Live data from Hacker News

Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

techcrunch.com

241–250 of 275 posts

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#241

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

I always disliked Facebook and still don't care much for it, but having worked on ranking there for a few months, comments like this just sound incredibly naive. Facebook is not "specifically designed to cause addiction". It's designed by a complicated process with many people trying to maximize many competing metrics, some of which might go up when people are "addicted". In fact the complete opposite is one of the m…

I don't have the insight to disagree with you. I do worry that we're splitting hairs here:

- People use Facebook in a way which is destructive to society, and this is partially due to how Facebook is built.

vs.

- Facebook planned on being this addictive (and destructive) on purpose.

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#242

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

As usual the Facebookers are coming out in mass to defend their cash cow, despite it's major negative impact on society. Par for the course on this site

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#243

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

I estimate about the same impact of this as cigarette pack warning.

So very effective?

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#244

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

That didn't really work all that well for cigarettes.

Except it did.... smoking is at a record low

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#245

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

You could apply the same label to many other entertainment products and websites as well.

How many of those companies business models relies on getting you hooked so they can continue to perform mass surveillance and being careless with the personal info of users and non-users alike?

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#246

I love tech. It pains me to come to the conclusion that in Facebook, we have created something that should not exist: an addicative worldwide mob where peddlers can sell emotionally manipulative ideas to the people least able to handle them, whether it's clicking cows all day long or believing Elvis is still alive. In defense, I don't think anybody that was on-board at the beginning realized this. I do, however, feel…

> It pains me to come to the conclusion that in Facebook, we have created something that should not exist: an addicative worldwide mob where peddlers can sell emotionally manipulative ideas to the people least able to handle them, Or maybe, alternate world view, it does not even matter as much as you think it does.

People dying of starvation and homelessness doesn't matter to many people but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a negative impact on society or shouldn't be solved

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#247
post #58
post #3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Except no. That's where the regulators fundamentally agree with the regulated company. This is a different but also common phenomenon. Well established companies tend to favor strict compliance requirements with harsh penalties and difficult targets. The big companies can hit those targets because they can afford to sink time and money into activities that don't make money. Small companies can't. It isn't necessarily…

Can you explain why this case is not regulatory capture? I dont see your link between what you wrote and the article.

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#248

There should be only one regulation for fb, display following warning on all pages/screens: Statutory Warning: This product is specifically designed to cause behavioral addiction so you are guided down a slippery slope of over consumption & that is how this company makes money. Overuse of this product is known to cause - anxiety, depression, low self esteem, constant craving for attention, short attention spans, inab…

I like the idea of a black box warning like cigarette cartons. You should also be periodically warned of the risks at a timely interval, annually?

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#249
post #76

It'll probably be too hard to regulate every unethical dark pattern and shitty default on the site. What you can do is force Facebook to allow the user to 1 click export their graph and all friend data with it in a standardized format. Once you force them to give me MY friends email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays in a list, they're fucked because better products can then emerge. Similar to the idea of regula…

I can see Cambridge Analytica or other companies offering $100 for your Facebook data export. Are you sure your friends or your friends' friends will not sell your data?

Re: Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets

#250
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always disliked Facebook and still don't care much for it, but having worked on ranking there for a few months, comments like this just sound incredibly naive. Facebook is not "specifically designed to cause addiction". It's designed by a complicated process with many people trying to maximize many competing metrics, some of which might go up when people are "addicted". In fact the complete opposite is one of the m…

On what basis are you claiming that that most teams at FB are optimising the product for well being as opposed to ‘engagement’ (addiction)? Do you have first hand knowledge? Do you know the people involved? Do you have citations? I stopped using FB a few years ago after I had an argument with a friend on the platform. The algorithm decided to keep showing us one anothers’ content - I assume so we would both write mor…

I'm not disagreeing with your point that FB sometimes ranks content more highly when it is likely to increase engagement at the expense of your long term happiness and continued use of the site. The point I am making is that FB is well aware, doesn't want that, and devotes far more resources to fixing it than to increasing "engagement".

Also "engagement" is not the same as addiction. People who follow more close friends are more engaged on FB, but they are not addicted.

Post reply on HN