Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook Admits Hiring PR Firm To Smear Google

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yeah-we-meant-to-do-that dept.

hasanabbas1987 writes "The clash of the Internet Giants reached new heights after a spokesman for Facebook confirmed to Daily Beast that Facebook paid a high level Public Relation firm to publish and spread stories against Google throughout the media to study various methods to examine the allegations that Google has been violating user privacy."

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why? by Saint+Fnordius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess Buzz and Google's other efforts really did scare them.

  2. Which is why education is important by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is why the dumbing-down of our educational system is so tragic.

    The fact is that we have access to more information than any people in history, but if one is unable to think CRITICALLY about the data, it's almost worse than useless.

    Why, do you suppose, Fox News is telling us about Obama's latest gaffe?
    Why, do you suppose, a failed presidential candidate makes a movie telling us how the world is going to hell?

    Certainly, the basic information could be true or false; more likely it's a careful presentation of the factual or a blend of fact and supposition in order to encourage a specific response in the reader.

    Without a good education we're unable to participate as useful citizens, and are merely a remotely-controlled 'demographic' that marches according to what the media tells us to. Sadly, this programming has always been with us and always will. The educational system used to program us to be good, unquestioningly patriotic citizens, but at least squeezed in some knowledge in the meanwhile. Now it programs our kids into reflexive iconoclasts, that they are 'good' regardless of what they do, and that their self-esteem is far more important than any silly facts, particularly if those facts came from dead white men.

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Which is why education is important by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The fact is that we have access to more information than any people in history, but if one is unable to think CRITICALLY about the data, it's almost worse than useless.

      Having ACCESS to the data, and having the data itself in front of you are two completely different things. Do you think that I'm going to spend my day looking for hard facts about Google or any other company I don't really care about. I have things to do!!

      This is all about the media industry and its _actual_ role as a hired out propaganda apparatus. Wealthy interests pay newspapers, radio and TV station to publish the stories those interests wish to see published. That's how the media operates and that's how it will _always_ operate.

      All that claptrap about "the free press" and "guardians of democracy" is a pile of cow dung, as anyone who lived through the last 10 years can easily tell. Read your history books and you will see that it has always been thus. The media consists almost entirely of hired shills, whose job it is to influence your opinion in exchange for money. This story is simply and admission by one of their clients.

      Todays Fun Fact: Most PR employees are in fact former journalists(or journalism majors).

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    2. Re:Which is why education is important by Sprouticus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Perfect example of this is the spanish-American War which was fermented (but not initiated) almost by newspapers in New York. Pulitzer and Hearst should be curses.

  3. Re:Wow by flimflammer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm clearly missing something here. Every single one of those posts merely suggests that the phones will appeal to someone. That looks nothing like what you were ranting on about.

    Clearly, your anti-Microsoft sentiment is showing in spades. You feel the need to exaggerate your claims and the need to post AC drives the point home. You can't even stand behind your own message.

  4. Re:Wow by the_B0fh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That would be me. Fuck Microsoft and its shitty OutFuckingLook. I've wasted 3 weeks of my life because of that piece of shit.

    1) Can't *COPY* a piece of mail, have to move it. So I have to export the mailbox in order not to screw with the user's mailbox.
    2) exporting a 2Gig file out of outlook can take 1 whole business day.
    3) Hell, syncing a 2G mailbox from sexchange can take 1 whole business day.
    4) why is there no tools to convert from OST to PST?!
    5) And how do you export to PST? File -> Open -> Import -> Export to a file. WHAT THE FUCK?
    6) Indexing sucks more ass. I have a quad core 16Gig system. 1% cpu utilization. But NOOOOO, MICROFUCK MAKES IT SO THAT I HAVE TO WAIT ONE WHOLE FUCKING DAY FOR THE INDEXING TO RUN IN THE BACKGROUND WITH NO WAY TO INCREASE PRIORITY.
    7) OK, now all done. WHERE THE FUCK IS THE SEARCH MENU? OH, IT'S PLAYING FUCKING HIDE AND SEEK. You have to click on the search box, then the fucking search menu pops up (so that I can find out what is the current indexing status)
    8) Really, Microsoft, is it SO FUCKING HARD TO MAKE IT AN OPTION TO MAKE SEARCH ALL SUBFOLDERS THE DEFAULT? I'M IN THERE *SEARCHING* FOR SHIT. Why WOULD I NOT WANT TO SEARCH ALL THE FUCKING SUB FOLDERS?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU MORONS!

    So, how many business days did I just waste, just so that I can search a mailbox for some terms and create a new mailbox with those emails?

    On unix, with maildir, I can run swish-e, and be done in a couple of hours. The HATE AND LOATHING I have for OutFuckingLook just cannot be understated.