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There is no excuse for this. This was a morally bankrupt and exceedingly awful thing to do. I was absolutely furious when this happened and made it a life missi

There is no excuse for this. This was a morally bankrupt and exceedingly awful thing to do. I was absolutely furious when this happened and made it a life mission to help other people know this was going on. 99% of people don't know this event happened, still. I don't trust Facebook one bit. I assume they do this kind of illegal 'experiment' all the time now, and the only change is they stopped bragging about it. So gross, this whole thing, it makes me mad there were no real repercussions from this. Worse yet is how many people actually support this unethical and sick experiment from Facebook. Lots of people don't see anything wrong with it, even technical people like those on HN, and that is just as disturbing to me as Facebook actually carrying it out. --- Edit: I'm now blocked from posting on HN (for a while I guess?), so here is my response to a poster below. @antiterra says, > That you’d prefer they either stayed ignorant or unconcerned to what changes they made and their effect is exceedingly awful and morally bankrupt. I have no idea how you reached the conclusion that I would prefer either of those things. There is a massive chasm between 'perform illegal, unethical mass psychological experiments' and 'I don't care about stuff'. --- @chatmasta says I'm not blocked, but I am. I cannot reply to you either. It says I'm posting too fast and won't let me submit any content.

chatmasta 5y ago
> I assume they do this kind of illegal 'experiment' all the time now Oh 100% they do. But hey at least they've contributed Presto back to the community! > Lots of people don't see anything wrong with it Surely that's not true. In 2021, Facebook is largely hated by people on all sides of all political spectrums. [Remember when people thought Zuck would run for president? Lol!] (Edit: > I'm now blocked from posting on HN You're not blocked; you just can't reply to someone within a minute of their post past a certain nesting level. (Edit edit: Oh guess you're right! That's annoying. :/ But I am enjoying our conversation via edit nonetheless!) )
antiterra 5y ago
That you’d prefer they either stayed ignorant or unconcerned to what changes they made and their effect is of questionable morality. Edit re your edit response: It is absurd to me that deciding whether to show more or less ‘I got a new car’ posts based on the resulting behavior is some kind of sinister event. Even the author of this article struggles to articulate why this isn’t just standard A/B testing.

chatmasta 5y ago

> I assume they do this kind of illegal 'experiment' all the time now Oh 100% they do. But hey at least they've contributed Presto back to the community! > Lots of people don't see anything wrong with it Surely that's not true. In 2021, Facebook is largely hated by people on all sides of all political spectrums. [Remember when people thought Zuck would run for president? Lol!] (Edit: > I'm now blocked from posting on HN You're not blocked; you just can't reply to someone within a minute of their post past a certain nesting level. (Edit edit: Oh guess you're right! That's annoying. :/ But I am enjoying our conversation via edit nonetheless!) )

antiterra 5y ago

That you’d prefer they either stayed ignorant or unconcerned to what changes they made and their effect is of questionable morality. Edit re your edit response: It is absurd to me that deciding whether to show more or less ‘I got a new car’ posts based on the resulting behavior is some kind of sinister event. Even the author of this article struggles to articulate why this isn’t just standard A/B testing.