201–210 of 324 posts
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...
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…
- Pharmaceutical companies trash generics and lobby both directly to doctors and governments
- The sugar and food industry has had a significant role in informing consumers that their obesity was their fault and not the fault of their products
- The oil industry has had a significant role in informing consumers that climate change was their fault and not the fault of their products
- Fruit/vegetable companies I don't even want to get into (look up Chiquita/United Fruit Company)
- Anything to do with any major retailer/distributor and unions
They aren't "dirty" tactics so much as "profit maximizing tactics" and they are inherent to capitalist mega-corps.
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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…
Wholeheartedly agree. This is not the norm at a couple multi-billion dollar companies where I've worked and I would leave if it were. If you are doing this you are making the world a worse place. Do not do this. Do not accept this. Find purpose in the world and strive to add to it rather than take away.
I was wondering where did all these "I started with fresh account, randomly clicked, and found something awful" articles about TikTok came from. Now I know. It was so puzzling, because my experience has been so different. TikTok is the most positive, large scale, social platform I've ever used. It has exposed me to disabled people's, LGBTQ, POV and all kinds of neat things I'd have never even thought of. California f…
In case you think this is some esoteric issue involving kids’ stuff — keep in mind that the founder of TikTok was one of the most balanced voices within China, who argued that the country needed to engage with the West in a healthier manner. Zuckerberg et al and their incessant lobbying for that TikTok ban basically vaporized that guy’s pull within China, which eliminated a super-valuable asset for the West. So, yeah…
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Not in many culturally conservative households. These parents exert a lot more control over what their children are exposed to / allowed to engage with.
They _try_ to exert a lot more control over what their children are exposed to. I'm not sure they're always successful.
Also, as anecdotal evidence, there's a reason there's a stereotype of PKs (preacher's kids).
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> 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…
When Apple lies about performance on a stage... It's clearly from Apple and people treat it accordingly. Nobody relied on that information or even believed it. When Facebook pays a marketing agency to get anti tiktok headlines into local news, the reader has no idea who was involved and is left with negative impressions of tiktok that stay with them long after they forgot the details of the story (if they even read t…
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All of Chinese economic activity is subservient to the state, including companies like ByteDance. The information they gather goes back to the state. This is not “yellow peril”, this is “Sino peril” if you must call it something scary sounding. It has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with national security and ideology.
If we can put aside our own ideology and national bias, the business model and tactics of ByteDance, Facebook or any other company in the ad-tech supported social media realm operates more-or-less with the same objectives and does the same things. Ideology is just the trash can we are all eating from.
IE, you would need to also assert that Western companies having these data is no better than Chinese companies, an opinion which is hotly debated and not at all settled.
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…
Political consulting firms -- especially those that specialize in strategy, oppo, or ads -- are very often partisan-aligned. That's how the biz works.
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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”.
But yeah, anyone who knows how social media sites got started with faked engagement shouldn't believe most of the things they see online.