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Facebook Security Chief Said To Leave After Clashes Over Disinformation (theverge.com)
Facebook's chief information security officer, Alex Stamos, will leave the company after internal disagreements over how the social network should deal with its role in spreading disinformation. The New York Times reports (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): Mr. Stamos had been a strong advocate inside the company for investigating and disclosing Russian activity on Facebook, often to the consternation of other top executives, including Sheryl Sandberg, the social network's chief operating officer, according to the current and former employees, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. After his day-to-day responsibilities were reassigned to others in December, Mr. Stamos said he would leave the company. He was persuaded to stay through August to oversee the transition of his duties because executives thought his departure would look bad, the current and former employees said. He has been overseeing the transfer of his security team to Facebook's product and infrastructure divisions. His group, which once had 120 people, now has three, the current and former employees said. Mr. Stamos would be the first high-ranking employee to leave Facebook since controversy erupted over disinformation on its site. His departure is a sign of heightened leadership tensions at the company.
Msmash and Beauhd would follow his lead.
Let's hope that Facebook can weather the storm of seeming growth-spurt induced moral troubles; Russian meddling, data mining, etc.
The moral compass like a magnetic compass has to be checked for angular deviation, due to the near presence of great attractors nearby.
Similarly, the lines of the Earth's magnetism are misalligned with true north; an underlying social/societal moral misallignment may have a similar effect on an organisation.
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
Facebook is a blight on modern society. It offers far little than it gives, even if it were a paid service. The tracking, privacy nightmare aspect of it is too real. It's almost as bad as Google.
I've been in IT for 20 years and I have zero social media accounts, partly due to the privacy aspects, partly due to not needing approval of others to feel good about myself. While Facebook, et al do have a modicum of merit, that merit is far outweighed by the negatives.
Facebook has sold everyone down the river. Republicans, Democrats, you name it, it all goes down to the highest bidder as to who gets the information about the opposition. Meanwhile, they promote stories that get people pissed off and riled up from all sides so that they comment, load pages, check for updates and (surprise!) that enhanced engagement sell more ads and promoted pages/groups/whatever. They don't give a damn about anyone's privacy as long as it can be exchanged for money. This is controlled opposition, and they want us to be the pawns in that game.
Spreading links and news that interests the users and their friends is now seen as "disinformation" by a social media brand?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Nobody is forced to use Facebook. And privacy concerns need to take into consideration that people voluntarily use the service and voluntarily post their illustrated life stories. It's called social media not confidentiality media. Some of the corrective actions Facebook is being asked to provide comes very close to meeting the definition of censorship. Maybe Facebook should pay a visit to China and see what an effective censoring system looks like.
Even if all your complaints are 100% true you still have a choice to walk away. Enough people walk away the more Facebook or any other similar company would be forced to make changes or fold.
It is a sad state of affairs when the general public is incapable of applying self-censorship. Of course this has created demands for a corporations or even better the government to do the censoring for them.
Personally I really don't give a shit one way or another since I have never used Facebook.
"dumb fucks"
-Mark Zuckerberg
of being the sacrificial lamb -
What could possibly go wrong.
highest bidder? you mean it's not wholesale?
Particularly given, that if you were in charge of security that you could easily compartmentlize any moral quams about how the entire system works as "not my job."
Good for him!
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
For the most part it really isnt. And you now see why.
Fuck off, Ivan.
I worry about Alterslash. Years of alt-right postings appear to have had an effect, and some of the less lucid crayonpushers are regularly appearing as definitive posters rather than just as symptoms of Russian and Macedonian troll factories and Koch-funded media. I'm genuinely sad.
In other words, "disinformation" means "anything our rulers don't want us to know about". The average adult should be able to work out what is true and what isn't, if they are presented with BOTH sides of the argument. Unfortunately, for the past 50 years we have only heard one side of the argument, relentlessly, from the controlled media and from our employers... political correctness, Left wing politics, etc.
but our techbros will tell us tat the market will correct this - all hail the unfettered market!
The market is working fine, the problem is we're the product. Facebook and Google compete with each other to sell us down the river, and I'm sure that keeps the pricing competitive.
Sadly, most people are content to be product. Government hasn't fixed this, but people aren't asking them to, and it's not obvious how to fix anything here (it's not like subscription-based social media would fly).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
... from a debilitating case of ethical principles. He should seek treatment at the closest available MBA program.
Facebook stock is in a nosedive. Your techbros appear to be correct again. You should keep paying attention to them.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Stamos is a literal human security canary. If he leaves a company without a very good explanation, it's the smoke signal that the security is terrible. Yahoo was the most recent example of this.
Which is funny, because anyone that hires him risks him tripping that canary rule. Anyone that even possibly might have a skeezy thing going on or risks heavy handed government involvement should be wary of hiring him, but Yahoo and Facebook did, so I guess they weren't that smart...