As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook? • Hacker News Board

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#21

Post by pixelgeek » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:21 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #13

Why does every attack on Facebook seem like an actual pressure tactic to get them to censor views the mainstream media disagrees with? It seems a lot of the reporting on Facebook is driven more by a desire for censorship than for anything else. In terms of misinformation, it was just a couple a weeks ago that the mainstream media was pushing the narrative that the Border Patrol was whipping immigrants, which was comp…

> Why does every attack on Facebook seem like an actual pressure tactic to get them to censor views the mainstream media disagrees with?

Maybe that is just the way you want to see it? The article is clearly talking about recent revelations about the impact of Instagram on teens. Not sure how you are getting to 'censor views the mainstream media disagrees with' but it must have been a serpentine road.

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#22

Post by pixelgeek » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:25 PM UTC

What can be done to rein in Facebook?

Nothing.

Either shut it down or live with the impact but the time to 'do something' about Facebook was a long time ago. Before legislators in the US let it become this surveillance behemoth. Before it became a massive ad network.

Reining it in also presumes that legislative methods will work. I think it is already clear that they don't.

Shut it down.

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#23

Post by pixelgeek » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:26 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #20

callmeal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/border-patrol-hai... Ratje said he saw a Border Patrol agent swing his horse’s rein in the air while migrants were in the river. One migrant who was holding bags of food fell backward. As some migrants tried to get past Border Patrol agents, Ratje took photos, including one that would later go viral. Ratje saw the agent swing his rein vertically, spot a Haitian migran…

https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/sep/24/what-we-know-... >Ratje told PolitiFact that his photographs didn’t show signs of agents whipping any migrants or using anything as a whip to strike them. >"Nobody saw a Border Patrol agent whipping," he said. "What we did see was a Border Patrol agent swinging the rein in like a circle. It looked pretty threatening. Nobody saw him strike the migrant with that thing, the…

> Truth is there was no whipping of immigrants. That part was completely misinformation.

I guess you have to make your silver lining out of something eh?

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#24

Post by pfisherman » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #9

jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Facebook is primarily a propaganda organization. It's main objective is to influence, manipulate and subvert the user's judgment and convince them to buy something --- be it physical product or ideology. To further this objective, it has developed an incredibly detailed psychological profile of each individual user using deeply personal info willing surrendered by the user themselves. It's skill at doing this is what…

I’d say Twitter has done more damage to the society than FB. Twitter is a pure outrage machine. I might be in the minority but Instagram is still awesome. It’s gotten more ads but most of them are quite interesting. I’ve found made in USA goods from IG ads like this: https://psudo.com/

My understanding is that the scope of Facebook ads and surveillance is not limited to Facebook properties. The Facebook pixel and SDK are pretty ubiquitous.

Twitter is actually useful if you limit who you follow to the right people. My experience of Twitter is a bunch of academics promoting their articles. Lior Pachter trashing tSNE and UMAP is about the spiciest it gets.

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#25

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:30 PM UTC

jorgesborges wrote: post #10

jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Facebook is primarily a propaganda organization. It's main objective is to influence, manipulate and subvert the user's judgment and convince them to buy something --- be it physical product or ideology. To further this objective, it has developed an incredibly detailed psychological profile of each individual user using deeply personal info willing surrendered by the user themselves. It's skill at doing this is what…

> Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, has argued that only companies as large as Facebook have the resources to fight misinformation, election meddling and harmful content. Look, they’re not a propaganda machine! I’m so thankful we have them to “fight” against “misinformation”. I read that and my blood began to boil. Evil is the perfect description of such disgusting, deceitful pandering.

[deleted]

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#26

Post by avalys » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:31 PM UTC

I don’t really like the stuff the Guardian is doing. What can we do to rein in the Guardian?

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:31 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#28

Post by tchalla » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #14

Calls for breaking up companies make great headlines for politicians but let's look at the history and why this was necessary as a solution to antitrust. The textbook case for the Sherman Act was Standard Oil. Built up by Rockefeller in the late 19th century, Standard Oil came to effectively control the extraction, refining, distribution and sale of kerosene (in particular). This is when oil pipelines began, interest…

The number of employees in a company has no bearing on anti-competitive behaviour of an acquisition.

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#29

Post by oddmiral » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

mrdoops wrote: post #19

Build something better.

, then sell it to FB.

Re: As a whistleblower prepares to speak out, what can be done to rein in Facebook?

#30

Post by echelon » Sat, Oct 02, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

jqpabc123 wrote: post #2

Facebook is primarily a propaganda organization. It's main objective is to influence, manipulate and subvert the user's judgment and convince them to buy something --- be it physical product or ideology. To further this objective, it has developed an incredibly detailed psychological profile of each individual user using deeply personal info willing surrendered by the user themselves. It's skill at doing this is what…

Easy legislative fix

1) Stop hiring ex-Facebook employees. Unless they come clean about the company, they're willingly working at a corporation designed to destroy people. Why would you want people that sacrifice morals for money at your company?

2) Pass legislation requiring that algorithmic / amplified social media displays a "Surgeon General's" warning at the top that can't be dismissed. 12px white on black font: "This product is designed to be emotionally disruptive"

3) Disallow companies from targeting or onboarding children. If kids can have an account, there must be no adds or PII used in analytics or big data. No studying them. No manipulating them.