. Know who is which."
[1] Technically, a good portion of our friends aren't actually are friends either:
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/05/half-of-your-friends-pr...
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#159"For profit organizations are not your friend" is usually true. It's not restricted to tech companies or silicon valley.
I agree, but I think companies who build a product where the end user isn't the customer unsurprisingly tend to be worse.
I dunno. I personally love having all the world's information at my fingertips for free. I recognize that doing so means that they have another set of constituents they need to please whose interests are not necessarily aligned with mine, but I'll willingly take that bargain.
Re: Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
So people are angry that a media engine was used as a platform to deliver content designed to sway their opinions and behaviors using various forms of mendacity, exaggeration, obfuscation, prevarication, suggestion, dark psychology, titillation, and propaganda. Doesn't that describe all advertising? Also, shouldn't we be slightly happy that US tech companies were able to export US-audience advertising capacity to Rus…
Well the first problem is that is a crime to allow a foreign national (which includes companies) to purchase political ads in US campaigns (Federal Election Campaign Act). If Russia efforts to buy ads on Facebook were sufficiently masked maybe Facebook wouldn't be responsible, but some indications are that some of these ads were purchased by clearly Russia entities. Second potential problem is that it is alleged that…
They were not political ads. Does anyone read anymore?
They were ads that highlighted social issues. That's it.