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Mark Zuckerberg Is Dictator Of Facebook Nation; There's No Democracy Online: The Pirate Bay Founder (cnbc.com)
Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is the "dictator" of "the biggest nation in the world," says Peter Sunde, co-founder of the controversial website The Pirate Bay. Sunde, who appeared at The Next Web conference on Friday, added that there is "no democracy" online. From a CNBC report: "People in the tech industry have a lot of responsibilities but they never really discuss these things... Facebook is the biggest nation in the world and we have a dictator, if you look at it from a democracy standpoint, Mark Zuckerberg is a dictator. I did not elect him. He sets the rules," Sunde said. "And really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications."
I'm not obliged to use Facebook. If people want to sell their brains to Mark Zuckerberg, that's their right, but it's hardly a dictatorship in any meaningful use of the word. When we're all forced at gunpoint to use Facebook, then the article may have a point.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I have numerous friends who don't use Facebook. If people aren't talking to you, it's because you're a douchebag. Facebook is just an excuse.
And really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications.
So start your OWN free-to-users social media platform. Figure out how to pay for that mammoth infrastructure and operations overhead while making it perfect for users like you who want nothing to do with any system that involves advertising or user profiles - and you'll have a millions of users instantly. It will be fascinating to see how you solve the problem that people at Google, Microsoft, and other fly-by-night operations haven't been able to solve (specifically, making people like you happy while not having the platform run at a financial loss).
If you actually care about social event invitations, etc., just set up a FB account, tell it to drop notifications to a burner mailbox, and never sign in using your normal every day browser sessions. Need to look at it? Fire up an incognito sessions, socially interact for 10 minutes so you don't miss that party you're whining about, then kill the session an go back to focusing on running that content piracy web site you're trying to keep alive.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I understand that with the exception of major-life events (e.g. weddings), good-old-fashioned written invitations have largely gone the way of the dodo, but most parties I've gone to have been word-of-mouth invitations. Either Sunde is overestimating his sans-Facebook popularity or he needs to reassess the (and possibly revert to the pre-Facebook-era) definition of "friend." Last I checked, it means something other than "acquaintance."
""And really you can't opt out of Facebook."
Yes, you can.
"I'm not on Facebook"
But you just said...
"there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications.""
IMO if you have friend(s) using Facebook and they flat out ignore you or fail to contact you in any number of ways apart from Facebook, maybe they were not true friends to begin with.
a moron with an attitude. that's worse.
Let me know the next time Facebook:
Takes your property without your consent.
Prohibits you from leaving.
Stops you from saying what you wish to say.
Threatens your livelihood or your life.
Throws you in jail without a trial.
Forces you to interact with it against your will.
Executes your entire family for a political view.
Love sees no species.
Try walking into a deli and urinating on the cheese...
Really though, what is this idiot entitlement that tells you that you have any rights on a site someone else is paying for?
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
" No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook."
Sounds like you have a loose definition of the word "friend" or you need new ones. I've refused to use FB since it's inception and never have I had an issue that wasn't solved by easier and less obtrusive means.
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This article brings into focus the traditional justification of states in terms of being something you are subject to because you choose to live within its borders. The failure of the USSR to allow its citizens to leave was therefore one of the reasons why it was illegitimate. By contrast forgoing the benefits of FB out of a sense of a lack of democracy does not pass the rationality test; what am I seriously losing here by using FB? And remember the line about emails; the bad news is that MS reads your emails. The good news is that it reads ALL your emails - and can't actually do anything significant with them.
I beg to differ. We had a vote. Myspace and Google+ lost.
Someone else might win in the next election. But who knows when that will be.
How many divisions does Mr. Zuckerberg command? Any destroyers? Air Forces? Can he actually stop his "citizens" from buying what they want; from his competitor if they choose? There are still real dictators in power on this planet today. Mr. Zuckerberg falls far short of qualifying.
What a bunch of nonsense. You can essentially opt out of everything on Facebook and still take advantage of everything it offers...
Don't want to sign up with your real name? Then don't. Millions of people already use an alias with no consequences.
Don't like the news stories Facebook puts in your news feed? Then don't read them.
Don't like the ads that Facebook puts in front of you? Then don't click on them.
Don't like your personal information being recorded or shared with other people? Then don't post such information on your profile.
Don't want Facebook to know what sort of movies, music, products, etc., you're into? Then don't click "like" on those things.
>"I'm not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications."
