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Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#161

Post by nmilo »

ModernMech wrote: post #154
Clubber wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, political division sells papers. I looked for the "opinion" label, which is used to justify this type of manipulation but didn't see one. It's an article manipulating you talking about how Facebook uses a company that the GOP uses (and probably Dems too) to manipulate you. I suspect it wouldn't mention that some of these articles this company uses to manipulate you are probably published in The Washington Post,…

First of all the word Republican does not even appear in the title of the wall piece. It appears in the first paragraph to characterize the firm, which is a fact and how they characterize themselves. The word Republican appears a total of 4 times in the entire price. I’m really failing to see manipulation or opinions. Can you point them out?

Don't split hairs; it says "GOP", same thing. And words in the title and lead paragraph hold about 10x the weird.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#162

Post by klabb3 »

h2odragon wrote: post #33

I would still like to see someone brag about the "Facebook whistle blower" campaign. That was the most remarkable media ballet in years, someone paid a lot for that. I can't help but wonder if it was FB behind it, "all publicity is good publicity." And despite the amazing success of the campaign at raising "awareness" of the campaign, it didn't have any apparent aim or effect beyond that. We've seen that before from…

Iirc the govt instituted bounties on corporate malfeasance fines to whistleblowers (in % - so can be huge), so there are lawfirms that target and finance whistleblowers. There are even spooks-for-hire who work the targets. It's fascinating.

So no, doesn't seem like a hit job at all, just a good mix of first-order incentives. The media balleting is part of the defense, but also it was really informative for many.

EDIT: forgot the media reaction that indeed seemed coordinated and bold. Part of that is just media hating Facebook. They take any chance they get.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#163

Post by whimsicalism »

nmilo wrote: post #137

What is a "Republican strategy firm?" A consulting firm with the Republican party as one of their clients? What's the point of making "Republican" so prominent in the article? Is it just to use the negative connotation most WP readers have about the Republican party to malign Facebook a little more? It seems like we're just spectating an op-ed war, and discussing this article as if there's any meaning to it other tha…

Having worked im the political data space, most usually the firm os closely associated with a given party, revolving door, etc.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#164

Post by galangalalgol »

coldpie wrote: post #75
galangalalgol wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't he leave Facebook years ago shortly after basically being aquired along with oculus?

He still consults for Facebook and is still a big Meta booster, see this from just a few months ago: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/10/john-carmack-sounds-a...

That is disappointing. I very much admired his thoughts on coding.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#165

Post by engineeringwoke »

yunohn wrote: post #98
ummwhat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paul Graham's submarine essay probably.

Obviously, every HNer religiously reads and memorizes PG’s mediocre essays. There’s no way you could hold the opinion that PR and influence pervade our society, without having read “Submarine”.

> Obviously, every HNer religiously reads and memorizes PG’s mediocre essays.

Idk, I like PG. I've read the really long-form pieces like "What I've Done", etc., but from what I gather by following his Twitter, he's less and less defined by creative or unique ideas and has turned towards more standard neo-con, gen X silicon valley. More than anything, there is a noticeable lack of emotional intelligence that doesn't hold up to the standards of youth today.

He went to RISD; cool, awesome; he's a brilliant computer scientist; okay, cool. The world is more global now, a lot of people have these Renaissance man-type experiences, and haven't yet made the money that will put a veil over their eyes. A lot of the essays are mediocre. A lot of them are good. But I think it's just less his time in 2022 for what he was trying to do.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#166

Post by annadane »

newhotelowner wrote: post #88

Facebook also gave cheap ad rates to BJP[1] (Party of the current prime minister of India). Facebook seems like align more with the right group. [1] https://thewire.in/political-economy/for-campaign-ads-on-fac...

They absolutely do. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/mark-zuckerberg...

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#167

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

alphabetting wrote: post #136
taylodl wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many commenters here have pointed out this is the norm. I'll also point out that most companies fail, and many of the ones that don't fail are despised by their customers/users. What can we say of the companies that succeed and aren't despised? They typically don't do shit like this. The other problem with thinking "this is what everybody does" is there's the unstated "so keep your mouth shut and just go along with i…

What is "unhealthy" about telling public TikTok is a danger?

If Facebook wants to say that, they should say it themselves, not hide behind a fake grassroots campaign. That is “unhealthy.”

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#168

Post by vmception »

nmilo wrote: post #137

What is a "Republican strategy firm?" A consulting firm with the Republican party as one of their clients? What's the point of making "Republican" so prominent in the article? Is it just to use the negative connotation most WP readers have about the Republican party to malign Facebook a little more? It seems like we're just spectating an op-ed war, and discussing this article as if there's any meaning to it other tha…

No post body was provided.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#169

Post by wutbrodo »

taylodl wrote: post #131
throwaway2474 wrote: post #77

Serious question, for those with more experience than me “in the game” running big successful companies: are dirty tactics like this (and worse) par for the course and generally expected, and it’s sort of understood that the outsiders/general public are shielded from it? Or is it actually shocking? It often seems like there’s two “worlds” operating at the same time. In one, there’s outrage and indignation at this sor…

Many commenters here have pointed out this is the norm. I'll also point out that most companies fail, and many of the ones that don't fail are despised by their customers/users. What can we say of the companies that succeed and aren't despised? They typically don't do shit like this. The other problem with thinking "this is what everybody does" is there's the unstated "so keep your mouth shut and just go along with i…

> The other problem with thinking "this is what everybody does" is there's the unstated "so keep your mouth shut and just go along with it" that's really unhealthy for us all.

I agree with you that most people have status quo bias making up the majority of their moral compass. But I disagree with your defense of isolated demands for ethical behavior, which are dangerous and counterproductive.

First off, they cheapen principle by making it a conditional bludgeon, used to attack only unpopular entities. Participating in the lie that FB is doing something uncommonly nefarious implicitly shields every other actor that (eg) HN doesn't feel such obsessive hate for.

Secondly, it provides a scapegoat so people can ignore the difficult work of actually addressing systemic rot. If this is a widely-used tactic, and we agree that it's harmful, then perhaps there's a structural issue to be addressed. You can't even have this conversation if everyone thinks it's just something uniquely evil that FB did.

This was my problem with the way my social milieu handled Trump. I think the guy was a dangerous lunatic, but my friends/family's tendency to immediately assign all of the world's ills solely to him (kids in cages! 100s of ks of covid deaths!) gave them an excuse to ignore the systemic rot underlying society's actual problems (borders inherently rob people of their humanity, and our public health agencies have severe cultural issues).

It's not "defending the bad guy" to say that turning them into the literal Devil, solely responsible for all evil, is harmfully letting others off the hook.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#170

Post by lern_too_spel »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #128
throwaway2474 wrote: post #77

Serious question, for those with more experience than me “in the game” running big successful companies: are dirty tactics like this (and worse) par for the course and generally expected, and it’s sort of understood that the outsiders/general public are shielded from it? Or is it actually shocking? It often seems like there’s two “worlds” operating at the same time. In one, there’s outrage and indignation at this sor…

> are dirty tactics like this (and worse) par for the course The details make all the difference. Apple goes on stage and posts misleading graphs about their competition multiple times per year. The latest event showed the M1 Ultra matching an RTX 3090 in performance, yet that’s nowhere close to true in anyone’s testing and the graph was deliberately misleading in dishonest ways (3090 curve was truncated before it re…

Apple lies themselves. They don't pay the news to lie for them, though they do sanction reporters who report inconvenient truths. Facebook has a history of paying for smear campaigns.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/facebook...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13374048

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/update-facebooks-smear...

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