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Facebook Is a 'Living, Breathing Crime Scene,' Says Former Tech Insider (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: With more than 2 billion users, Facebook's reach now rivals that of Christianity and exceeds that of Islam. However, the network's laser focus on profits and user growth has come at the expense of its users, according to one former Facebook manager who is now speaking out against the social platform. "One of the things that I saw consistently as part of my job was the company just continuously prioritized user growth and making money over protecting users," the ex-manager, Sandy Parakilas, who worked at Facebook for 16 months, starting in 2011, told NBC News. During his tenure at Facebook, Parakilas led third-party advertising, privacy and policy compliance on Facebook's app platform. "Facebook is a living, breathing crime scene for what happened in the 2016 election -- and only they have full access to what happened," said Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google. His work centers on how technology can ethically steer the thoughts and actions of the masses on social media and he's been called "the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience" by The Atlantic magazine.
In response to the comments, Facebook issued a statement saying it is a "vastly different company" from when it was founded. "We are taking many steps to protect and improve people's experience on the platform," the statement said. "In the past year, we've worked to destroy the business model for false news and reduce its spread, stop bad actors from meddling in elections, and bring a new level of transparency to advertising. Last week, we started prioritizing meaningful posts from friends and family in News Feed to help bring people closer together. We have more work to do and we're heads down on getting it done."
In response to the comments, Facebook issued a statement saying it is a "vastly different company" from when it was founded. "We are taking many steps to protect and improve people's experience on the platform," the statement said. "In the past year, we've worked to destroy the business model for false news and reduce its spread, stop bad actors from meddling in elections, and bring a new level of transparency to advertising. Last week, we started prioritizing meaningful posts from friends and family in News Feed to help bring people closer together. We have more work to do and we're heads down on getting it done."
.....continuously prioritized user growth and making money over protecting users
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Yes, back then it was founded by a Sociopath. As we all know, Corporations are Psycopaths. Totally different breed. Vastly different, one might say.
Because some fruitcake from google didn't like the outcome of your countrys election, they are blaming facebook. Not that I like facebook, but get a grip powder puff.
"Facebook is a living, breathing crime scene for what happened in the 2016 election -- and only they have full access to what happened,"
A couple of questions here.
1) What crime, exactly, was committed?
2) Is Sandy Parakilas, the manager in question, more intelligent or better informed than the average person? (The average person with a full-time job not related to understanding political issues.)
3) It this another example of a liberal who still, 18 months later, can't get over the loss of her candidate and has made a shocking pronouncement to get viewer engagement and generally get noticed?
Is this really a problem?
No one worries about issues of propaganda when it was the MSM's version of fake news.
It's been over and done with for 18 months, Trump isn't literally Hitler, and the country is doing pretty well. All things considered, we seem to have chosen the better of two candidates.
Why is it such a big issue?
right. Well, maybe it was for the first few years, until the big investors stepped in and shaked up management.
It may have that many /accounts/, but it does not have that many /users/. It lists 240m in the US, for instance, when there's only 323m people here; I know a lot of people without a facebook account. Almost everyone I know that has a facebook account, has /multiple/ facebook accounts. I also know that facebook creates shadow accounts for people, attempting to track their activities online, despite those people not really having an opt-in facebook "account." I'd really like to see some data on how they come up with these absurd numbers, and proof that they're figuring out who has multiple accounts and only counting them as one "user."
Facebook was defiantly helpful to Trump getting elected - but not how people like this think.
People are fed Fake News all the time, from all sorts of sources. None of that really matters to what they choose though.
What they choose, is what they like, modulo what is acceptable.
The one thing that Facebook (and Twitter) allowed for, was for lots of conservatives to realize there are lots of conservatives. That may not seem like a surprise but when for decades TV has hardly ever shown you any, people start to think there are very few around.
When able to connect with other like minded people of any group, people start to realize there are more of them than they think, which is very empowering. It's what made the gay rights movement so successful, it's what made the recent wave of sexual assault allegations from Hollywood so successful.
Like them, conservatives realized there were others who felt the same way, and it energized them. They were a bit more open in voicing support than they might have been. They voted in greater numbers than they would have before. They started questioning what was being fed to them and started thinking.
Like it or not, the same engine that has helped people on the left is helping people on the right. Is that really such a bad thing, that people are able to find other people who like what they do? I find it hard to call that a crime.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google. His work centers on how technology can ethically steer the thoughts and actions of the masses on social media and he's been called "the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience"
Trying to steer the thoughts of the masses is the very opposite of 'ethical', but what can we expect from google, you must think how we think,
Hollywood should do a remake of 1984, with google as the entity trying to control what you should think.
We are expected to believe this? This Russian conspiracy stuff is getting to Pizzagate levels of wackiness. Democrats need to get a grip.
Plain and simple. Burn it to the ground, including the backups, drag Zuckerberg to The Hague to be tried and executed for crimes against humanity.
I think that a lot of what happened - which is to say, the fake accounts and such - stem less from malfeasance on FB's part than on sheer institutional inability to deal with scaling. They have scaled up hard and fast in the last several years, and despite having excellent technical staff (I worked for a business supplying some), the business (which is to say, Zuckerberg and the rest of the upper management team) has not really understood the scope of what they were trying to do. Keeping the site online and functional has sucked up a surprising number of cycles, and that left a lot fewer cycles for governance or review behavior.