I know exactly what you mean. I, too, refuse to participate in Facebook for a variety of very valid reasons. And you are correct, there are repercussions... not from Facebook, but from the others who use it and try to "force" everyone around them to do so also. So far, I have been able to work around most of those repercussions.
Still, it is a shame that one company has so much potential power over the population.... and not just the obvious privacy implications, but (as we are seeing) the political and financial power too. As more and more people pour all their resources, information, advertising, support, and time into this single, proprietary company, that power and its potential for corruption and misuse increases.
I know lots of people who don't use Facebook, and we all get along just fine. However, we are of an age where we still remember how to make phone calls, send invitations via mail (e-mail or USPS), and make plans in advance for what we are going to do.
Are friends really friends if they neglect you in their social life just because you don't use a particular on-line social media platform? I'm truly wondering on this question, because I don't hang around in social circles where this is required. What do those who do think?
So start your OWN free-to-users social media platform. Figure out how to pay for that mammoth infrastructure and operations overhead while making it perfect for users like you who want nothing to do with any system that involves advertising or user profiles - and you'll have a millions of users instantly.
It doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, Facebook is a natural monopoly--the network effects are massive and capture the market, and while the infrastructure cost of entering the market is relatively low, the user acquisition cost when competing against them becomes massive. No effective competitor has emerged in a decade. They are practically a utility and real consideration should be given to at least a certain level of regulation for such reasons as consumer privacy, accountability, and limiting the potential for abuse of market power. The current generation of regulators will not see that, but give it ten or fifteen years.
Real lawyers write in C++
Perhaps you should try to find some real friends then.
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
who runs it? facebook and/or NSA?
Although exaggerated, he has a point.
Dictatorship isn't necessarily literal, I don't think.
The founder of pirate bay taking the moral high ground on internet use. :)
Yeah he says:
"really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook "
Not sure what he thinks the word "can't" means. I'm don't use Facebook either. I still get party invites, often via my wife.
I actually created a Facebook account many years ago which I never use, so I COULD log in and use it if I wanted to.
People tell me that I am the last human on earth who is not signed up. I tell them I have enough things wasting my time without it. Sure, I don't know where my high school classmates are shitting this afternoon, or which starbucks beverage is the favorite amongst my cousin's colleageus, but I am fully certain that I can live without that information. In the outside chance that anything of any value is posted there, plenty of people I know in the real world can tell me about it.
I have a real world to experience, thank you.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
My (far flung) family - not me - uses fb. Typical explanation: "all my frends and cow-orker's are there." They expect me to use fb. I don't. There is a consequence. I'm almost always out of the loop. This represents a significant pressure to use fb. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Between fb's odious terms of service, limited freedom of speech, and their misuse of information about their users, I am convinced I am doing the right thing. But I do suffer for it.
Facebook is a big data corporation aimed at monetizing your personal information.. Of course it's going to be a dictatorship. Since when are corporations not dictatorships? They want to tell people how to think, feel, and believe.
Sunde said. "And really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook"
Or in other words, you can opt out of using Facebook.
No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you
That's funny, I'm not on Facebook, my friends still talk to me, Facebook isn't the only method of communication in the world.
Maybe the reason they don't talk to you and invite you places is 'cos you're a boring drama whore ?
jeweyberg be gone!
This is a societal issue, not a technological issue. It's somewhat odd that such a smart individual would blur the lines. Food for thought.
I've come to the conclusion that millennials don't have any real friends. Maybe that's why they're messed up.
No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
So then you are personally on Facebook, even if you don't log in. And by proxy of your wife sharing all your details, you are also on Facebook.
And unless you diligently block cookies and scripts, you will have a hidden profile anyway. And if you have a business, you must also join to compete.
I agree with TFA, it's quite difficult to opt out.
And I have never created an account personally but friends and family post about me and tag me - what can be done?
I moved to New Hampshire to get away from this kind of BS. There is a migration called the Free State Project which is aimed at attracting people who don't want to live under an authoritarian socialist politically correct hell hole. If your friends stop talking to you because you don't use Facebook they clearly aren't your friends. Since I moved to New Hampshire this past year I've gotten to know a lot of new people and most don't use Facebook or don't use it exclusively. We've got other tools to interact with each other like Baofeng UV-5R Dual Band HAM Radios and are utilizing tools like Telegram instead.
And get this we have *real world meet ups*. 2 or 3 times a week I go and hang out with people at different places. One of them is called Local Burger every Sunday. Another place we frequent is Mi Jalisco for Taco Tuesdays. This is all in my new home town of Keene, NH. But there are similar things going on in big and little cities and towns all over southern New Hampshire. We have BitCoin meetups and other revolutionary chatter.
