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"In one recent instance, Zelalem saw an inflammatory Facebook post from a media outlet that falsely blamed members of an ethnic minority group for carrying out

"In one recent instance, Zelalem saw an inflammatory Facebook post from a media outlet that falsely blamed members of an ethnic minority group for carrying out murders and kidnappings that took place on Sept. 27. The post quickly got hundreds of shares and likes." So once again, the problem here isn't Facebook itself at all, but the people using Facebook. It's true that posts which gain traction will get shown to more users, but that's not a good or bad thing in and of itself. That's how any social network functions with any post, be it about the latest ethnic civil war news or cute cat videos. At worst, you could say that Facebook's problem here is their inaction in deciding what sort of local opinions about an ethnic civil war are approved or not. I know the zeitgeist on HN is to hate all things Facebook and Facebook related, but surely I cannot be the only one who thinks that it's unrealistic to expect engineers sitting in Mountain View to know whether or not it was ethnic group A or ethnic group B that conducted a given kidnapping in rural Ethiopia a few weeks ago and then moderate the conversation based on their own views.

Randosaurus 5y ago
Doesn't it seem odd to you that a company with the resources of Facebook are quicker to pull down a post by a practicing medical doctor stating masks aren't 100% effective than they are to pull down a post inciting violence in a country that has been in the middle of such violence for the last 3 years? The problem with opinions like yours isn't that they're wrong, it's that you've lost all perspective.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  Facebook drew up some pretty clear guidelines about what was permitted in terms of posting covid related opinions. That makes it very simple for them to make decisions regarding removing flagged posts about masks or vaccines. Facebook doesn't have a set of approved guidelines on what news Ethiopian media can report about their own domestic conflict. The article doesn't share the content of the post in question, so it's impossible to tell, but they don't say that it violated Facebook's general community guidelines in regards to hatespeech or provoking violence. The article just states an opinion of one person that the local media created a post blaming the wrong group. I don't see how facebook can judge whether that news report is right or wrong. It's just he said/she said.
  - Randosaurus 5y ago
    People often get things backwards. If an entire village is razed to the ground then whatever led up to that is wrong, period. What people get backwards is thinking that if the actions that led up to the razing were themselves not ethically problematic, then the result has no bearing on whether or not we should continue allowing said actions. Then there's the fact that actual FB employee's have gone on record that FB is making things worse in Ethiopia. Or aren't we allowed to take that into account when condemning FB? Discounting this as being simply "he said/she said" is itself ethically dubious.
    - missedthecue 5y ago
      "If an entire village is razed to the ground then whatever led up to that is wrong, period" This is where we fundamentally disagree then. I think perfectly innocent things can contribute to deadly consequences. For instance, Timothy McVeigh rented a moving truck and filled it with fertilizer to blow up Oklahoma City. But I don't think renting moving trucks or buying farming essentials are morally wrong. I also don't think that posting on Facebook or Facebook algorithmically promoting posts that gain traction is wrong. Like I said in my original comment, the worst thing you can say about Facebook here is that they're not picking sides in a messy ethnic conflict happening in a foreign country.
      - Randosaurus 5y ago
        Timothy McVeigh also took a shit once, no reasonable person would interpret my words as claiming taking a shit is immoral. This is a false equivalency.
        missedthecue 5y ago
        Timothy McVeigh defecating obviously did not lead to the bombing. Him renting a box truck and buying farm goods directly led to it. I don't think i'm the one making the false equivalency here.
angelzen 5y ago
Perhaps Silicon Valley should not be in the business of curating rural Ethiopia news?

Randosaurus 5y ago

Doesn't it seem odd to you that a company with the resources of Facebook are quicker to pull down a post by a practicing medical doctor stating masks aren't 100% effective than they are to pull down a post inciting violence in a country that has been in the middle of such violence for the last 3 years? The problem with opinions like yours isn't that they're wrong, it's that you've lost all perspective.

missedthecue 5y ago
Facebook drew up some pretty clear guidelines about what was permitted in terms of posting covid related opinions. That makes it very simple for them to make decisions regarding removing flagged posts about masks or vaccines. Facebook doesn't have a set of approved guidelines on what news Ethiopian media can report about their own domestic conflict. The article doesn't share the content of the post in question, so it's impossible to tell, but they don't say that it violated Facebook's general community guidelines in regards to hatespeech or provoking violence. The article just states an opinion of one person that the local media created a post blaming the wrong group. I don't see how facebook can judge whether that news report is right or wrong. It's just he said/she said.
- Randosaurus 5y ago
  People often get things backwards. If an entire village is razed to the ground then whatever led up to that is wrong, period. What people get backwards is thinking that if the actions that led up to the razing were themselves not ethically problematic, then the result has no bearing on whether or not we should continue allowing said actions. Then there's the fact that actual FB employee's have gone on record that FB is making things worse in Ethiopia. Or aren't we allowed to take that into account when condemning FB? Discounting this as being simply "he said/she said" is itself ethically dubious.
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    "If an entire village is razed to the ground then whatever led up to that is wrong, period" This is where we fundamentally disagree then. I think perfectly innocent things can contribute to deadly consequences. For instance, Timothy McVeigh rented a moving truck and filled it with fertilizer to blow up Oklahoma City. But I don't think renting moving trucks or buying farming essentials are morally wrong. I also don't think that posting on Facebook or Facebook algorithmically promoting posts that gain traction is wrong. Like I said in my original comment, the worst thing you can say about Facebook here is that they're not picking sides in a messy ethnic conflict happening in a foreign country.
    - Randosaurus 5y ago
      Timothy McVeigh also took a shit once, no reasonable person would interpret my words as claiming taking a shit is immoral. This is a false equivalency.
      - missedthecue 5y ago
        Timothy McVeigh defecating obviously did not lead to the bombing. Him renting a box truck and buying farm goods directly led to it. I don't think i'm the one making the false equivalency here.

angelzen 5y ago

Perhaps Silicon Valley should not be in the business of curating rural Ethiopia news?