14 ms·

> Facebook is, in general, an unethical company. And this has been known for a long time. If you didn't leave yet you won't leave over this either. You might b

by edanm 6y ago

> Facebook is, in general, an unethical company. And this has been known for a long time. If you didn't leave yet you won't leave over this either. You might be right. But you might be wrong. And the way you're framing it, it's either a) someone agrees with you, and has already left FB (meaning you were right), or b) someone has stayed at FB, therefore ethics is unimportant to them. Your dichotomy leaves no space for the idea that you might be wrong, or that the people who work at FB might not agree with you that it is unethical.

koheripbal 6y ago
Nuance is such a rare commodity online these days. One telling sign of that is that few, if any, media sources that criticized Facebook's decision even bothered to publish the rationale. Think about that. Imagine perceiving yourself as journalist and intentionally not reporting the rationale of a point of view you disagree with. Once I heard Facebook's logic... I actually found it compelling. I think it's good we have social media companies that don't all agree with one another and act as a single entity. That would be scary.
- pdimitar 6y ago
  > Once I heard Facebook's logic... I actually found it compelling. I think it's good we have social media companies that don't all agree with one another and act as a single entity. That would be scary. I don't think any reasonable human being will argue with that. The problem are a lot of other practices of Facebook, like the lack of privacy and all sleazy corporate lingo and lobbyist pressure they utilize to never actually have to be a privacy-first company. And that's not even touching their experiment with free Facebook traffic in India, simply branded as "Internet" which, predictably, led many people to believe that Facebook is the internet. (And surprising no one, this was stopped only after a big wave of negative PR.)
dominotw 6y ago
why would someone work at FB if they think its unethical, given almost all of those people can find another job pretty easily.
- pdimitar 6y ago
  - Job stability. No lay-offs even amidst the Covid-19 crisis. - Good salary. The FAANG companies pay really well. Almost nobody else can offer you north of $200k annual salary. - Prestige.
pdimitar 6y ago
The dichotomy is forced on purpose, and as I said in several other comments in this sub-thread here: Don't virtue signal if you cannot take responsibility for possible consequences (like losing your job). Sure, you might actually disagree with Facebook, your employer. OK. But no point talking about it if you won't do anything.

by edanm 6y ago

koheripbal 6y ago

Nuance is such a rare commodity online these days. One telling sign of that is that few, if any, media sources that criticized Facebook's decision even bothered to publish the rationale. Think about that. Imagine perceiving yourself as journalist and intentionally not reporting the rationale of a point of view you disagree with. Once I heard Facebook's logic... I actually found it compelling. I think it's good we have social media companies that don't all agree with one another and act as a single entity. That would be scary.

pdimitar 6y ago
> Once I heard Facebook's logic... I actually found it compelling. I think it's good we have social media companies that don't all agree with one another and act as a single entity. That would be scary. I don't think any reasonable human being will argue with that. The problem are a lot of other practices of Facebook, like the lack of privacy and all sleazy corporate lingo and lobbyist pressure they utilize to never actually have to be a privacy-first company. And that's not even touching their experiment with free Facebook traffic in India, simply branded as "Internet" which, predictably, led many people to believe that Facebook is the internet. (And surprising no one, this was stopped only after a big wave of negative PR.)

dominotw 6y ago

why would someone work at FB if they think its unethical, given almost all of those people can find another job pretty easily.

pdimitar 6y ago
- Job stability. No lay-offs even amidst the Covid-19 crisis. - Good salary. The FAANG companies pay really well. Almost nobody else can offer you north of $200k annual salary. - Prestige.

pdimitar 6y ago

The dichotomy is forced on purpose, and as I said in several other comments in this sub-thread here: Don't virtue signal if you cannot take responsibility for possible consequences (like losing your job). Sure, you might actually disagree with Facebook, your employer. OK. But no point talking about it if you won't do anything.