WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#611

Post by ianamartin » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

ensignavenger wrote: post #593

wyldfire wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose Trump hatred plays a role. But superpowers interfering with elections is a big deal, it's the kind of thing that could lead to another extinction level event. Any of the mechanisms leveraged in this propaganda campaign should receive extra scrutiny.

"superpowers interfering with elections is a big deal" Which has been going on since... forever? (at least, since elections and superpowers have been a thing, anyway)

It's only a big deal when it's not us or our allies doing it.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by sizzle » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

mysterypie wrote: post #89

walrus01 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rest 95% either don't know, or could care less even if they know. I've told my non-techie fam and friends about data harvesting, privacy, and how facebook tracks everything, only to be ignored or outright ridiculed ("Oh you techies are so paranoid"). pretty much exactly my experience with Canadian and American family. People didn't give one iota of a fuck when the Snowden revelations came out because they just…

> People didn't give one iota of a fuck when the Snowden revelations came out because they just assumed that it was the case already. It's more complex than that. The tracking and surveillance are not visible to the average person. Point your camera at someone in a coffee shop or bar and take their picture. They'll be coming over to ask you why you took their photo. The fact that the coffee shop or bar is brimming wi…

Excellent point. I'd also like to add, people are afraid and feel powerless and tend to focus on more productive things such as raising their kids.

Normal people aren't obsessing over tech like the common hn reader.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by chasing » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #608

chasing wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't.

Highly questionable money transfers from the Russians to the Clinton Foundation, but I'm sure there's no foul play :) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-uranium-ru... "The Hill also reported receiving documents and eyewitness testimony “indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the tim…

That page has a giant red FALSE on it and a point-by-point breakdown of why the story is bullshit.

No, the Clintons did not sell Uranium to Russia.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by VVyattPrentice » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

throwaway5752 wrote: post #520

greecejunkie wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I must have missed the Mueller indictments relating to collusion or coordination of any kind (it's coming any day now, though, right?). I've seen a number of process charges. I've seen a handful of Russians charged with, essentially, social media ads and trolling and setting up a Michael Moore rally in NYC. And, of course, Manafort, who is dirty AF (right up there with the Podestas, the Clintons and the rest),…

You created an account just to tell me that? @dang, sir, I think you have a problem. Don't let HN be used as a platform to spread disinformation. Emerdata is starting up as speak.

I didn't believe it at first. There's no running from this war.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by hycaria » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

zentiggr wrote: post #504

hycaria wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But Facebook will treat someone with bipolar or serious impulse control issues just the same way... Assuming some level of accuracy, an algorithm could predict when someone is having a manic episode, susceptible. Its predatory and dangerous. And what would they do out of that ? People with poor mental health don't need facebook to be triggered, it seems even less harmful because it's through an interface and not a d…

Anecdotal but definitely illustrative: a close friend of my mother had serious trouble managing her bipolar states, she would start manic and it got out of control within hours or sometimes minutes. Bye bye meds, and on more than one occasion, she would spend thousands of dollars in days, vacation scams, grocery shopping for things unneeded that sat and spoiled, you name it. She made comprehensive arrangements with f…

Is state guardianship not possible then ? Or arrangement with the bank ? No credit card, get cash at the bank counter when needed... I really have a hard time seeing this as an unsolvable problem, let alone scary or heart breaking.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#616

Post by chasing » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #559

throwaway613834 wrote: post #374

I wonder if the Americans freaking out about this whole foreign influence thing have any idea what their nation has done to other countries' (both democracies and otherwise). What's happened here is a complete joke in comparison, and everyone is losing their head. Do people have any idea what the modern world has been like?

It's mostly a way of targeting Trump. No one bats an eyelid when Clintons have Russian ties.

Because Trump's ties are legitimately scary while Clinton's are trumped up bullshit.

Which you should know, Donald Trump, Jr. You were in some of the meetings.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by mike10010100 » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 6:00 PM UTC

wybiral wrote: post #533

noetic_techy wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its purely Trump hatred driving this. Because Obama doing this in 2012 = Genius. Trump doing this in 2016 = Scandal. I'm a libertarian and yes I threw my vote away on Gary Johnson, but looking at the media landscape, there truly is a backlash against conservatives going on in social media, and this is just part of that. Donald Trump won because fake news... no wait, it was Russia and their abysmal social media spendi…

I think it's more that all of these things are gaining traction and people are trying to relate it to Trump. There's been a growing discussion about data collection and shady advertising practices for a long time. It's not about Trump. And this isn't the first time I've seen distrust raised towards Facebook or Google about this stuff. The Russian propaganda was mostly divisive messages surrounding things like race /…

> (people tried to accuse Obama of all kinds of stuff, and don't even get started on what people were accusing the Clinton campaign of). It shouldn't distract from the fact that it's scandalous and sketchy and we should keep an eye on these issues.

Accusations are one thing. We have actual documented evidence here, and that's what so startling.

In addition, I'd argue that if Trump wasn't such an incompetent, bumbling, authoritarian moron, the backlash absolutely wouldn't have been as bad.

But the fact of the matter is that this is absolutely something new. Unless you're trying to suggest that both Obama and Clinton engaged companies who had a history of generating fake news, emotionally charged propaganda, and outright honeypotting political opponents with hookers and blackmail.

That's what makes this different. I'm absolutely flabberghasted that this point isn't being driven harder, instead defaulting to "well both sides...".

It's false equivalency, pure and simple.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#618

Post by paulddraper » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #395

nopriorarrests wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But your opponent is correct. Manafort indictment is about laundering money he made in Ukraine before 2014. It really has nothing to do with him being a campaign manager in 2016. Moreover, I bet this activities as a campaign manager were examined under microscope, and nothing shady was found, otherwise he would be indicted. Lets stay rational and stick to facts.

> Lets stay rational and stick to facts. Sure, let's do that: 1) George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. 2) Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. 3) Paul Manafort was indicted on conspiracy, money laundering, false statements, and failure to disclose foreign assets, not just money laundering. 4) Rick Gates similar to Manafort, but has taken a plea deal. 5) 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russia…

Perjury != collusion or treason.

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

#619

Post by specialist » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

will4274 wrote: post #590

specialist wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you assume public political discourse should cost money? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

The fairness doctrine enforces two sides of view, aligning nicely with two parties. But, most issues don't have two sides. Some have three, four, or five and some have just one side. The fairness doctrine is gone because it wasn't good, not because of some conspiracy around money and speech.

How did you make the leap from pay-to-play to conspiracies?

Re: WhatsApp co-founder tells everyone to delete Facebook

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Post by mike10010100 » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

alwayseasy wrote: post #591

noetic_techy wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its purely Trump hatred driving this. Because Obama doing this in 2012 = Genius. Trump doing this in 2016 = Scandal. I'm a libertarian and yes I threw my vote away on Gary Johnson, but looking at the media landscape, there truly is a backlash against conservatives going on in social media, and this is just part of that. Donald Trump won because fake news... no wait, it was Russia and their abysmal social media spendi…

Obama didn't use an entire fake news infrastructure coupled with hackers leaking the opposition's emails... Your equivalency is misguided or misleading, you can't compare Obama 2012 to Trump 2016. You present the topics as separate when they are all linked. The damage comes from data + fake news + Russian APT.

This. There's a lot of false equivalence going on in this thread.