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Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

reuters.com

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Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#251

Post by djrogers »

pbourke wrote: post #161
Simulacra wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on which argument you agree with. "It's a private company it can do whatever it wants" makes it seem like yes, they can. However Facebook is answerable to two distinct groups: The people who use the service, and the stock market. If people stopped using Facebook then it's possible that would push ad revenue down, which would then push the stock price down, which might then incite the investors to demand Faceb…

> However Facebook is answerable to two distinct groups: The people who use the service, and the stock market. Three, if you include regulators.

What regulators do you assume give one good crap about Facebook?

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#252

Post by Technically »

ttt0 wrote: post #67
blhack wrote: post #25

Why do they even pretend to give a reason anymore. Just close it. Nobody is buying the "hate speech" "adult sexual exploitation" whatever arguments, and honestly it just makes facebook look like liars. Just delete the group and say: "It violated our terms of service". That's probably also a lie, but at least it's a little less obnoxious.

The thing that gets me is that they don't ban specific people, it's always the entire community that gets taken down. But totally nothing to see here, guys.

You can't scale moderation with a social network without making serious sacrifices on moderation quality.

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#253

Post by aeternum »

colllectorof wrote: post #226
aquaticsunset wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord has since taken the stance of helping the mods, instead of permaban. I liked hearing that news earlier today. https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/28/22254339/discord-r-wallst...

Discord is probing how much censorship they can get away with. This is a standard tactic for social media companies today. They ban first then backpedal later if there is too much backlash. This helps them normalize censorship while minimizing reputation loss.

Yes, this is generally the path to maximizing power. It is helpful to test limits periodically.

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#254

Post by Calamity »

SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #35
morlockabove wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a private company, they can do what they want!"

Facebook is kind of fucked both ways tbh. If they don't remove anything they get blasted for hosting violence and abuse and if they remove too much they get blasted for censorship. Its impossible for them to remove just the right amount of stuff since thats subjective and they could never train a million moderators on how to apply it. I think the real solution here is we need to break up the social media companies. H…

Agree on the first part, but the second part doesn't seem as though it would practically work. Subreddits are the closest approximation and they still fall under a monolithic umbrella (and struggle to cope). Also, in terms of balance of power, breaking up all the different communities into separate smaller units gives too much power to the government IMO. It's essentially the ideal situation for a government who would like to pressure anyu one smaller community. Much harder to shush/gag/silence/stealth takedown a Facebook or a Reddit than it is a small entity. Divide & Conquer.

Facebook is definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place here though. This is why I think Mark Zuckerberg is actually being authentic when he says that "Facebook needs more regulation". He's already seen this problem and knows that having that subjective burden offloaded onto the government is the only true solution, i.e. "just tell me what the rules are and I shall play by them". Conveniently, these additional rules would also make it much harder for a new entrant to come unseat Facebook. So more regulation from the government is, in reality, win-win for Facebook.

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#255

Post by Avicebron »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #225
Avicebron wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The definition of a "dangerous organization" now is whether it can lighten wealthy wallets

When the music stops, it's also going to lighten the wallets of many of the amateur investors. These groups quickly degrade into memes about how buying and holding these stocks forever will make people rich. They chastise anyone who even considers mentioning an exit strategy. When the stock begins to decline, early investors in these groups will quietly exit while using the group to convince others to "buy the dip" a…

That's not really what this is about though. It's not about pardon the pun..Robin hooding the wealth from the rich to the poor, it's about casting light on practices that are disproportionately in favor of the wealthy. Hence bans on groups trying to do this in clever ways.

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#256

Post by superkuh »

doomlaser wrote: post #51
ketamine__ wrote: post #37

Are there any good decentralized message boards? Biggest question seems to be how does the community deal with spam (and spam taking a large amount of space). But other than that I could see a lot of people willing to host nodes for free.

Some people might remember Hotline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications Independent forums might be due for a comeback as well, with modern technological amenities

I spent all of high school on hotline servers but it was never very decentralized. Not compared to a real federated protocol. It's client-server where servers register themselves with trackers which keep lists of server and return the list to clients when they ask.

KDX is the "modern" open source implementation of the Hotline/Caracho concept.

I still think usenet is the way to go. It's a robust federated system. Sure most people will use a few servers but there's always the easy open to switch to a new one. I even posted on misc.invest.stocks today using eternal-september.org text only access.

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#257

Post by convery »

kibwen wrote: post #241
forgingahead wrote: post #107

There used to be a guy on Twitter/Facebook/other social media who kept harping about how the system was rigged....

Yeah, real funny that guy, if only someone would put him in a position of ultimate power I'm sure he'd un-rig the system real quick, and definitely not spend four years with his thumb up his ass laughing with his rich buddies at the gullible rubes who appointed him.

Ehh.. Being blocked by congress and federal judges at every turn doesn't really seem like a position of 'ultimate power'..

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#258

Post by forgingahead »

kibwen wrote: post #241
forgingahead wrote: post #107

There used to be a guy on Twitter/Facebook/other social media who kept harping about how the system was rigged....

Yeah, real funny that guy, if only someone would put him in a position of ultimate power I'm sure he'd un-rig the system real quick, and definitely not spend four years with his thumb up his ass laughing with his rich buddies at the gullible rubes who appointed him.

I've heard this criticism a lot, including the opposite accusation that he was a dictator/fascist/autocrat. We'll never know whether the situation was as you described, a big con to absorb the real middle-class frustrations of large segments of the population, or whether he was too naive to properly appreciate how corrupt the system is, and how the odds were stacked against him implementing any change.

*Edit, in any case, the US Presidency is not a "position of ultimate power".

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#259

Post by djrogers »

forgingahead wrote: post #156
someonehere wrote: post #85

If people are wondering what other options there out there to protect WSB and other groups from obnoxious band like this, might I suggest Mastodon? You can self host and be a part of the network. The tricky part to replicate the user capacity for WSB would probably require a lot of build out and probably someplace the servers can’t be killed by the ISP or data center (Russia?). I along with a few other friends have m…

I find it striking that a solution proposed at times like this is to depend on infrastructure in a foreign land, specifically Russia . This is not a dig at you at all - in fact you're probably right, but it is certainly striking that after all these years, people are seriously suggesting Russia as a "freer" alternative to American/Anglo systems.

It’s not ‘freer’, it’s just far less likely to be opposed to this particular group. I doubt that a freewheeling discussion on the evils of soviet imperialism would be toleration a Russian hosted mastodon server...

Re: Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop frenzy

#260

Post by forgingahead »

djrogers wrote: post #259
forgingahead wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it striking that a solution proposed at times like this is to depend on infrastructure in a foreign land, specifically Russia . This is not a dig at you at all - in fact you're probably right, but it is certainly striking that after all these years, people are seriously suggesting Russia as a "freer" alternative to American/Anglo systems.

It’s not ‘freer’, it’s just far less likely to be opposed to this particular group. I doubt that a freewheeling discussion on the evils of soviet imperialism would be toleration a Russian hosted mastodon server...

As I said in a comment below: Isn't that the irony though? You can continue to use American infrastructure, be it for communication, finance, etc, unless you irritate the wrong people. There are no lack of "Putins" in Anglo countries as well.
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