Hopefully, as they get their config management under control, they'll have cycles to deal with various bad actors. But it's going to take a cultural shift both inside FB (mgt team and memes to the devops staff) and users. I'm curious to see if any of the attempts will work or if it'll become MySpace n, where n is a large number.
"Truth is what works" -- William James "It works!!" -- o-dark-AM comment
Who gives a shit what a disgruntled fired employee has to say about the company who dropped her on her ass?
He'll come around after that.
"Facebook is a living, breathing crime scene for what happened in the 2016 election."
A year later and the Left still can't admit that Hillary was a horrible candidate who alienated/ignored/insulted so much of the electorate that her loss was on par with "Dewey Defeats Truman."
Unless you want another four years of Trump, get off the soapbox, admit that your candidate lost, reevaluate your positions, and choose another candidate for 2020.
On the other hand, I'm sure that if Hillary runs again in 2020 she will definitely win this time - lol.
"Facebook issued a statement saying it is a "vastly different company" from when it was founded."
Facebook may have new business units today, but it is not fundamentally different than it was yesteryear. It is still a giant forum with some calendars mixed in." They sell ads. That has been the model since at least when their base grew to over a million users.
Most companies won't put their name behind an ad shown during a show they don't agree with. Facebook is monetizing ad space meant to incite. Anyone with money and an agenda can target Facebook's own users, for any purpose. That's like knowing selling you a ticket to com into the club, and then selling it to the hit man right behind you. They should vet the political ads at least as much as they do the sex ads. It's disingenuous for anyone trying to make the argument that Facebook shouldn't pay attention to their customers.
It's not Facebook's place to tell people what they can't post as people. Its not OK for Facebook to tell or sell to anyone, "these are the people you are targeting for your campaign, here is how you put the knife in.
It is amazing that Facebook has the status it does, when it knowingly and admittedly makes money off or people intentionally inciting others on its platform. This isn't WWE....
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This little piggy went to market...
and Islam is a military order after lex merchantoria.
Catholicism began corporate sole personhood as early as bishoppes in Nevada when America customs & traditions were stronger than United States policies around early 1700's.
Catolicisms earliest arrival in America was evident in earliest accusations of witchcraft or heretics to non-competing Christians in America that were not effected or ever encountered the likes of General warlord 'serpent godking' Cortez.
What is it about cranks and Gish gallops?
Weirdly, this is a refreshing break from the name calling between the Republicans and Liberals.
Facebook IS destroying society!!
IT MUST BE SHUT DOWN immediately !!!
Facebook, you are fake news! Very fake news. I left facebook because it was fake. Every time I here someone from Facebook claim that they are going to fight fake news, I know they are doubling down on their own fake crap.
Damn it all to hell. I ended up coming back because the sport I love is is run mostly via facebook groups these days. I try to keep my involvement to a minimum. I try to recall that every word, every news link, and every notification is propaganda and censorship. I stay logged out as much as possible.
"... *everybody* has a Facebook account, whether they want it or know about [it]."
True, and in my opinion, extremely undesirable.
If you use Firefox, for example, you can use Firefox Facebook Blocker. See "WHY FACEBOOK BLOCKER?" at that link.
And NoScript.
The history and videos in it are what was said. Kind of tough to deny despite your glib crap.
It's the old problem of capitalism: If you don't put profit at the very top of your priorities, above human life, above the end of the world, then you will always lose to somebody else who is willing to go further than you. It selects for psychopaths and psychopathic behavior. Like Zuckerberg. And kills off everything else.
Which is a disadvantage, because on this planet, the most successful lifeforms are social lifeforms. Those with empathy. It's a strong strategical advantage. ... Except to himself.
But unfortunately, only in the long run.
For short explosion-like bursts, it has no chance against a pathogen that just consumes ALL the things, not caring if it will starve itself or drown in its own excrement in a few generations.
Somebody who has no qualms at all, is invincible.
Facebook is totally irrelevant. The entire issue is that Zuckerberg has oodles of bucks and Hillary and the DNC think he should give the money to them. When that happens the heat on Facebook will disappear. I guarantee it.
I honestly think Facebook is in a deepening crisis. Just look around at who is using it, and what they are using it for. They must take responsibility for the Fake News issue, and not just for Trump, but there was also evidence of interference with Brexit and other democratic elections. They must take responsibility for their users postings. Then there is the whole dopamine reward design that is embeded within it, they make it as addictive as they can by design according the the people that designed it for them.
Guardian article on Facebook and brain psychology
I don't recall anything significant happening on Facebook during the 2016 elections as opposed to earlier and later.
Surely that guy is not trying to drum up the bogus claims of Russian intervention in the elections, while not presenting any serious evidence, as a way of exculpating Mrs. Clinton and the Democratic Party from the debacle of losing to a hated stooge like Trump?
> With more than 2 billion users, Facebook's reach now rivals that of Christianity and exceeds that of Islam
That's journalism for you. Why not take cell phone users or TV owners or people with two eyes?
I am drowning in the kingdom of imbeciles.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
> "Facebook is a living, breathing crime scene for what happened in the 2016 election -- and only they have full access to what happened,"
Someone didn't get the election result they wanted. Wanted facebook to abuse its power in future to interfere with elections to ensure that the establishment, and never the free roaming users decide an election result ever again.
I got out of there a loooong time ago. Back when they were college students only.
I'd rather have these ragheadded camel fuckers on Facebook than in the US.
Why not both?
F**K Facebook.
I can guarantee you 2 billion accounts != 2 billion users.