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Facebook wields absolute power over the platform, true. They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. Everyone on Facebook is on there voluntaril

by pitaj 9y ago

Facebook wields absolute power over the platform, true. They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. Everyone on Facebook is on there voluntarily. People don't get to choose where they are born. Don't get me wrong. I don't use Facebook, and I don't think anyone else should either. I would love if there were a (decentralized) replacement for it, and I think Facebook is on the way out.

vanderZwan 9y ago
> They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. I think you should elaborate on your definition of coercion here and what does and does not lie within its boundaries.
- pitaj 9y ago
  Coercion is the initialization of the use of force or fraud against another person or their property. Facebook exercising their power over their own platform is not coercion. People do not own their Facebook pages.
  - throwaway2048 9y ago
    this is untrue in both a moral and legal sense. People absolutely own content they post to facebook.
    - txru 9y ago
      No, it has shades of truth and untruth. Absolutism isn't a great look on you. You own the content, in the meaning of the sense that you can prevent the public at large from seeing it. You don't own the content, in that you never have physical control over deletion, whether or not facebook employees see the data, or whether or not facebook licenses the use of your data for profitability purposes. All of those strongly detract from any strong concept of ownership.
wiz21c 9y ago
> They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. It's muuuuuuuuch worse than that. They actually hire people (20000 if I trust my local media) to actually "clean" facebook. So it means that facebook defines what is socially acceptable and what is not. And, contrary to the law, the definition is not written, not shared. I'd prefer physical coercion (normally attributed to police) any time.
- pitaj 9y ago
  Coercion is the initialization of the use of force or fraud against another person or their property. Facebook exercising their power over their own platform is not coercion. People do not own their Facebook pages.
- offbytwo 9y ago
  Facebook does not force you to use their service.
jsbto 9y ago
There is diaspora*, which aims to be a decentralized replacement. Though replacing the social inertia is much harder than creating the tech. https://diasporafoundation.org/ https://diasporafoundation.org/
- chillingeffect 9y ago
  I've been getting into it over the last few weeks. I found a quiet server and invited my preferred friends. It's quiet and respectful and reminds me of the BBS days.
- confounded 9y ago
  Would the downvoters explain their gripe with this comment? Am I missing something?
eloff 9y ago
Once you've built an app or business on Facebook's platform, what are you choices really? You're at their mercy. You can say, well they chose to use Facebook's platform, they can leave if they don't like the rules. But I can also leave my country if I don't like the rules (incidentally, I did this!) Maybe coercion isn't the right word, but the power is absolute. Greater inside their own platform than the power of the state, because you have no legal recourse with Facebook's exercise of power. At least with the governments in the West you can write your congressman, lobby, sue them, etc.
- throwaway2048 9y ago
  coercion is absolutely the right word, don't let its definition get twisted.

by pitaj 9y ago

vanderZwan 9y ago

> They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. I think you should elaborate on your definition of coercion here and what does and does not lie within its boundaries.

pitaj 9y ago
Coercion is the initialization of the use of force or fraud against another person or their property. Facebook exercising their power over their own platform is not coercion. People do not own their Facebook pages.
- throwaway2048 9y ago
  this is untrue in both a moral and legal sense. People absolutely own content they post to facebook.
  - txru 9y ago
    No, it has shades of truth and untruth. Absolutism isn't a great look on you. You own the content, in the meaning of the sense that you can prevent the public at large from seeing it. You don't own the content, in that you never have physical control over deletion, whether or not facebook employees see the data, or whether or not facebook licenses the use of your data for profitability purposes. All of those strongly detract from any strong concept of ownership.

wiz21c 9y ago

> They do not coerce anyone by exercising that power, though. It's muuuuuuuuch worse than that. They actually hire people (20000 if I trust my local media) to actually "clean" facebook. So it means that facebook defines what is socially acceptable and what is not. And, contrary to the law, the definition is not written, not shared. I'd prefer physical coercion (normally attributed to police) any time.

pitaj 9y ago
Coercion is the initialization of the use of force or fraud against another person or their property. Facebook exercising their power over their own platform is not coercion. People do not own their Facebook pages.
offbytwo 9y ago
Facebook does not force you to use their service.

jsbto 9y ago

There is diaspora*, which aims to be a decentralized replacement. Though replacing the social inertia is much harder than creating the tech. https://diasporafoundation.org/ https://diasporafoundation.org/

chillingeffect 9y ago
I've been getting into it over the last few weeks. I found a quiet server and invited my preferred friends. It's quiet and respectful and reminds me of the BBS days.
confounded 9y ago
Would the downvoters explain their gripe with this comment? Am I missing something?

eloff 9y ago

Once you've built an app or business on Facebook's platform, what are you choices really? You're at their mercy. You can say, well they chose to use Facebook's platform, they can leave if they don't like the rules. But I can also leave my country if I don't like the rules (incidentally, I did this!) Maybe coercion isn't the right word, but the power is absolute. Greater inside their own platform than the power of the state, because you have no legal recourse with Facebook's exercise of power. At least with the governments in the West you can write your congressman, lobby, sue them, etc.

throwaway2048 9y ago
coercion is absolutely the right word, don't let its definition get twisted.