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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

#61

Post by bko »

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.

I wouldn't work at a place that doctrineer. Seems like a red flag to me that the company is overly consumed with politics.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#62

Post by krageon »

fartcannon wrote: post #42
krageon wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

They're making new talent every day. No need to hire the tainted.

If you work in this field (and if you're looking at these candidates, you are at least adjacent to it) then you are the tainted. Not hiring someone else because they had the audacity to also work in that sector is hypocritical.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#63

Post by galangalalgol »

fartcannon wrote: post #38
sgt wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Didn't he leave Facebook years ago shortly after basically being aquired along with oculus?

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#64

Post by krageon »

kylevedder wrote: post #54
fartcannon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're making new talent every day. No need to hire the tainted.

Good luck explaining to your boss that you can't fill the hiring rec because, even though you found qualified candidates, you disliked the fact that they had the audacity to be employed by a tech company you don't like and so they're "tainted". In expectation it's better for the business to lay you off and get someone not ideologically possessed to do hiring, in the same way it's better for the business to not have r…

It is not at all similar to racism, and you should not pretend corporate dehumanising is something to be expected or even logical. These demands are wrong and we are correct to talk about them as such.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#65

Post by moritonal »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #46
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 Would you penalize a mechanical engineer for having Volkswagen on their resume because you read about the VW emissions scandal? Should we refuse to hire anyone who interned for politicians who were later involved in scandals? Of course not, because it’s dumb to punish former engineers for something a previous employer did o…

I think if a candidate said they worked at Volkswagen between 2009 to 2015, followed by a 3-year gap in their resume I'd likely not hire them. Regardless of your position in a company, your existence there does endorse it, and some responsibility (to varying extents obviously) must be acknowledged.

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41053740

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#68

Post by Loughla »

Jcowell wrote: post #50
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I disagree, the PC vs Mac is arguably not positive PR towards the PC industry but was very popular back when it aired. Even now Samsung sometimes poke fun at Apple mistakes. I would argue micro aggressive advertising is negative PR just with lipstick on it.

There's a pretty big difference between comparing the cool Justin Long and nerdy John Hodgman (I would argue those character roles are backwards from what they should be) and a massively cynical scare theater campaign about how a Chinese company is stealing your children's data, negatively impacting their mental health, and causing destruction of property from a company that makes money using your children's data and negatively impacting everyone's mental health.

Re: Facebook paid Republican strategy firm to malign TikTok

#69

Post by coldpie »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #46
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 Would you penalize a mechanical engineer for having Volkswagen on their resume because you read about the VW emissions scandal? Should we refuse to hire anyone who interned for politicians who were later involved in scandals? Of course not, because it’s dumb to punish former engineers for something a previous employer did o…

VW emissions scandal is small potatoes compared to what Facebook is doing to the world. Working for a war machine company (Lockheed, GD, etc) would be a much better analogy, and I think the question is a valid one for employees of those companies, too.
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