5 ms·

If you are too big, you should be broken up

by axiosgunnar 5y ago

khazhoux 5y ago
In what way was the incorrect algorithmic take-down of the MP's Christmas message due to the size of FB?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  If Facebook were forcibly broken into several federated social networks, then ones that kept making "mistakes" like this one would lose all of their users to ones that didn't.
  - khazhoux 5y ago
    If DOJ broke up FB, it would be split along business units. There is no possible outcome in which the core FB product would be split into "several federated social networks," which is a different technology and business altogether.
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      Why not? Isn't that what the Baby Bells were?
      - khazhoux 5y ago
        The phone system was already a large collection of inter-operable regional system. Facebook (the core product) exists as a monolith. They would have to invent, built out, and scale up a completely new technology stack to support federation. That's not on the table. The potential break-up of FB would be along business units (Oculus, Insta, Ad Network, etc).
- throwawayay02 5y ago
  "Oops the algorithm did it" cannot be an excuse for everything. Oh the algorithm did it? Then hold the people who developed/pushed for it responsible then. Oh it's hard to make algorithms that don't make terrible decisions? Maybe then you should remove those algorithms and, say, have an ad review team.
  - khazhoux 5y ago
    "Break up FB" still doesn't directly fix the problem. Breaking up FB would be a punishment but not actually a fix for the problem.
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    False negatives and positives are just a reality that every content moderation system is going to have.
  - yibg 5y ago
    How does bad algorithms relate to size?
  - natechols 5y ago
    Isn't approximately half of the Facebook workforce doing manual content moderation already? I was under the impression that it's an enormous time suck and morale killer that lets a ton of awful stuff through, hence the desire for automated solutions.
    - gherkinnn 5y ago
      In which case there is something fundamentally wrong with the platform. If they’re producing more diarrhoea than they can shovel, maybe they should go easy on the laxatives.
      - Shared404 5y ago
        > In which case there is something fundamentally wrong with the platform. This is my take as well. Not every business/platform has a right to exist, and if something is fatally flawed in this manner, don't let it keep crawling along, kill it.
- john_moscow 5y ago
  Because it's just another example of the decade-long trend where the former middle class is being gradually turned into corporate drones priced out of having a family, house ownership, savings or retirement, and all things that were associated with the good old middle class days are being carefully erased under various noble guises.
charcircuit 5y ago
and then the broken up parts just collaborate with each other and you get the same result with some extra paperwork
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

If you are too big, you should be broken up

khazhoux 5y ago

In what way was the incorrect algorithmic take-down of the MP's Christmas message due to the size of FB?

josephcsible 5y ago
If Facebook were forcibly broken into several federated social networks, then ones that kept making "mistakes" like this one would lose all of their users to ones that didn't.
- khazhoux 5y ago
  If DOJ broke up FB, it would be split along business units. There is no possible outcome in which the core FB product would be split into "several federated social networks," which is a different technology and business altogether.
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    Why not? Isn't that what the Baby Bells were?
    - khazhoux 5y ago
      The phone system was already a large collection of inter-operable regional system. Facebook (the core product) exists as a monolith. They would have to invent, built out, and scale up a completely new technology stack to support federation. That's not on the table. The potential break-up of FB would be along business units (Oculus, Insta, Ad Network, etc).
throwawayay02 5y ago
"Oops the algorithm did it" cannot be an excuse for everything. Oh the algorithm did it? Then hold the people who developed/pushed for it responsible then. Oh it's hard to make algorithms that don't make terrible decisions? Maybe then you should remove those algorithms and, say, have an ad review team.
- khazhoux 5y ago
  "Break up FB" still doesn't directly fix the problem. Breaking up FB would be a punishment but not actually a fix for the problem.
- charcircuit 5y ago
  False negatives and positives are just a reality that every content moderation system is going to have.
- yibg 5y ago
  How does bad algorithms relate to size?
- natechols 5y ago
  Isn't approximately half of the Facebook workforce doing manual content moderation already? I was under the impression that it's an enormous time suck and morale killer that lets a ton of awful stuff through, hence the desire for automated solutions.
  - gherkinnn 5y ago
    In which case there is something fundamentally wrong with the platform. If they’re producing more diarrhoea than they can shovel, maybe they should go easy on the laxatives.
    - Shared404 5y ago
      > In which case there is something fundamentally wrong with the platform. This is my take as well. Not every business/platform has a right to exist, and if something is fatally flawed in this manner, don't let it keep crawling along, kill it.
john_moscow 5y ago
Because it's just another example of the decade-long trend where the former middle class is being gradually turned into corporate drones priced out of having a family, house ownership, savings or retirement, and all things that were associated with the good old middle class days are being carefully erased under various noble guises.

charcircuit 5y ago

and then the broken up parts just collaborate with each other and you get the same result with some extra paperwork

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]