#DeleteFacebook trends in response to Cambridge Analytica
We all moved on from MySpace. We can move on from Facebook too." This was a typical message found on Twitter in the wake of accusations over Cambridge Analytica using personal data from 50 million Facebook users to influence the US presidential election in 2016. After reports of Cambridge Analytica using Facebook's user information came to light, people began to urge others to either #DeleteFacebook or #BoycottFacebook in response.
[...] A spokeswoman for Privacy International warned that privacy concerns extend beyond Facebook as "your data is being exploited all the time". A person on the technology subsection of Reddit agreed, saying removing Facebook "doesn't solve the long term problem [because] consent to data use is very weakly protected online right now". And one Twitter user seeking regulation of Facebook said having the ability to delete an account is "a privilege".
This is a campaign we can all get behind, regardless of your position on election interference and influences.
Previously: The Cambridge Analytica Files
Related Stories
The Guardian has an article about a whistleblower from Cambridge Analytica, who claims to have devised a strategy to "weaponize" Facebook profiles, in order to use those profile for targeted advertising to sway the US elections in 2016.
(The Guardian headline titles are often crap). I read a few older articles, presumably by the same author: she had a series of articles in March--May 2017 about Cambridge Analytica being used as a weapon to convince British voters to vote for Brexit in the referendum. It seems that her investigative journalism encouraged this wistleblower to "come out" and be interviewed by her.
Here's one: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others (Churchill), but when does advertising cross the line into psychological warfare against your own population?
Additional coverage at The Register
(Score: 4, Touché) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:06AM (22 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:41AM (21 children)
Not bold, so much as "ironic"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:47AM (20 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:00AM (11 children)
No one can top you! You are the boldest of the bold, trolling where even alcohol dares not venture.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:13AM (9 children)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:33AM (8 children)
It's not an inside joke. You'll probably see ethanol soon enough. It's kind of like this when he posts:
It doesn't even have to be related to the topic at all. I think it's like Turrets syndrome or something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:43AM
A good summary, seems to apply pretty well to this new drug addled troll as well though.
(Score: 5, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:46AM (3 children)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:54AM (2 children)
Don't get your hopes up, rook..
It took eth a long time and a lot of effort in trolling (poorly) and generally being a huge tool before he earned his exalted status as resident scumbag.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:23AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:45AM
Try and rise above, show us what a useful troll can be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:50AM (2 children)
Don't forget the blah blah blah beaners and blah blah blah ghetto brothers blah blah blah.
Eth is an equal opportunity asshole.
And to answer your implied question, coke boy, ethanol-fueled is a fucking asshole. But he's *our* fucking asshole. Capische?
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:53AM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:26AM
I mean seriously, does anyone need more proof that EF is trying to rebrand?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:24AM
He's [soylentnews.org] probably recovering from St Patrick's day celebrations.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:47PM (7 children)
If a man shitposts on a forum, but the forum is dead and gay, does it make a sound?
(Score: 2, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:09PM (6 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:47PM (1 child)
You must be a flex-fuel vehicle.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:01PM
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:52PM (3 children)
So you made me curious. (quick googling) Yes semen can be fermented [madsci.org]. And apparently semen infused beer is a hit. [bustle.com]
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0, Troll) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:23PM (2 children)
It's a common practice among the homosexual community. The bottoms get their asses "filled" and then start an anorexic episode so it stays in their colon. Then, after it's "ripe," the top puts his nose up to the bottom's hole and the bottom "lets it rip." In my honest opinion, it just seems like the homo community's way of not being seen degenerates for liking jenkem.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:25PM (1 child)
Fascinating. You seem to know a tremendous amount about the practices of gay men. How is this the case?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:17PM
They were definitely on the extreme side of "gay hazing," but it was what it was.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Apparition on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:10AM (19 children)
Facebook just has too much traction to lose a substantial number of users. The number of users on Facebook is a magnitude higher than the number of users MySpace ever had. IIRC, MySpace peaked at 76 million users monthly. Facebook has over two billion users, and over a billion use it monthly. The people on Facebook have also been using it years longer on average, some over a decade. Evidence suggests that the under-30 crowd has moved over to Instagram (which... surprise... is owned by Facebook), and Snapchat, but the over-30 crowd is just too entrenched in Facebook to make a mass migration possible. "Everyone I know is on Facebook," "I don't want to lose years of posts even though I never look at anything over a month old anyway," etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:35AM (12 children)
Bah. Be a slave.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Apparition on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:51AM (11 children)
I deleted my Facebook account years ago. There was a price to pay though as I lost almost all contact from out-of-state relatives and friends, including siblings, except on Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. They just can't be bothered to send me an e-mail message or download and install Telegram or Wire to communicate with me that way. Not when "Facebook is so easy" and "everyone else uses it; Apparition is just a paranoid schmo." It's far easier to blast something on Facebook and let everyone see it than send messages to one or two people at a time on various communications protocols. It's something people are very reluctant to move away from.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:07AM (4 children)
"They just can't be bothered to send me an e-mail message or download and install Telegram or Wire to communicate with me that way."
