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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

#31

Post by croon »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #17
croon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What influenced you to believe that?

I was skeptical for precisely that reason, so despite the fact that it isn't a secret (see for example https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/checks-balanc... ) I didn't believe it until I saw the sausage getting made. Obviously I understand why you might not trust some random guy on this, but I've personally seen a billion dollar company where an outright majority of news coverage originated with its PR team…

I'm not saying the concept isn't real, I'm just generally skeptical of prescriptive statements such as GGP.

There are plenty of things happening around me that influence me, like kind gestures big or small, the birth of my children, learning about things (that are verifiable), which I can assure you are not staged or driven by someone.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#32

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

wanda wrote: post #9

Isn't this what all firms do to each other, all the time? Like, isn't this just normal business these days? Isn't this sort of thing a natural eventuality in a capitalist world? Capitalism crowns the person who wins, regardless of how they won. And besides, all press is good press because it's all exposure. Why wouldn't you do this sort of thing? It's only wrong to get caught. And even then, you can pay for a lawyer…

Positive PR, where you pay someone to go around convincing reporters how great you are, is normal business and I'm not sure it could ever be otherwise. Negative campaigns that function solely to tear down your opponents, as the article says (and my experience matches), are relatively uncommon outside of politics.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#33

Post by h2odragon »

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 FB, vast resource deployed with intricate execution towards trivial goals.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#34

Post by fartcannon »

bko wrote: post #25
tomatowurst wrote: post #3

At what point does: - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't - selling your company to Facebook/Meta or product on it hurts your brand and perceived to be immoral Is Facebook/Meta the Tobacco company of our generation? The harmful effects of smoking were covered up for almost a century, much as the impact of mass remote dopamine manipulation is not as prolific.

> - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't Why would it hurt you? They're at the forefront of technical challenges of scaling an immensely popular product and developing internal tooling. These aren't necessarily applicable everywhere, but they're incredibly valuable. If anything, I think the fact that they're working at a place where a very vocal minority of their…

I sure would think twice about hiring from Facebook. It's like hiring someone from a weapons company that targets teenagers.

Edit: I've had a chance to think about it after a cup of coffee and I take back my comment. Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone gets the same ethical review.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#36

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

tomatowurst wrote: post #3

At what point does: - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't - selling your company to Facebook/Meta or product on it hurts your brand and perceived to be immoral Is Facebook/Meta the Tobacco company of our generation? The harmful effects of smoking were covered up for almost a century, much as the impact of mass remote dopamine manipulation is not as prolific.

Are we writing off most of FAANG then? Maybe just reduce it down to "AN", assuming we aren't yet too annoyed with Apple and Netflix? Amazon and Google as well are both certainly full of dark patterns and badness. I'm certain that they have both tried to crush their competition as well. Can we assume that anyone who has worked at any of those companies has at best dubious morals, or are they instead small players in a big machine?

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#37

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

bko wrote: post #25
tomatowurst wrote: post #3

At what point does: - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't - selling your company to Facebook/Meta or product on it hurts your brand and perceived to be immoral Is Facebook/Meta the Tobacco company of our generation? The harmful effects of smoking were covered up for almost a century, much as the impact of mass remote dopamine manipulation is not as prolific.

> - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't Why would it hurt you? They're at the forefront of technical challenges of scaling an immensely popular product and developing internal tooling. These aren't necessarily applicable everywhere, but they're incredibly valuable. If anything, I think the fact that they're working at a place where a very vocal minority of their…

You conflate toxicity, popularity and commercial success. Someone in tech might have a skewed view of the latter two given their environment but they're well capable of evaluating the potential danger of the tools being built there. They're also the ones doing the recruiting.

Anecdotally, I had a friend who used to work at Monsanto and he told me of a few very uncomfortable social encounters when people learned where he worked. It made him question whether he should find a job somewhere else. I don't think we're there with Facebook, the general public mostly seems focused on misinformation rather than privacy but who knows what the future holds.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#38

Post by fartcannon »

sgt wrote: post #26
throwuxiytayq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, for one, won't touch anything with Zuck's fingerprints on it. Oculus is dead to me and many other game developers.

But that is balanced out by having Carmack's prints on it. He has status as a God on HN.

Carmack lost a lot of his shine working at Facebook. He was a champion of an industry when he was young, but now he's just some guy helping further entrench Facebook.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#39

Post by Garlef »

sgt wrote: post #26
throwuxiytayq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, for one, won't touch anything with Zuck's fingerprints on it. Oculus is dead to me and many other game developers.

But that is balanced out by having Carmack's prints on it. He has status as a God on HN.

No it's not. If someone walks through your living room with dirty shoes you don't get the floor cleaned up by having someone over who takes their shoes off.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#40

Post by krageon »

fartcannon wrote: post #34
bko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - having Facebook/Meta experience on your resume starts hurting you against others who don't Why would it hurt you? They're at the forefront of technical challenges of scaling an immensely popular product and developing internal tooling. These aren't necessarily applicable everywhere, but they're incredibly valuable. If anything, I think the fact that they're working at a place where a very vocal minority of their…

I sure would think twice about hiring from Facebook. It's like hiring someone from a weapons company that targets teenagers. Edit: I've had a chance to think about it after a cup of coffee and I take back my comment. Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone gets the same ethical review.

If you were a weapons company (and really, most successful big IT corps are in this metaphor) and you need specific targeting (you do) then you absolutely would. Perhaps you have trouble with their moral fiber, but you would then basically be alone in the business world. Corporations hate integrity in their workers (except when it comes to keeping corporate secrets).
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