Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

bbbprograms.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 182 posts

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#61

Post by wmichelin »

pluc wrote: post #46
freedomben wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is remarkable how credulous kids are for these things, especially for some reason Mr. Beast. Good, but painful, lesson for them

Not really. Algorithmic pushes have made it look like if it's popular, it's credible. This credibility is entirely engineered. Same reason why kids die from TikTok challenges.

The way this is written makes it sound like you think there's an algorithm saying "if bad person: then boost".

The credibility is ranking. The ranking is a function of engagement. The engagement is a function of human nature. Things delightful, shocking, or unusual usually strike that chord. Sprinkle capitalism into the mix and people become professionally delightful, shocking, or unusual.

I don't think the ranking algorithms are the problem here.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#62

Post by latexr »

deadbabe wrote: post #25
smcl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to people that wealthy, the money they're using for their "good deeds" are the bare minimum they think they need to get you off their case. So when you say "I don't think someone should be a billionaire, that means something has gone seriously wrong" they can point to how he filmed himself giving a homeless guy a house.

It’s not that difficult to become a billionaire. If you can collect $1 dollar from a billion people, you’ll be a billionaire. If you increase that to $10, you only need 100 million people, roughly a third of the United States. What you need is some kind of platform on which you could collect those dollars. In recent history the internet has become a powerful platform and that is why we have so many more billionaires.…

> If you’re a billionaire, giving all your wealth away is not really going to be appreciated much more than doing some highly visible good deeds that give smaller amounts of wealth away. So why do it?

You could do it for the intrinsic satisfaction of being a decent human and creating a better world. Could probably end or avoid a few wars, too. You’d certainly go into the annals of history is you eradicated poverty in whole areas of the world (which you could easily do, as a billionaire).

> It’s not that difficult to become a billionaire.

Please show us. Then give all your money away and see how that worked out. Don’t knock it until you try it. If you later regret it, that’s OK, shouldn’t be that difficult to become a billionaire again.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#63

Post by speed_spread »

jjice wrote: post #20
highwaylights wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good deeds? Isn’t this the guy that gives out cars to one random person on YouTube while their friends get nothing then films the reactions for megabucks?

I don't know much about him, but he does lots of stuff about bringing water to places in Africa and curing blindness or deafness as well from what I've seen. Not sure of the ratio of what to what.

Whatever he does is for show first and foremost and only. Whatever benefits other people gain in the process is always less than what he will gain from the views. It's very much not a charity although he sells it like one.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#64

Post by dizlexic »

deadbabe wrote: post #25
smcl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to people that wealthy, the money they're using for their "good deeds" are the bare minimum they think they need to get you off their case. So when you say "I don't think someone should be a billionaire, that means something has gone seriously wrong" they can point to how he filmed himself giving a homeless guy a house.

It’s not that difficult to become a billionaire. If you can collect $1 dollar from a billion people, you’ll be a billionaire. If you increase that to $10, you only need 100 million people, roughly a third of the United States. What you need is some kind of platform on which you could collect those dollars. In recent history the internet has become a powerful platform and that is why we have so many more billionaires.…

Tbh i don't see a problem with this take other than people don't like it.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#65

Post by mikepurvis »

_fat_santa wrote: post #59
freedomben wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is remarkable how credulous kids are for these things, especially for some reason Mr. Beast. Good, but painful, lesson for them

> remarkable how credulous kids are for these things Is it though? We're talking about kids whose brains aren't fully developed yet. IMO there's a certain genius in marketing to kids, as they are far more likely to buy wholesale into what you're selling. MrBeast probably does the best job but if you look through kids Youtube there are some really shady folks out there that just make videos designed to suck kids in, a…

To be fair, it's been like this forever.

"not a flying toy"

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#66

Post by gosub100 »

pyaamb wrote: post #9

is there a name for the phenomenon where you get so tired of seeing someones face pop up over and over and over that you start to hate the person and despite their good deeds feel no remorse for them when they end up in trouble?

On a related note, I'm terrified of typing his name into search or watching any of his videos because once yt thinks I'm interested in the "topic" I'll never be able to get rid of his face from my recommended videos or news suggestions. I have his channel blocked but I suspect that if you watch a blocked channel voluntarily they will treat it as an unblock.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#67

Post by dizlexic »

latexr wrote: post #62
deadbabe wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not that difficult to become a billionaire. If you can collect $1 dollar from a billion people, you’ll be a billionaire. If you increase that to $10, you only need 100 million people, roughly a third of the United States. What you need is some kind of platform on which you could collect those dollars. In recent history the internet has become a powerful platform and that is why we have so many more billionaires.…

> If you’re a billionaire, giving all your wealth away is not really going to be appreciated much more than doing some highly visible good deeds that give smaller amounts of wealth away. So why do it? You could do it for the intrinsic satisfaction of being a decent human and creating a better world. Could probably end or avoid a few wars, too. You’d certainly go into the annals of history is you eradicated poverty in…

The idea that giving all your money away makes you a decent human and or it would create a better world is just flawed logic.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#68

Post by guerrilla »

tinco wrote: post #49
freedomben wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is remarkable how credulous kids are for these things, especially for some reason Mr. Beast. Good, but painful, lesson for them

It's not just kids. MrBeast had me convinced he has a perfectly good business model making more money than he gives away without having to pull shady things. And with me plenty of reasonable adults judging from his interactions with public figures.

I think it's awesome that you can admit that kind of thing. You make the world a little better with that.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#69

Post by soco »

wmichelin wrote: post #61
pluc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Algorithmic pushes have made it look like if it's popular, it's credible. This credibility is entirely engineered. Same reason why kids die from TikTok challenges.

The way this is written makes it sound like you think there's an algorithm saying "if bad person: then boost". The credibility is ranking. The ranking is a function of engagement. The engagement is a function of human nature. Things delightful, shocking, or unusual usually strike that chord. Sprinkle capitalism into the mix and people become professionally delightful, shocking, or unusual. I don't think the ranking a…

One could argue though, that the idea of abusing human brains weaknesses like "engagement" is the problem here, and a ranking algorithm is just the implementation du jour of the basic evil concept.

Re: MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data

#70

Post by password54321 »

jjice wrote: post #20
highwaylights wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good deeds? Isn’t this the guy that gives out cars to one random person on YouTube while their friends get nothing then films the reactions for megabucks?

I don't know much about him, but he does lots of stuff about bringing water to places in Africa and curing blindness or deafness as well from what I've seen. Not sure of the ratio of what to what.

This is not how you judge character. Character is what you do when you have nothing to gain or even something to lose. These are merely performances for YouTube videos that help his brand and generate millions of views. Adults at least should be aware of this, because this is how you get scammed.
Post reply on HN