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Facebook & zuckerberg are victims of it's own success. Inherent to social networks, is the network effects power law which makes Facebook incredibly power. I

Facebook & zuckerberg are victims of it's own success. Inherent to social networks, is the network effects power law which makes Facebook incredibly power. It's that enormous power which seems to be the root cause which leads people to be so suspicious of it. Great power, requires great responsibility It's interesting to note, that when Obama used the platform to get elected, no one minded. But, when the opposing party does it, everyone judges it negatively.

nsnick 9y ago
You mean when the Russians use the platform to get Donald Trump elected?
RickS 9y ago
> It's that enormous power which seems to be the root cause which leads people to be so suspicious of it I would say it was their behaving suspiciously that causes people to be suspicious of it. > when Obama used the platform to get elected, no one minded. But, when the opposing party does it, everyone judges it negatively At the risk of getting too political, I believe only one of those campaigns has been confirmed by the company to have been operated in part by foreign powers actively attempting to subvert the election. That's a bit beyond "i like the one guy better" as far as reasons for judgement go.
defterGoose 9y ago
The difference was Obama wasn't subverting fact or allowing foreign governments and financial interests to covertly "muddy the waters". I don't think the world understood in 2008 how that could happen, and in deed, Facebook wasn't touching nearly as many lives a decade ago. During the 2016 election, FB reared its head as the ugly pot of social unrest we now know it to be. We learned a lot about "echo chambers", "fake news", "us/them", the "alt-right", etc. And we heard a lot about how these fun little social networks we're tooling around on may not be the panacea we thought. Mix that with the outpouring of emotion following the election of possibly the least likely candidate in history, and you've got the backlash you describe. Oh, and Obama won the popular election. Twice.
cafard 9y ago
I think that Countrywide Mortgage had a great deal more to do with Obama's election in 2008 than Facebook or any other such platform.
taw55 9y ago
> It's interesting to note, that when Obama used the platform to get elected, no one minded. But, when the opposing party does it, everyone judges it negatively. When history sandwiches you between two world leaders with an apparently combined IQ of 2, people might let some questionable things slip.

nsnick 9y ago

You mean when the Russians use the platform to get Donald Trump elected?

RickS 9y ago

> It's that enormous power which seems to be the root cause which leads people to be so suspicious of it I would say it was their behaving suspiciously that causes people to be suspicious of it. > when Obama used the platform to get elected, no one minded. But, when the opposing party does it, everyone judges it negatively At the risk of getting too political, I believe only one of those campaigns has been confirmed by the company to have been operated in part by foreign powers actively attempting to subvert the election. That's a bit beyond "i like the one guy better" as far as reasons for judgement go.

defterGoose 9y ago

The difference was Obama wasn't subverting fact or allowing foreign governments and financial interests to covertly "muddy the waters". I don't think the world understood in 2008 how that could happen, and in deed, Facebook wasn't touching nearly as many lives a decade ago. During the 2016 election, FB reared its head as the ugly pot of social unrest we now know it to be. We learned a lot about "echo chambers", "fake news", "us/them", the "alt-right", etc. And we heard a lot about how these fun little social networks we're tooling around on may not be the panacea we thought. Mix that with the outpouring of emotion following the election of possibly the least likely candidate in history, and you've got the backlash you describe. Oh, and Obama won the popular election. Twice.

cafard 9y ago

I think that Countrywide Mortgage had a great deal more to do with Obama's election in 2008 than Facebook or any other such platform.

taw55 9y ago

> It's interesting to note, that when Obama used the platform to get elected, no one minded. But, when the opposing party does it, everyone judges it negatively. When history sandwiches you between two world leaders with an apparently combined IQ of 2, people might let some questionable things slip.