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I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

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Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#361

Post by banads »

at_a_remove wrote: post #242
mchusma wrote: post #49

I don't understand why doesn't Facebook just: -Allow all posts -Allow users to customize what they want to see (e.g. "dont show me posts that glorify violence" or "only allow covid posts that match WHO guidelines" or "allow exceptions from political figures or of historical significance") and allow users to ban hide posts that are found untruthful by third parties (snopes, etc). To me effectively everyone wins. Faceb…

Ah, that word "just." Whenever I see "just" in some kind of kind of technical demand in the first line, I immediately know that there's a lot of stuff to unpack. Here, you have requested something fairly close to a general AI which understands both written language, images, and even more fun, images of language. Cartoon violence right on down to "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" And will quoting Henry II…

Okay, but companies like Google, FB, and Twitter are already putting great efforts towards implementing that type of thing in production.

Whats so difficult about letting a user toggle those existing filters on and off? Or allowing users more control over their news feed, such as allowing it to be chronological? Or hiding items based on keywords?

Its our job as technologists to not only tell people if/when their request is technologically impractical/impossible, but more importantly, to make informed recommendations of what is technically feasible and most closely matches their intended goals (which they might not yet even fully understand themselves).

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#362

Post by s1artibartfast »

at_a_remove wrote: post #242
mchusma wrote: post #49

I don't understand why doesn't Facebook just: -Allow all posts -Allow users to customize what they want to see (e.g. "dont show me posts that glorify violence" or "only allow covid posts that match WHO guidelines" or "allow exceptions from political figures or of historical significance") and allow users to ban hide posts that are found untruthful by third parties (snopes, etc). To me effectively everyone wins. Faceb…

Ah, that word "just." Whenever I see "just" in some kind of kind of technical demand in the first line, I immediately know that there's a lot of stuff to unpack. Here, you have requested something fairly close to a general AI which understands both written language, images, and even more fun, images of language. Cartoon violence right on down to "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" And will quoting Henry II…

They already have processes in place to flag and remove covid information and violent content, so you obviously don't need general AI.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#363

Post by yifanl »

krzyk wrote: post #282

So he doesn't believe that one should be able to protect their property? If looting is not the one that should be discouraged with shots, then what about rape? If that also not, then where it starts? How do you stop looters? Asking nicely? Mob has its own personality and it doesn't have conscious. I don't like current US president (BTW I'm not US citizen, nor do I live there), but that quote wasn't the one people sho…

It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the quote, the concern OP had was that Facebook was refusing to apply its policies against glorifying violence (and the quote absolutely is) to specific individuals.

(Certainly the POTUS is not the average person, but Twitter's solution of marking that his comment was against terms of use is an extremely easy compromise.)

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#364

Post by ck425 »

code4tee wrote: post #208

Zuckerberg has always made it clear to investors and employees that Facebook is not a democracy. Mark is in charge and has full control of the company to do as he pleases when he pleases. When they IPOed he made it clear that’s how the company works. IPO materials made it clear that if you don’t like that don’t invest in it. Not saying I agree with his actions (or inactions) and decisions but he’s been very clear abo…

If anything that makes the actions of employees even more powerful. As CEO he doesn't need to keep investors happy as he has full control. But he still needs (and always will need) employees to run the company. Employee protests are one of the few things that can directly impact Zuckerberg.

Employment is a two way street. They signed up knowing Zuck was in charge but expecting certain behaviour from him. Now that he's breaking that behaviour employees are protesting.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#365

Post by bsilva »

[disclaimer] Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Trump supporter. I'm not even American. But you Americans watch too much CNN/MSNDC.

- You should rather focus on tracking pedophilia and human trafficking instead of worrying about a president's intent to shoot looters, and facebook probably has a lot of that shit, just like twitter.

- Looting is fine, don't shoot looters? Just hug them? They are putting fire on buildings with people inside it. They are killing black cops. They are destroying small businesses from their community.

- Trump is not promoting violence, he's trying to avoid your neighborhood getting looted. I guess it's fine when it's not your area, right?

