Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#61

Post by freeflight » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:47 PM UTC

659087 wrote: post #49

freeflight wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. It's far more convenient and efficient for him to stay out of that system and just play it from the outside.

> Exactly, an elected position would come with even more publicity, actual responsibilities and the possibility of being held accountable for his actions. Having full control of the platform a large portion of the population depends on for news and communication could help him evade much of that.

Why put yourself in a position where you have to evade it in the first place? There'd be no advantages for him in it, only disadvantages.

The only reason he would want to go for public office, at least I could think of, is to influence government policies. But he already has an army of experienced and well-paid people doing exactly that.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#62

Post by Zelphyr » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:49 PM UTC

rndmize wrote: post #18

foodislove wrote: post #4

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "money is everything" attitude and that everything has a price.

Come now, Zuckerberg doesn't even need public office. He's more powerful where he is now than he could ever be in an elected position. Just based on the information in the article, he could offer technical embeds to campaigns he likes and ignore the ones he doesn't, or provide them with a much smaller degree of assistance, with no one the wiser. I don't think there's a single person in the world with as much potentia…

I agree but the allure of that kind of power is intoxicating for people like him. Not to mention the deals he could set up for himself and Facebook when he goes back to the private sector.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#63

Post by 0xbear » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:49 PM UTC

According to “Let Trump Be Trump” by Corey Lewandowsky, _all_ major ad companies, not just FB, offered help in placing and targeting the ads. This is a standard practice if you spend at least tens of millions of dollars with them. Hillary’s campaign didn’t take their offer because they believed until the very end the election would be a slam dunk.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#64

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:51 PM UTC

H99189 wrote: post #52

wfo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But their owners and managers who actually tell them what to do and have all of the power over the networks are nearly all Republicans (or right-wing democrats). They don't do it for free, they do it out of self-interest. For example, Sinclair broadcast group that owns a huge amount of local broadcasting in every media market in the US. Their national corporate governance literally requires all subsidiaries run blata…

I've read the "journalists lean left, owners lean right" mantra many, many of times over the last 10 years on various boards, yet the overwhelming majority of network news and shows, cable news and entertainment shows dump on Republicans/Conservatism and fawn over Democrats/Liberalism. IMO, it's a very misleading idea meant to deceive people into thinking their sources of news or entertainment are somehow more honest…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#65

Post by cgmg » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:51 PM UTC

matte_black wrote: post #34

foodislove wrote: post #4

This is why I don't want Mark Zuckerberg in any public office. I really think the guy has no moral compass because all his actions point to a very sinister "money is everything" attitude and that everything has a price.

Personally I don’t want him in office because of his liberal politics, not his Silicon Valley ethics.

Which aspects of his politics are you referring to?

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#66

Post by thebokehwokeh2 » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:54 PM UTC

H99189 wrote: post #52

wfo wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But their owners and managers who actually tell them what to do and have all of the power over the networks are nearly all Republicans (or right-wing democrats). They don't do it for free, they do it out of self-interest. For example, Sinclair broadcast group that owns a huge amount of local broadcasting in every media market in the US. Their national corporate governance literally requires all subsidiaries run blata…

I've read the "journalists lean left, owners lean right" mantra many, many of times over the last 10 years on various boards, yet the overwhelming majority of network news and shows, cable news and entertainment shows dump on Republicans/Conservatism and fawn over Democrats/Liberalism. IMO, it's a very misleading idea meant to deceive people into thinking their sources of news or entertainment are somehow more honest…

Hate to break it to you, but reality tends to have a liberal bias.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#67

Post by dqpb » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:57 PM UTC

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #3

It's a pretty bad look. When I think of social tech I think of the possibility to magnify the voice/reach of individuals. When I read an article like this all I see is that magnification going solely to big spenders. How do I form an independent political ideology if I'm only being told the part of the story that heavily monied interests want me to hear? Would I ever experience an anti-monied-interest being put on a…

Here is a thought experiment:

Imagine a social platform with a nice API, no moderators, no global filters, and you're looking at a thread focused on a particular political issue.

Now imagine there is a chatbot that can enumerate every position a person could possibly take about this issue and generates a couple hundred thousand slightly unique strings of words that express each of these positions, and floods the thread with these "comments".

Lets say the volume of content produced by the chatbot is so high that if a user were to randomly browse comments in this thread, there is no statistically significant bias in favor of a particular position.

Now the question is how can you enable the users to find "truth", or learn anything, or even meaningfully communicate with other users within this context?

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#68

Post by hkon » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:57 PM UTC

qubex wrote: post #39

Facebook’s Community Standards are a total joke... no later than two days ago I came across a cartoon of a guy on public transport taking an ’upskirt’ without the woman’s consent only to start puking when he saw on his phone that she was menstruate (I kid you not). I of course reported it instantly. I promptly got an anodyne notification that ”I had done the right thing” reporting it it but that it was found ”not to…

Why did this anger you so? Just a cartoon I'm thinking. edit: this is getting ridiculous at this point. downvotes for starting a conversation. come on.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#69

Post by nlperguiy » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:59 PM UTC

fortythirteen wrote: post #2

Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.

There's a good book called Primetime Propaganda, showing how exactly ABC, CBS and NBC were doing that, and are still doing it.

Re: Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Propaganda

#70

Post by lr4444lr » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 7:59 PM UTC

fortythirteen wrote: post #2

Imagine if ABC/CBS/NBC actively went to political parties and sold them on buying their way into the scripts of the top prime-time sitcoms to shape the opinion of viewers. That's essentially what Facebook is doing out in the open.

Private web services are fundamentally different from the FCC regulated limited band of the RF broadcast spectrum. This was a major point of contention in the Net Neutrality debate, but it certainly has no application to Facebook.