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I hear this quite a lot from the people who have worked at "damaging" companies (facebook, reddit, twitter, uber) but I still have to wonder if the personal ben
by tedivm 8y ago
I hear this quite a lot from the people who have worked at "damaging" companies (facebook, reddit, twitter, uber) but I still have to wonder if the personal benefits these platforms bring are really worth the societal cost, and if people are just using the idea that they can "change things from inside" as a justification for taking money to damage the world.
Don't get me wrong, I think that communication is great. It's fantastic that grandchildren can talk to their grandparents without their parents having to get off the couch and help. But is it worth people literally dying[1][2]? Is being able to post funny memes worth giving violent communities a place to thrive[4]?
At the end of the day people have to make their own decisions about things, but I think that tech workers as a whole are way to eager to wash their hands of the matter, take a paycheck, and blame others while ignoring that these companies could not function without them.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-facebook-neverending-crisis/ https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-facebook-neverending...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebook-genocide.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...
[3] https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/facebook-un-myanmar-genocide.php https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/facebook-un-myanmar-geno...
[4] https://www.fastcompany.com/90244757/the-inside-story-of-reddits-struggle-to-deal-with-its-most-toxic-pro-trump-users https://www.fastcompany.com/90244757/the-inside-story-of-red...