You "lost" people who are apparently too lazy to communicate with you, so you lost very little, if you even lost anything. Frankly I'd say you GAINED time you otherwise might have wasted on these people.
I realize the above may be a painful realization, but people who are worth a damn WILL take the time to email other people.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:30AM (2 children)
Hell, I can't even get my son to talk to me on the phone. Short texts and that's it. I don't have a Facebook account so I don't know if that would have made a difference. Wasn't willing to take the risk.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:39AM
Sounds like your son needs some lessons in being a gentleman. Unless he's between 13-24, then you just gotta deal with it. Seriously, at least 1x a month you should get a 15+ min conversation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:51AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OqwKfgLaeA [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:07AM
My valedictorian cousin can code in Fortran but is incapable of sending or receiving email
He's an instructor at an architecture school. That schools entire website is a whole bushel of pdfs: no HTML anywhere
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:28AM (2 children)
Oh, Reilly? Are you not aware that you cannot "delete" Facebook accounts? You can "de-activate", but all the data you ever entered, all the friends you linked to, all the goddamned facial cum recognitions you have avered to, remain in place? And Steve Bannon is mining your ass, for Milo, and The Donald. Yeah, holier than thou, thou art. But in the end, just another plebe to be processed into Soylent Green.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:46AM
Hop boy, someone's been huffin the paste again. Your supposed to eat the paste and huff the glue/paint ya smarmy varmint
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:36PM
In Canada, you CAN delete your account (that is if you believe Facebook will follow privacy laws)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:29AM
... Easter is just around the corner. You'll have much to talk about this time. Depending on if you are benevolent or not you can lord it over them, how you saw it first -- then you can have a little party where you install Telegram or Wire on every device they brought.
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:53PM
You most likely did not delete it... merely made it inaccessible by other viewers.
Make no mistake, it is all still there on Zuck's servers. Ready to be analyzed once more to wring out that last drop of your (not so up to date anymore) profile.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:07PM
In my email I got this little thingy labelled "CC" that allows me to send emails to multiple people at one time. I'm willing to bet your email can do it too. You should try it sometime.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:55AM
"Facebook just has too much traction to lose a substantial number of users."
Let's give the real reason instead of some phony ad-exec-speak bullshit ( see above ).
Below is the real reason :
Most people are idiots.
They engage in self-destructive behavior and don't think about having to pay the consequences until it is too late.
And that's the real reason Facebook might stick around, the same way tobacco has stuck around, intravenous heroin use has stuck around, drunk driving has
stuck around, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:02AM (2 children)
"Everyone I know is on Facebook ..."
.
.
Then everyone you know has exceedingly poor judgement.
I bet you're all fun at parties ... at least as fun as a root canal, I'm sure.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:15AM (1 child)
"Everyone I know is on Facebook ..."
Everyone who knows me knows somebody not on Facebook.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:40AM
"Everyone who knows me knows somebody not on Facebook."
.
.
Good for you - you actually had the strength of character to think for yourself.
It will serve you well throughout your life.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:21AM
That cuts both ways. People are on Facebook because everyone else is on Facebook. For everyone who leaves Facebook, the marginal utility of Facebook drops for everyone in their network. You quit and it didn't make much difference because you were the only one, but if a quarter of your friends quit then suddenly Facebook isn't a way of reaching almost everyone and so you need to use something else. If it's then not convenient then you may as well quit, which pushes other people away. Communication networks can die very quickly when you reach an inflection point where everyone that leaves triggers at least one other person to quit.
There's also the secondary, but perhaps more important, financial issue. If Facebook is perceived negatively then advertising on Facebook looks risky, so companies are likely to pull their ads from there and stop using it as a mechanism for interacting with customers. If that happens, then there's going to be a lot of pressure on Facebook from investors to monetise and anything that they try in that regard is likely to cause users to leave.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:24PM
Its likely not possible to "delete" facebook in any kind of sense.
Dont worry, once you previously accepted infection (and possibly even if you did not),
the Facebook malware will keep your profile up to date without your help ...
I probably have a facebook profile even though I have never visited facebook and block
their sites in a hosts file. It is their "business model" to spy on everyone at all times.
Remember, their javascript is everywhere ...
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:18AM (20 children)
This could help give Diaspora [diasporafoundation.org] another chance.
It's actually a pretty decent environment that doesn't spy on you and has no advertisements. It can even link (if you want) to the centralized spying apparatus [facebook.com].
