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Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

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Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#151
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I think this should be an 'and' thing, not an 'or' thing. Don't deflect from FB. But when FB's dirty laundry is aired, air these other groups' too.

Easier to set a precedent against one org and use that to enforce good behavior towards other orgs in the future. It's how we've always gone after corrupted industries in this country. If you go after every bad egg at once you aren't going to win.

I don't think we're disagreeing.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#152

I don’t personally use FB and don’t have a very favorable view of their products. I would, however, like to see the same level scrutiny applied to the general American media, especially the news media. FB has come in and started eating their lunch. There’s a deeper problem here, and it feels more like the powers that he want to take down FB. I’m not denying any allegation made against FB, but why is it that Fox News,…

I've definitely had much darker thoughts after reading a lot of traditional media than looking at Instagram.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#153

I don’t personally use FB and don’t have a very favorable view of their products. I would, however, like to see the same level scrutiny applied to the general American media, especially the news media. FB has come in and started eating their lunch. There’s a deeper problem here, and it feels more like the powers that he want to take down FB. I’m not denying any allegation made against FB, but why is it that Fox News,…

Hey I said that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28762415

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#154
post #42
post #29

What concrete information has been revealed that implicates Facebook in illegal behavior? How does the "whistleblower"'s stated desires wrt goverment-mandated moderation standards differ from those articulated by representatives of the company itself? Such a framework would shift liability away from the company, possibly reduce their moderation load, and create a significant barrier for entry for potential competitor…

The whistleblower is taking a huge legal risk here. I wonder if the Wall Street Journal has really explained the consequences to the leaker.

I worked with her briefly on Google+. She struck me as a trust-fund kid: idealistic, brash, (perhaps over)confident, intelligent but prone to tackling problems that can't be solved. Wikipedia says her parents were a doctor & academic-turned-priest, so she's likely got some family wealth backing her up. It's a different calculus than for most of the people here, who can't afford good lawyers and need that paycheck to survive.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#155
post #36

There is something that doesn't sit right with me about the whistleblower. Yes, she is a data scientist which gives her many many extra points. But, she was a PM for 2 years in FAANG. Her actual scope of the what was going on in FB as a huge org, as she's trying to comment on (the "I want to fix FB" quotes from 60 minutes) Everyone I know who works in FAANG, FB specifically, and PMs even more specifically, really hav…

What's your point here? This lady is a PRODUCT manger and heads up the entire product, in this case Civic Integrity, which was directly charged with tamping down hate on the platform related to civic engagement. She is not a PROJECT manager like what you deal with on your engineering team. She is by definition an expert on this segment of Facebook and you're dismissing her wrongly for being a "PM". She's a Harvard MB…

The PM people usually deal with on eng teams are product managers and people do call them PMs.

Lots of junior people also have these educational credentials.

Not saying she isn't senior, but these two things mean nothing.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#156
post #138
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it , exactly?

There should be some laws about using addictive patterns imo. I'm sure that's fine and profitable and coca cola would continue to like putting cocaine into their drinks to make their customers want it all the more, but we have laws preventing that behavior in the meatspace and therefore we can have laws preventing this sort of evil behavior with technology companies too. Tie it into website accessibility laws that ar…

While this is extremely murky and maybe impossible to pin down from a legal standpoint, I do like the thought. It's not just Facebook and it's not just social media. It's any software (online games?) that clearly goes out of its way to induce addictive behavior as their business model.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#157
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it , exactly?

Personalized advertising.

I personally find the personalized advertising great. A lot of the time I am shown things that are actually useful/valuable to me.

I think a lot of the value really depends on the individual. If you're engaging in productive activities like hobbies, you get valuable targeted ads. If you're engaging in activities that are low value like signaling to others in myriad ways, you probably get adds for things like disposable fashion.

Personalized ads are basically a mirror. They feed what the person already wants to engage in. If you want less of the bad types of advertising, then you need to start at the root which is getting people to stop being interested in activities and behaviors that are lower value.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#158
post #77

I think a lot of people are choosing to ignore that a lot of companies have done things in the past that were not illegal at the time of action. However, those actions were later decided to be made illegal because the behavior was deemed to be antithetical to our values. For example, Standard Oil did not break any laws in its ruthless consolidation of the nascent oil industry. In fact, it exploited the law to allow i…

To clarify, can you specify exactly what law you would like made? What do you want to be done exactly ? I would rather take the stance of feed algorithms and moderation logs be PUBLICLY available. Transparency instead of censorship.

> I would rather take the stance of feed algorithms and moderation logs be PUBLICLY available. Transparency instead of censorship.

Ok let’s say that’s now the case. The FB source is now open. What changed? Any negative consequences are still occurring, and if anything, we just have had actors better visibility into what to exploit.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#159
post #77

I think a lot of people are choosing to ignore that a lot of companies have done things in the past that were not illegal at the time of action. However, those actions were later decided to be made illegal because the behavior was deemed to be antithetical to our values. For example, Standard Oil did not break any laws in its ruthless consolidation of the nascent oil industry. In fact, it exploited the law to allow i…

To clarify, can you specify exactly what law you would like made? What do you want to be done exactly ? I would rather take the stance of feed algorithms and moderation logs be PUBLICLY available. Transparency instead of censorship.

In my opinion if social media is important to society the way it seems there should be a government funded social network for users and businesses. In the USA like NPR and PBS.

The problem is companies selling peoples data and optimizing the algorithms on probability. Instead what if everyone paid some taxes to have a social network which helps people interact and businesses promote themselves, you can get rid of the ads AND the algorithms. Let users customize settings which dictate the algorithm.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#160
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treat addictive social media companies like addictive cigarette companies. Lets see some huge warning labels about how mentally harmful it is to continue scrolling on facebook right on the first result where its unavoidable to see. Lets tax the hell out of social media companies to generate local revenue just like sin taxes. It won't be a huge change but it will be a great starting point and will come with revenue th…

Uhm a cigarette you cannot change the base ingredient of, it's tobacco. A cig by definition burns the carcinogen tobacco. A site you can specify certain requirements like no doom scrolling or requirements like PUBLISH YOUR ALGORITHMS. Why go full California with another banner? People will ignore it and you will have done nothing of substance.

> Uhm a cigarette you cannot change the ingredients of, it's tobacco.

You can soak the tobacco in solution which contains additives, such as more nicotine. Which is exactly what cigarette companies have done in the past (and not just the tobacco, the filters, and the paper as well).

The parallel here is filling people's feeds with divisive political news and posts, even when they have tried to opt out.

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