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Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

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Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#451

Post by CountDrewku »

philwelch wrote: post #295
ozzythecat wrote: post #141

I don’t personally use FB and don’t have a very favorable view of their products. I would, however, like to see the same level scrutiny applied to the general American media, especially the news media. FB has come in and started eating their lunch. There’s a deeper problem here, and it feels more like the powers that he want to take down FB. I’m not denying any allegation made against FB, but why is it that Fox News,…

The elephant in the room here is the First Amendment. The government, legally, cannot do anything to censor "hate speech" or "misinformation" on CNN or Fox News. They also can't do anything to censor "hate speech" or "misinformation" on Facebook, but they can certainly harass Facebook into doing it for them.

And this is exactly what they're doing. In effect they're loopholing the 1st amendment. Bring in Zuckerberg, hound him about removing specific "disinformation" under the threat of future political action if they don't comply. Then they get to throw the private company bs flag whenever someone says it's stomping on the 1st amendment.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#452

Post by throw_m239339 »

yumraj wrote: post #424

I think FB is having its MySpace moment. From what I remember, right around the time FB was picking up, MySpace was facing a lot of scrutiny especially around predators preying on children, which was one of the main, if not the only, reason for MySpace's downfall. The time is ripe for a competitor to enter this space.

> I think FB is having its MySpace moment.

No. Beyond USA, Facebook and its app ecosystem is used by people all over the world as a way to do business, this is especially true in developed country, people sell goods via Facebook, adversative and communicate to their customers via Facebook... MySpace never had as much reach and was never central to anybody's life. For many people all over the planet, Facebook and Whatsapp are the only apps they use. A lot of people on HN, because they are westerners, completely fail to understand that and only see how Facebook "fails to moderate the speech they don't agree with".

> MySpace was facing a lot of scrutiny especially around predators preying on children, which was one of the main, if not the only, reason for MySpace's downfall.

No, Myspace failed mostly for racist reasons, ironically, when young white educated people left Myspace for Facebook when the latter was deemed, and I quote, "less ghetto".

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#454

Post by chmsky00 »

sarkron wrote: post #393
taf2 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Mom said it to me with simpler terms when i was little... "we only have laws because of the assholes"

Plato put it like this in his "Laws": “Laws are made to instruct the good, and in the hope that there may be no need of them; also to control the bad, whose hardness of heart will not be hindered from crime.”

I wonder how he’d speak of a supposedly even better educated society stealing the future of the next due to circular validation of our waste filled industrialism.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#455

Post by oarabbus_ »

parineum wrote: post #411
oarabbus_ wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are are able to consume both tobacco and alcohol (let's not tangent into a drug legalization discussion). Tobacco and alcohol cause measurable societal harm and measurable costs to the state - are you implying it's unreasonable for states to tax these goods for those reasons? Generally speaking I'd rather reduce taxes but I fail to see what's wrong with e.g. an alcohol excise tax going towards rehabilitation and/…

> Tobacco and alcohol cause measurable societal harm And if I choose to smoke in the privacy of my own home (or yard)? What societal harm am I causing? As for alcohol, the societal harm caused is a laundry list of already illegal behaviors that are illegal regardless of alcohol's involvement with the exception of sin tax avoidance. Why not outlaw the societal harm instead? > e.g. an alcohol excise tax going towards r…

>Why not outlaw the societal harm instead?

Weren't you just saying how you don't want the state legislating what you put in your body and mind? That's why.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#456

Post by kaibee »

aierou wrote: post #162
JohnFen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they false? The similarities being talked about center around those companies specifically leveraging the mechanisms of addiction in order to make more money in spite of the fact that doing so harms people. I think a very good argument can be made that Facebook (among others) are doing this very thing.

Let me put it this way: how would you go about measuring the harm that Facebook or any other social media company causes? With cigarettes, oxycontin, or weapons manufacturers, you can look directly at the physical harm they cause. We have statistics and studies that require little effort to interpret. With social media, it is nearly impossible to connect physical or psychological harm to a platform over the course of…

> With social media, it is nearly impossible to connect physical or psychological harm to a platform over the course of someone's life. The papers that draw conclusions in this space are based on limited studies and polls that could be influenced by any number of external factors. We judge these things based on little more than feeling.

Yeah, you'd need to some kind of A/B testing on unsuspecting users and see if you can manipulate their mental health to get worse. Fortunately this sort of thing would never pass an ethics review board. Unfortunately, Facebook either didn't have one at the time or didn't listen to it, because they literally did exactly that.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#457

Post by bigphishy »

phantom_oracle wrote: post #13

Firstly, it is sad to say that HN is becoming more negative like the rest of the internet. On the front page there are more articles devoted to the ever-evolving shit-show of American-focused news issues. There are far less links to things that I THINK HN is more suited for: like BGP protocol or building your own ham radio. That aside, my theory about whistleblowing is that it is a counter-intuitive exercise that res…

facebook, inc. is not just an amiercan issue. For years they have been nefariously bribing other countries to promote their website.

Take for example internet.org internet takeover attempt in India, or a better example, in Brazil facebook, inc. bribes local telcom providers to provide whatsapp access for free ( users are not charged data usage )

their agenda is clear. abuse and lie through their teeth, making as much money and power as possible.

facebook, inc. is a cancer on our global society.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#458

Post by CountDrewku »

plandis wrote: post #282

If you don’t like Facebook just don’t use Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram. Don’t know why so many people here think parents and adults are not capable of regulating themselves and their kids. It’s honestly condescending to think you know better than your fellow citizens if you’re arguing for government intervention.

Because they're authoritarians. There's a large cultural push by people to use government to bludgeon everyone else with their values.

I'm not sure when it switched but it's seems to be more and more acceptable to force people into acting a certain way. It's really anti-american and anti-progressive imo.

A government controlled social media ripe for propaganda seems far more terrifying to me than what's currently on facebook.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#459

Post by erosenbe0 »

intended wrote: post #170
oarabbus_ wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lets tax the hell out of social media companies to generate local revenue just like sin taxes. Very interesting idea, actually. There is evidence Social Media causes harm to some individuals' mental health (in a widespread manner causing some measurable societal harm), so a proposed tax on all social media companies with revenue going towards mental health programs seems worth exploring. Generally I'm not much in f…

It seems internal data shows that FB and Insta harm 14 years old more than other groups.

That could apply to TV, video games, alcohol culture, porn or any number of things.

It seems to be the near monopoly that is one of the major issues for FB. Lack of competition seems to lead to a house of horrors.

Re: Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs

#460

Post by CountDrewku »

015a wrote: post #311
plandis wrote: post #282

If you don’t like Facebook just don’t use Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram. Don’t know why so many people here think parents and adults are not capable of regulating themselves and their kids. It’s honestly condescending to think you know better than your fellow citizens if you’re arguing for government intervention.

If you don't like Oxycontin, just don't use Oxycontin, Dilaudid, or Fentanyl. Don't know why so many people here think adults are not capable of regulating themselves.

You realize ending the drug war is largely favorable to most people on here right?
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