5 ms·

I hope Facebook dies a quick but agonizing death.

ankit219 6y ago
Wont really solve anything. Social connection and interaction is a fundamental human need and if FB goes away some other company would be fulfilling that and we probably would be going through a similar cycle again. Edit: Assuming there are no laws or regulations in place from the learnings we have got from FB. If there are effective laws in place, then FB stays or go does not matter much.
- myspy 6y ago
  But could be a better company. Something like the Path app did years ago.
  - ankit219 6y ago
    I sure hope we get a better company. Though I dont know if good people want to start such companies and if the VCs want to fund them (dont see a way for a big social network without VC money. I may be wrong)
    - wussboy 6y ago
      I think the money is the problem. Before Facebook was profitable, it was fun to use and I enjoyed using it. But any competitor to Facebook must be more profitable than Facebook, and if you can’t do that while remaining ethical, then you will lose out. This is why I’m such a fan of regulation because it can level this particular playing field.
- snarf21 6y ago
  True, that is why we need legislation like GDPR to not repeat our mistakes.
  - Nextgrid 6y ago
    We need the GDPR to actually be enforced, which is not currently the case. Before someone posts the seemingly mandatory link to https://enforcementtracker.com https://enforcementtracker.com, let me preempt your arguments: * Google has so far been fined peanuts compared to the revenue they make breaching the GDPR * Facebook has been fined pennies based on a technicality rather than their actual privacy violations * Facebook does not respect the GDPR with regards to providing data subjects a full copy of their data, and does so in total impunity by the looks of it: https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ * Currently neither Facebook nor Google have been fined regarding the omnipresence of their analytics/advertising SDKs on the web and in mobile apps despite them not only collecting more data than necessary but not asking for user consent
    - r00fus 6y ago
      I agree to both the GDPR and better enforcement. Before enforcement in the US we need the legislation.
    - biztos 6y ago
      To your last point, it might be more effective to fine the people using those SDK’s. Facebook and Google just shrug off relatively large fines and are rewarded for it by the stock market. Small app companies and independent devs probably could not. Drive a few dozen out of business and you might just make the SDK toxic enough nobody will use it. Or, I’m practicing wishful thinking.
- wussboy 6y ago
  Hard disagree. This is in fact how society advances. We do something and make mistakes. We learn from those mistakes and try again. Our current society is a system of rules and conventions built on thousands of years of humans trying things, making mistakes, learning and trying again. Just look how food safety laws have changed over the last 200 years or how labor laws have evolved. The same will happen with Internet companies like Facebook if we are diligent and work to make the system of society better (instead of the current fad of thinking we could ditch society altogether and not end up in disaster).
  - ankit219 6y ago
    Then the solution is not wishing for FB to die but to ask for new laws and regulations thus defining the boundary where any FB like company can operate in the future. In my reply I decoupled the two. I thought not wanting anything from regulation side but just wishing for FB to be gone is what the comment intended. That does not do anything since the new company would still do the same things and may do it even more aggressively. Regulation and laws put these powers of any company in check.
    - daniellarusso 6y ago
      We want new laws and regulations that make the current ‘form’ of Facebook and co. die.
    - wussboy 6y ago
      That’s fair enough, and sorry I missed that.
- samatman 6y ago
  Thinking that the need for social media must be met by a single monolithic corporation is a failure of imagination. It's like being on AOL, blissfully aware of the wider Internet, and thinking the need for email must be met by a single monolithic corporation. The cycle you're referring to isn't inevitable, we can do better and we must. I happen to think Mastodon can be improved on architecturally, but if Twitter were to close up shop tomorrow, I reckon more people would move there than, say, Parler.

Wont really solve anything. Social connection and interaction is a fundamental human need and if FB goes away some other company would be fulfilling that and we probably would be going through a similar cycle again. Edit: Assuming there are no laws or regulations in place from the learnings we have got from FB. If there are effective laws in place, then FB stays or go does not matter much.

myspy 6y ago
But could be a better company. Something like the Path app did years ago.
- ankit219 6y ago
  I sure hope we get a better company. Though I dont know if good people want to start such companies and if the VCs want to fund them (dont see a way for a big social network without VC money. I may be wrong)
  - wussboy 6y ago
    I think the money is the problem. Before Facebook was profitable, it was fun to use and I enjoyed using it. But any competitor to Facebook must be more profitable than Facebook, and if you can’t do that while remaining ethical, then you will lose out. This is why I’m such a fan of regulation because it can level this particular playing field.
snarf21 6y ago
True, that is why we need legislation like GDPR to not repeat our mistakes.
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  We need the GDPR to actually be enforced, which is not currently the case. Before someone posts the seemingly mandatory link to https://enforcementtracker.com https://enforcementtracker.com, let me preempt your arguments: * Google has so far been fined peanuts compared to the revenue they make breaching the GDPR * Facebook has been fined pennies based on a technicality rather than their actual privacy violations * Facebook does not respect the GDPR with regards to providing data subjects a full copy of their data, and does so in total impunity by the looks of it: https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ https://ruben.verborgh.org/facebook/ * Currently neither Facebook nor Google have been fined regarding the omnipresence of their analytics/advertising SDKs on the web and in mobile apps despite them not only collecting more data than necessary but not asking for user consent
  - r00fus 6y ago
    I agree to both the GDPR and better enforcement. Before enforcement in the US we need the legislation.
  - biztos 6y ago
    To your last point, it might be more effective to fine the people using those SDK’s. Facebook and Google just shrug off relatively large fines and are rewarded for it by the stock market. Small app companies and independent devs probably could not. Drive a few dozen out of business and you might just make the SDK toxic enough nobody will use it. Or, I’m practicing wishful thinking.
wussboy 6y ago
Hard disagree. This is in fact how society advances. We do something and make mistakes. We learn from those mistakes and try again. Our current society is a system of rules and conventions built on thousands of years of humans trying things, making mistakes, learning and trying again. Just look how food safety laws have changed over the last 200 years or how labor laws have evolved. The same will happen with Internet companies like Facebook if we are diligent and work to make the system of society better (instead of the current fad of thinking we could ditch society altogether and not end up in disaster).
- ankit219 6y ago
  Then the solution is not wishing for FB to die but to ask for new laws and regulations thus defining the boundary where any FB like company can operate in the future. In my reply I decoupled the two. I thought not wanting anything from regulation side but just wishing for FB to be gone is what the comment intended. That does not do anything since the new company would still do the same things and may do it even more aggressively. Regulation and laws put these powers of any company in check.
  - daniellarusso 6y ago
    We want new laws and regulations that make the current ‘form’ of Facebook and co. die.
  - wussboy 6y ago
    That’s fair enough, and sorry I missed that.
samatman 6y ago
Thinking that the need for social media must be met by a single monolithic corporation is a failure of imagination. It's like being on AOL, blissfully aware of the wider Internet, and thinking the need for email must be met by a single monolithic corporation. The cycle you're referring to isn't inevitable, we can do better and we must. I happen to think Mastodon can be improved on architecturally, but if Twitter were to close up shop tomorrow, I reckon more people would move there than, say, Parler.