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I would like to just double check that you have fully read and understood the article as well as its surrounding context. Like, you're fully aware that there's

I would like to just double check that you have fully read and understood the article as well as its surrounding context. Like, you're fully aware that there's a genocide happening against Muslim people in Myanmar[1], right? 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_genocide

Ygg2 6y ago
GP has a point. Will Facebook be just as judicious when it runs against its own interests? Or will it use tools designed to prevent hate speech to censor?
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  Is there a reason to believe they would? I don't read my Facebook timeline anymore, but when I did I remember seeing quite a few anti-Facebook posts.
roenxi 6y ago
Yeah. I wouldn't go anywhere near Myanmar for love or money. And it isn't Facebook's role in the world to be stepping in and trying to stabilise that sort of thing, nor is it their role to take sides in Myanmar elections. I think there is historical precedent in the East India Company for companies actually putting boots on the ground when they want a country stabilised for their economic interests. There are a lot of ways things can go wrong when companies are encouraged to decide who should and shouldn't be in charge.
- redisman 6y ago
  Does it then follow that it is their role to do not do anything? If I was a machete manufacturer and people in Myanmar were chopping minorities up with them, I would stop shipping there.
  - roenxi 6y ago
    I don't know about 'follows', but yes their role is to connect people and enable the growth of communities (with the end goal of having happy users to show ads to). Facebook has no moral obligations for what communities discuss or even then go on to do. They probably do have a legal responsibility to do what the police order them to do. It isn't like supermarkets have a role in only feeding the righteous, or educators to only educate the children of good people or bridge builders to only build bridges that moral people can cross. Corporations are a tool of doing things, not deciding political direction. If Facebook has a moral imperative to intervene in Myanmar, then they have a moral imperative to try and topple a number of governments that are corrupt or leading their people in bad directions. And they have all the usual human failings in that they won't correctly identify which ones. It will end either badly or with Facebook engaging in deep hypocrisy and becoming a corrupt but politically active entity.

Ygg2 6y ago

GP has a point. Will Facebook be just as judicious when it runs against its own interests? Or will it use tools designed to prevent hate speech to censor?

SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Is there a reason to believe they would? I don't read my Facebook timeline anymore, but when I did I remember seeing quite a few anti-Facebook posts.

roenxi 6y ago

Yeah. I wouldn't go anywhere near Myanmar for love or money. And it isn't Facebook's role in the world to be stepping in and trying to stabilise that sort of thing, nor is it their role to take sides in Myanmar elections. I think there is historical precedent in the East India Company for companies actually putting boots on the ground when they want a country stabilised for their economic interests. There are a lot of ways things can go wrong when companies are encouraged to decide who should and shouldn't be in charge.

redisman 6y ago
Does it then follow that it is their role to do not do anything? If I was a machete manufacturer and people in Myanmar were chopping minorities up with them, I would stop shipping there.
- roenxi 6y ago
  I don't know about 'follows', but yes their role is to connect people and enable the growth of communities (with the end goal of having happy users to show ads to). Facebook has no moral obligations for what communities discuss or even then go on to do. They probably do have a legal responsibility to do what the police order them to do. It isn't like supermarkets have a role in only feeding the righteous, or educators to only educate the children of good people or bridge builders to only build bridges that moral people can cross. Corporations are a tool of doing things, not deciding political direction. If Facebook has a moral imperative to intervene in Myanmar, then they have a moral imperative to try and topple a number of governments that are corrupt or leading their people in bad directions. And they have all the usual human failings in that they won't correctly identify which ones. It will end either badly or with Facebook engaging in deep hypocrisy and becoming a corrupt but politically active entity.