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It's not clear to me that Facebook is acting unethically. They provide a communications platform, and communications platforms are always used unethically. Thi
by throwaway09223 5y ago
It's not clear to me that Facebook is acting unethically. They provide a communications platform, and communications platforms are always used unethically.
This is true of the telephone. Of the newspaper. Of text messages. Of telegram services. Of video chat. Of magazines. Of public meeting areas like park benches.
Every single one of these platforms have been used for human trafficking and other illegal behavior. It's ubiquitous, always has been, and always will be because the communications on a system are reflective of the humans using them.
The subjective question is whether Facebook puts enough effort into policing their platforms, and it's the exact same question posed (for example) to a city regarding the policing of solicitation in public parks. There will always be people unhappy with the level of enforcement in a common platform. It's reasonable to ask for more enforcement, but I cannot see a compelling argument that Facebook's communications platform is somehow less ethical than any other.
- blunte 5y agoThe mistrust in Facebook's self-policing comes from the times they have buried internal studies which show that they're doing a poor job, or from intentionally making it difficult for outsiders to illustrate that they're doing a bad job. It's one thing to say, "this is hard and we're not good at it yet". It's another to hide evidence and pretend to be doing a good job, especially when you're talking about human lives.
- throwaway09223 5y agoAgain, Facebook seems to be generally operating within the status quo. It is typical for companies to hide embarrassing internal studies. Are you able to point out a large telecommunications or tech company which hasn't shown similar behavior?
- blunte 5y agoAnd again, just because other companies do bad things doesn't mean it's ok. Also, most of these other companies exist because they provide a real, needed service to people. Facebook creates the need (artificial) for the services they provide.
- throwaway09223 5y agoWell, that simply isn't true. Facebook's communications platform is as real as any other communications platform. I think you're confusing carte-blanche acceptance (which I haven't suggested) with considering the relative weight of your suggested ethical issue. Have you called for people to quit working for ATT? For Google? Are there any telecom or software companies you don't think people should refuse to work for?
- genofon 5y agoFB is a communication platform and a publisher, depending on what is more convenient for them. They police speech but then in more important things is clear that they are doing a very bad job. You can argue that any company at the end try to maximize profits but FB has a long history to be misleading an manipulating to avoid do what they should do while keep milking their cash cow.