2 ms·

Honest question: would we be having this argument if 2016 had gone the other way in the US, and if we had not seen the other illiberal trends we've seen in demo

Honest question: would we be having this argument if 2016 had gone the other way in the US, and if we had not seen the other illiberal trends we've seen in democracies in Europe? I'm getting the sense that a lot of the peal clutching here has to do with this idea that Facebook is "responsible" in some way for Trump, Brexit, AfD, extremists winning elections in Austria, Italy, Hungary etc. But which way does causation flow here? Was this inevitable, and it just manifests on the Facebook platform in the form of lots of memes or do people really think that, without Facebook, Trump and Brexit never would have happened?

closeparen 8y ago
If Facebook is regulated now, those politicians will be the ones writing the regulations.
pubutil 8y ago
I won’t pretend to speak for everyone, but my personal problems with Facebook are their wont to perform social experiments on unknowing users, hoarding of user data, especially from sites that aren’t Facebook; and overreach in multiple markets (to name just a few things). I’m also bothered by their “free internet” programs in developing countries. I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but the way they only have a few sites that users can access rubs me the wrong way. I’m aware that Facebook is one of a handful of companies involved in that project, but Zuckerberg founded the project. Whatever sway Facebook could have had on the 2016 election is at least tertiary to everything else, IMO. Especially since (from what I’ve read) it seems that that event was an example of outside actors using/gaming Facebook to push their agenda. That could have happened anywhere, including offline. I take just as much issue with most other social networks, but Facebook happens to be the largest and most egregious offender of them all. I also think that Mark Zuckerberg seems to be incredibly disingenuous.

closeparen 8y ago

If Facebook is regulated now, those politicians will be the ones writing the regulations.

pubutil 8y ago

I won’t pretend to speak for everyone, but my personal problems with Facebook are their wont to perform social experiments on unknowing users, hoarding of user data, especially from sites that aren’t Facebook; and overreach in multiple markets (to name just a few things). I’m also bothered by their “free internet” programs in developing countries. I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but the way they only have a few sites that users can access rubs me the wrong way. I’m aware that Facebook is one of a handful of companies involved in that project, but Zuckerberg founded the project. Whatever sway Facebook could have had on the 2016 election is at least tertiary to everything else, IMO. Especially since (from what I’ve read) it seems that that event was an example of outside actors using/gaming Facebook to push their agenda. That could have happened anywhere, including offline. I take just as much issue with most other social networks, but Facebook happens to be the largest and most egregious offender of them all. I also think that Mark Zuckerberg seems to be incredibly disingenuous.