- BlackLivesMatter is the worst movement there is. You need to research. It's not about black lives anymore. If it was, no black people would be dead or have lost their businesses due to the riots. ALL FUCKING LIVES MATTER. ALL COLORS. WE ARE ONE RACE.

- This is just like the #MeToo movement. Fake as shit. Now that Biden sniffs every kid next to him, where's the #MeToo people? But Trump can't kiss his daughter.

- When Biden says that it's fine, right? Because he's a lefty. He said: "if they start looting, shoot them in the leg", but not one cares talking about it. Also he said to a black person, that if he doesn't vote for him, he's not black. What the fuck is that?

- They all loved to meet Epstein, but that doesn't bother you right? Trump's tweet does. https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-je...

- Trump is not racist, you just can't see it because you trust the main narrative. Before he was president he had a lot of black friends but no one cares to mention that, he's just "racist". Isn't he's wife a foreigner?

- Jack is a satanist, did you know that? He loves some Satanist verses. https://twitter.com/jack/status/5081?lang=en https://twitter.com/jack/status/5322?lang=en

If you start censoring you are not as liberal as you think.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#366

Post by deathgrips »

code4tee wrote: post #208

Zuckerberg has always made it clear to investors and employees that Facebook is not a democracy. Mark is in charge and has full control of the company to do as he pleases when he pleases. When they IPOed he made it clear that’s how the company works. IPO materials made it clear that if you don’t like that don’t invest in it. Not saying I agree with his actions (or inactions) and decisions but he’s been very clear abo…

> Mark is in charge and has full control of the company to do as he pleases when he pleases.

Which is why we need to break it up. Facebook has massive unaccountable influence over elections.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#367

Post by enumjorge »

panzagl wrote: post #169
nightski wrote: post #126

I respect his decision. But I for one do not want our president, no matter who she or he is to be censored. I want to know exactly what they are saying and when. That includes any government official for that matter because it directly affects my voting decisions and actions.

Corporations using their power to silence an elected government official is pretty much the corporate-fascist dystopia I thought we were all against.

You're robbing the situation of all of its nuance. You could say corporations helping spread a proto-fascist leader’s call to violence against protesters who are exercising their right to free speech and assembly after a government agent murdered a citizen in the middle of street is a dystopia we should all be against. But that wouldn’t capture the whole issue either.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#368

Post by fennecfoxen »

sumedh wrote: post #141
fennecfoxen wrote: post #23

The engineer describes Facebook as being on the "wrong side of History." I take this opportunity to remind my fellow readers that History is not an infallible goddess to be worshipped. The moral arc of the past several hundred years has bent towards liberty and tolerance, but this has not been consistent and was not inevitable. It is precisely when your values are on the "wrong side of History" that you should be def…

> It is precisely when your values are on the "wrong side of History" that you should be defending them the most strongly. Not sure what you mean, people who supported slavery were on the wrong side of history, are you saying they should have defended it strongly because they were "right" according to them?

People who supported slavery were wrong because slavery is wrong. If the South had won the Civil War and conquered the North, they'd still be just as wrong, but opposition to slavery would be more important than ever. History itself justifies precisely nothing.

Re: I'm resigning from my job at Facebook

#370

Post by zarkov99 »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #252
mchusma wrote: post #49

I don't understand why doesn't Facebook just: -Allow all posts -Allow users to customize what they want to see (e.g. "dont show me posts that glorify violence" or "only allow covid posts that match WHO guidelines" or "allow exceptions from political figures or of historical significance") and allow users to ban hide posts that are found untruthful by third parties (snopes, etc). To me effectively everyone wins. Faceb…

> -Allow users to customize what they want to see This means that Facebook has to provide a process to categorize posts into the categories. Facebook argues they don't want to do that categorization.

No it doesn't. The customization could be done based on the source (Always/never show government officials posts, for example) or the votes of a trusted entity (the WHO, The White House, CNN, your cool friend who knows what is going on, etc). Plenty of empty gas bags have been identified by their reaction to Pandemic but also plenty of people who were right, early (and widely mocked at the time). There is signal there that users should be able to leverage.
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