Comment by ars | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ars | Hacker News Reader

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I was genuinely asking, and none of your answers really put that much blame on Facebook, I mean come-on "They have built tools that are ideal for doing things like illegally swaying elections. ("Russia doing stuff".)"

They built tools that can be used this way? Are you serious? This is the big crime? (And the very concept of "illegally swaying elections by telling people things" bothers me - how can it be illegal to say something like that? But that's a different discussion.)

Or: "They have failed to meaningfully control over illegal uses of their platform in any way. (See: The current Rohingya issue)"

This is the job of Facebook? Isn't that a police/government job?

> They allowed for advertising campaigns using their tools which were flat out illegal

Knowingly allowed after being informed, or didn't realize they could be used this way?

> the thing you'll probably say next

I wasn't using rhetoric, but now that you answered me, we can fast forward the discussion.

And yes, that's exactly what I'll say next.

> is that Facebook exerted editorial control over the platform in numerous ways over the time period in which these things happened, both in advertising and in news-feed sorts of ways.

Are you saying that when you bought an ad someone at Facebook reviewed it? Is so than yah, I agree, bad on Facebook.

But why do I have a feeling they did not actually review ads?

Edit:

"a group of Russian agents utilized not only Facebook and Twitter, but also sites including Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube"

i.e. they used everything, yet somehow it's Facebook's fault.

So let's say I build a nuclear plant. I make a lot of money from this nuclear plant, and I'm providing a useful and arguably essential service to my community.

Now, it turns out my nuclear plant is emitting toxic radiation and poisoning the community. Not only that, but the problem was blatantly apparent for years, everyone with the slightest bit of foresight tried to bring it to my attention, and to the attention of the community leaders.

The problem was identified, but I did absolutely nothing to resolve it even after being warned. When the problem shifted from a hypothetical to a forensically provable reality, I tried to cover it up and minimize it, while my gross negligence exerted immeasurable harm to the community.

That is the story of Facebook. When you build things - especially giant pieces of infrastructure which communities rely on - you have a RESPONSIBILITY to do your very best to ensure it does not cause harm. Facebook is not responsible for everything which occurs on their platform, but they sure as hell have a responsibility to at least apply due diligence in reducing the harm it causes.

Facebook did not apply that due diligence. They were negligent at the very least, if not openly malicious in their intent.

Stop making excuses for them.

"Now, it turns out my nuclear plant is emitting toxic radiation and poisoning the community."

wrong analogy.

the plant isn't emitting anything. it is external people, outside of the plant, that the plant is providing power to, power that is then used by these outside forces in order to poison people. the plant is just providing the energy. the people outside the plant are using it to poison others.

Facebook's not providing some fungible supply of something. They are taking in text and using their own methods to choose which to feed back, often being paid for it.

If the nuclear plant lets people send in fuel, it needs to inspect it before use.

> They built tools that can be used this way? Are you serious? This is the big crime?

Yes. It is. Selling hacking tools is illegal. Running a darknet marketplace is illegal. Selling cell-phone jammers is illegal.

All of these are tools that may have various legitimate uses, but it's still illegal to sell them. (And in some cases just to produce them).

> But why do I have a feeling they did not actually review ads?

Because your perceptions are misaligned with reality. Here's a handy link to Facebook explaining that they review ads: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/204798856225114

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