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I read somewhere that people who invented ships also invented shipwrecks. You work (design, sell, market, manage & ship) on something hoping that a lot of peopl
by HHalvi 8y ago
I read somewhere that people who invented ships also invented shipwrecks. You work (design, sell, market, manage & ship) on something hoping that a lot of people use your baby and sometimes when it takes off you end up knowing that its used for terrible stuff as well. If i created Whatsapp, i would presumably be having a hard time digesting the fact that its now being used in countries like India to spread fake news. I am not someone who has been in this position yet(fortunately), i would presume there would be a sense of guilt and anger whenever this happens. But the question/ thing to ponder on is does the medium(products you created) have the problem or the messenger(folks who use them) ?
- imhoguy 8y agoYou couldn't be knifemaker.
- indogooner 8y agoWell if we berate Whatsapp where do we stop? Whatsapp is just an enabler. If there was only IRC to communicate I am sure fake news could use that channel as well.
- mifreewil 8y agoIs anyone here helping support the Internet that allows pedos to trade images of their sex crimes?
- Rjevski 8y agoIf I created WhatsApp I wouldn’t worry about fake news - those can still happen over other platforms or even plain old SMS. I would be worried that the platform is now used to silently steal the contacts list of millions of users without their informed consent.
- EdgarVerona 8y agoOther questions to ask are: * Would this product exist without the malicious use cases? * Can the company sustain itself without the malicious use case? * Are there ways to mitigate the malicious use cases, and could they be reasonably implemented? * Is the true intent of the business - when you assess it honestly - for it to be used in the "good" scenario, or in the malicious scenario? * Are the malicious scenarios being reinforced/rewarded? * What portion of revenue is directly caused by the malicious use cases? * Is the company marketing or appealing to the malicious use cases? Are they trying to actively warn against/discourage them? * What are the worst case scenarios of the malicious use case? Are they theoretical or real? * What are the best case scenarios of the "golden path" use case? Are they theoretical or real? And we also need to pay attention as we answer the questions above, looking out for if/when we make shallow justifications rather than honestly assessing the answers to the questions above. Look out for situations where our response is hedged by an excuse that's irrelevant to your ethical duties as a software engineer, such as: * "but we can't leave money on the table" * "but people would lose their jobs if we didn't do this" * "but this is what our competitors do" * "but if we didn't do this, someone else would" * "but it also causes [theoretical/unintended side effect that sounds good on paper]" (particularly important to watch out for when that unintended side effect is an oversimplified version of reality) * "but it's not our choice how it is used" (particularly relevant in situations where the business model relies on the malicious use case, and/or there are opportunities to mitigate the harmful use case that are intentionally going unexplored... or situations where your product itself is using techniques such as behavioral conditioning to train a user's choices)