Apparently, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced a massive outage today – just days after a huge whistleblower report confirmed what we already knew – Facebook is sleazy, destructive, negligent, and as close to actual evil as an inanimate entity can be.
Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. That is the central finding of a Wall Street Journal series, based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research reports, online employee discussions and drafts of presentations to senior management.
Time and again, the documents show, Facebook’s researchers have identified the platform’s ill effects. Time and again, despite congressional hearings, its own pledges and numerous media exposés, the company didn’t fix them. The documents offer perhaps the clearest picture thus far of how broadly Facebook’s problems are known inside the company, up to the chief executive himself.
It really sucks when all your friends and family use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, since getting entire countries to switch messaging applications simply isn’t going to get you anywhere.
It is interesting to have better insight into some companies. However nuance and actual truth is lost in these discussions.
I wish there was a better and more open discourse, however, to simplify:
* The companies can never go beyond “corp speak”. Any open discussion with pros and cons of trade-offs will be taken as “admission of guilt”. So basically they will keep their mouth shut, or parrot useless propaganda
* The press, expecting ratings will avoid nuance. They might say “Facebook found such and such harm”, but would rarely say “and they found a mitigation by doing X”. It will be a non-story, and will not be published. Just like “negative research” is rarely published in academia, it is unlikely to see it here. “We had these 9 concerning points, but we found that at 14 other issues, Facebook actually had a good stand”. It will not sell.
* The employees who has most access to the nuance will never be able to speak. They have most likely done the research, analysis, and prepared alternate choices. But speaking for a current or even a past employee is a non-starter (except for extreme cases where employment ended in bad terms. Then we are back to square 1).
Any suggestions?
“It really sucks when all your friends and family use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, since getting entire countries to switch messaging applications simply isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
How did you stay in touch with friends and family before WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger? Social media have created a need for something that did not exist.
By going to them but now I live 2500km away so that is a bit hard.
> It really sucks when all your friends and family use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
I’ve found the best solution is to not have any friends 😉
As for the family, I got them to install Signal, but there is always SMS as a fallback.
“Facebook is sleazy, destructive, negligent, and as close to actual evil as an inanimate entity can be.”
Yes, and now that WSJ and 60 Minutes said it comes the happy governmental banhammer.
I don’t get why people assume a government is a better censor than a private company.
At least the private company cannot claim sovereign immunity and escape punishment.
It is possible to vote the government out and thereby change the censors. The private company that provides a service is insulated from voters and if the government supports the company in exchange for the company providing censorship service, the company stands to make money even if much of the potential user base is unhappy.
Yes, in theory it is a good point… however…
Today, I can disable my Facebook account and ask them to stop tracking me. To be sure, I can install firewall rules.
Which of the two political parties can I vote for to do something similar for the government? And when they have this in their election platform, how long would it take to actually take effect?
Fortunately this is happening in the UK, not here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-powers-for-police-to-hack-your-pc-1225802.html
The outage was designed to give a taste of a world with no Facebook. Just a theory. A bit of a coincidence otherwise.
Facebook: I’m baaack! Didja miss me?
ponk: meh.