There is now also a nightly dinner you can check out at the SLAP in Keene (use to be called the KAT or Keene Activist Center). Yea- every night if you want you can hang out with people just like you! It's both fun and gives people like us the opportunity to talk about and plan more radical changes to our political systems. Liberty-oriented activism is alive and well in Keene, NH much to the dislike of many. Unfortunately most people don't like freedom and would rather be babied and refuse to take responsibility for themselves. They'd rather let abusive police and politicians dictate there lives. Not this group though.
Is this guy smoking? I don't think nation means what he thinks it does, not without a bit of artistic interpretation.
Facebook is either going to fly a few thousand WiFi drones or thousands of WiFi satellites to cover the entire planet. Why would they be doing that?
While I think that Pirate Bay guys suck hard (I spent my life creating content that they pirated), I don't think in this particular case he's wrong.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Good, let him be the dictator of Facebook. Democracy isn't without its pitfalls so that is hardly an argument about someone setting the rules for the social site he created and is responsible for. Socrates taught us a pure democracy devolves into anarchy and ultimately results in a dictator anyhow so maybe Mark is just ahead of the curve.
As for being a Facebook me,ber, I've never joined and I've honestly never missed it. Not having a Facebook account has zero impact on me. I still talk to my family and friends and I can still use the Internet just fine!
Anytime I really need to use Faceberg, I just use a sock account. I get the benefits of having a Faceberg account, and (((Zuckerberg))) doesn't get my personal information. Works for me.
Sounds like this guy needs to stop whining and get better friends.
You know.you don't actually HAVE to join or keep using Facebook right?
If they want to be an omnipresent force in out lives, then clearly they need to be regulated to make sure they are behaving properly and respecting people's rights.
People stopped talking to you because you call heads of companies dictators not because you don't use Facebook.
There is total democracy. You vote by your presence or absence. If you don't like the way Facebook or some other social medium works, go somewhere else. Heck, you can create somewhere else - Zuckerberg did it without the resources of a large company. The internet is the freest place available to humanity today.
linquendum tondere
Social Network? Who needs it? I'm an introvert, you insensitive clod!
Besides, with all that free democratic content on TPB where would you find the time?
... to become my friend. I'm looking for friends only amongst those who are clever enough not to be on Facebook, and there are plenty of them.
Any instance where you are using someone elses computer system to do whatever, you have to follow their rules.
When I used to be more involved in the operation of MUDs, it was well known in that community that when you're on someones server, you are pretty much a guest in the operator's house. You follow their rules, or you leave, or get kicked out. Nothing new here, Facebook is the property of Facebook, you are the guest. No one is twisting your arm to participate.
That said, I don't really see why Facebook is mandatory to anyone's life. If it is, there's something wrong with your life, IMHO. I use Facebook under an alias (because I was taught in my younger years, you use an alias online, just how we did things.) The only thing I post is funny crap that comes across my wall, and I only use Facebook to get the occasional funny picture or joke.
deserves what they get. See the article on their attempts to make law to protect themselves in Illinois this weekend.
Mark is not a dictator as he can't time travel. Rhetorically, besides, when did the word dictator become a bad thing? God is a dictator.
I'm an inner city school teacher in Baltimore. I've had kids from 6th to 12th grade, and the overwhelming sentiment in the last two years from the kids is that FB is on its way out. Some of them grudgingly have accounts, but most of them--particularly the younger ones--think of it as outdated and for people who are ancient like me. They're using SnapChat and other newer social forms of communication.
Just another side of the coin. Others have said there's no reason to use FB when older tech (or no tech) will do. My students would tell you that it's time to move on to the next thing.
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." -Isaac Asimov
To tell you the truth I can't think of any negative things that have happened in my life from not being on Facebook. I guess its one of those things where I've never tried it so I don't know what I might be missing.
He's responsible for the largest social network in the world, created from the ground up by him from college to today. Millions - if not billions - use it daily to communicate with friends and family, and they do so willingly.
You, on the other hand, host stolen content, pornography, and God knows what else. You're an international outlaw, constantly evading persecution and responsibility.
In short, nobody values your opinion but pirates, thieves, and hackers.
He is a control freak Suckerberg! He allows graphic violence etc etc of depictions of Christians being slaughtered and animals being tortured! What more do you wanna know about that pos Suckerberg!
there is definitely an element of truth in what his saying, although coming from an online hacker.
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