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WhatsApp? A direct messaging service? They have no recommendation engine, no algorithms, no nothing. It's all just infrastructure. How can you blame WhatsApp?

WhatsApp? A direct messaging service? They have no recommendation engine, no algorithms, no nothing. It's all just infrastructure. How can you blame WhatsApp? I mean, it's basically just "SMS, but then free". Blaming WhatsApp for the messages its users send is like blaming ISPs for piracy, right?

sprafa 7y ago
There was massive disinformation campaign through targeted massive whatsapp groups. Everyone in Brasil is on whatsapp so that was a way to do it. I understand your point but some research would help. It’s not so much as blaming ISPs for piracy but blaming hosting services for serving stuff like 8chan ir far right neonazi websites. Yes the networks are different but we still need to consider the consequences and how to mitigate things. It’s either that or chaos.
- diegoholiveira 7y ago
  not true. spread that the Left stole the tax payer is not disinformation.
  - ikll 7y ago
    What about blaming the forest fires on NGOs, like he did earlier this week? That's the kind of thing being spread to his electoral base. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762592
  - vcoelho 7y ago
    Not even HN is a safe place anymore. This is a perfect example of the targeted users in Brazil's last elections: little care for facts, fond of over simplifications and dichotomies.
- skrebbel 7y ago
  So you think WhatsApp should have censored user messages? I mean, that's quite a thing to say, very different from saying YouTube should make their recommendation algorithm more varied/broad. I'm mostly just guessing what you're arguing for, but an American (i.e. foreign) megacorp blocking my message to my aunt because their shitty AI decides that it doesn't fit their head office's politics du jour, that sounds pretty dystopian to me. Is that what you're for? If not that, then what? It's easy to blame people for things gone wrong when you can't tell what they should've done instead. If you can, please enlighten us. (I agree with your points wrt Facebook and YouTube)
  - neves 7y ago
    They could have prevented the deliberate misinformation campaign.
satya71 7y ago
There have been people interested in spread misinformation. But until WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook, which rely on and encourage oversharing, they didn't have the means to do it cheaply. They had do it the old-fashioned way by reaching people via publications or organizations. It used to take decades to build a misinformation campaign, now it takes weeks or months.
neves 7y ago
There's a ton of news articles about WhatsApp responsabilites: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/technology/whatsapp-brazil-presidential-election.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/technology/whatsapp-brazi... Google and you'll find a ton more.

sprafa 7y ago

There was massive disinformation campaign through targeted massive whatsapp groups. Everyone in Brasil is on whatsapp so that was a way to do it. I understand your point but some research would help. It’s not so much as blaming ISPs for piracy but blaming hosting services for serving stuff like 8chan ir far right neonazi websites. Yes the networks are different but we still need to consider the consequences and how to mitigate things. It’s either that or chaos.

diegoholiveira 7y ago
not true. spread that the Left stole the tax payer is not disinformation.
- ikll 7y ago
  What about blaming the forest fires on NGOs, like he did earlier this week? That's the kind of thing being spread to his electoral base. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20762592
- vcoelho 7y ago
  Not even HN is a safe place anymore. This is a perfect example of the targeted users in Brazil's last elections: little care for facts, fond of over simplifications and dichotomies.
skrebbel 7y ago
So you think WhatsApp should have censored user messages? I mean, that's quite a thing to say, very different from saying YouTube should make their recommendation algorithm more varied/broad. I'm mostly just guessing what you're arguing for, but an American (i.e. foreign) megacorp blocking my message to my aunt because their shitty AI decides that it doesn't fit their head office's politics du jour, that sounds pretty dystopian to me. Is that what you're for? If not that, then what? It's easy to blame people for things gone wrong when you can't tell what they should've done instead. If you can, please enlighten us. (I agree with your points wrt Facebook and YouTube)
- neves 7y ago
  They could have prevented the deliberate misinformation campaign.

satya71 7y ago

There have been people interested in spread misinformation. But until WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook, which rely on and encourage oversharing, they didn't have the means to do it cheaply. They had do it the old-fashioned way by reaching people via publications or organizations. It used to take decades to build a misinformation campaign, now it takes weeks or months.

neves 7y ago

There's a ton of news articles about WhatsApp responsabilites: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/technology/whatsapp-brazil-presidential-election.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/technology/whatsapp-brazi... Google and you'll find a ton more.