The biggest bar to adoption of Diaspora [wikipedia.org] is the painful installation [diasporafoundation.org] of the Diaspora platform [wikipedia.org].
Even Docker [github.com] containers and VMs [google.com] are a pain in the ass to install.
What's worse, the devs don't even seem to care [diasporafoundation.org].
As a side project, I've been looking at trying to tie the pieces together but that's going to take a while. Given how long Diaspora has been around, you'd think this would be a solved problem by now. Sigh.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:34AM (3 children)
The main problem is you're just not going to get Grandma on Diaspora while the pictures of her grandbabies are all on FaceBook.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:34AM
If the adult children have the ability to run an installer with sane defaults and decent, understandable (for non-devs/admins) docs, that could change.
Especially with Grandma, as she doesn't care about much of that online crap *except* photos of the grandbabies.
She certainly wouldn't care (or even notice) if their child set the bookmark to go to a diaspora pod rather than facebook.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:34AM (1 child)
Well get your damned siblings to switch, make it sound diiiire! Men, who am I kidding. After explaining things to a sibling who believes and agrees they still won't switch.
Fucking convenience is a bitch!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:41AM
Goot dam ootokurrect
Meh not men!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:48AM (13 children)
Yeah, I took a quick look at the installation. Crap - there IS a lot of stuff. And, they expect it all to be done in proper sequence, with the proper credentials. It's like setting up a full-fledged server.
Oh, wait. It IS a server!
Thinking. Maybe. Weekend project, maybe? But why? I don't even make use of existing social media. But, then, I've often done challenging shit just for the lulz. I might do this . . .
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:07AM (2 children)
It's a server if you choose to set up your own "pod". If you join somebody else's "pod", it's a website.
That said, it sounds like some packaging work would be in order to make "pod" setup much easier for the average sysadmin.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:47AM (1 child)
There do seem to be some Debian packages. But it probably takes more than that.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:31AM
I investigated those and very few of the packages [debian.org] are in any stable branch.
Beyond that, there's significant configuration required even *after* installation.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:36AM (7 children)
If you have Docker, it's a *little* simpler, but not much.
I started playing with the Bitnami VM, but it's not a clean install on many hypervisors. Even then, there's some significant configuration to do.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:51AM (6 children)
Containers are for pansies. Real admins not only juggle dependencies for multiple projects, they do it on slackware. Without using a package manager.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:55PM (2 children)
Now who's the pansy? Real Admins use bare metal! I mean they etch their own circuits onto the bare metal. None of this factory fab stuff. And input their code directly in binary via positive and negative 5v DC currents.. None of this machine language crap. And have levers to push and pop the registers.
Slackware! Bah! Geez! Kids today! I tell ya! Next thing is you'll be whining for a monitor -- no one needs that when you have an oscilloscope.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Funny) by terryk30 on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:54PM (1 child)
Oscilloscope?!- pshaw! You want a real feel for what's going on, you send it out full-voltage RS-232 with alligator clips on your tongue.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday March 22 2018, @02:22AM
Okay. You got me. I'm definitely a pansy. I have a very sensitive tongue!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:58PM (1 child)
I thought real admins run Linux From Scratch.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:27PM
In theory yes. In practice, none of them have managed to compile all the damn dependencies manually yet...on the upside, the first Real Admin Running Gentoo (TM) has just managed to get his box to boot from the HDD instead of the LiveCD! Of course now half of world needs updated, but eh, that's life.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:53PM
Or a GUI.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:20AM
What Thexalon said.
cf. https://diasporafoundation.org/ [diasporafoundation.org]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:24AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:05PM (1 child)
it's a PITA b/c it's ROR. not wasting my time on that bullshit. docker is lame ass bullshit too.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday March 22 2018, @02:20AM
Yep. Ruby on Rails is a pain in the ass.
Docker is really only optimal for certain solutions. I don't use it very much myself.
I only brought it up because I was looking at various ways to package up Diaspora.
I support your decision not to use Ruby or Docker.
I am a little confused as to why you're so butthurt about it. Did a bunch of Ruby coders and Docker admins gang rape your sister or something?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jimbrooking on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:21AM (4 children)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:39AM (2 children)
Data? WTF Wesley and his half girlfriend saved the day in that episode. Data just blinked a flashlight at the end.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:59AM (1 child)
Half girlfriend? WTF? He didn't even get his knob polished.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:43AM
Lefler's Law #2: You can get farther in your career by teasing sex than by putting out... Whether in Star Fleet or in the movie industry.
Lefler's Law #3: Harvey Weinstein is an asshole.
[N.B. Ensign Robin Lefler, aka "Wesley's half girlfriend," was played by Ashley Judd in this episode.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:48AM
A population? A population???
How dare you besmirch the reputation of the most important lives of the 24th century!!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:27AM (12 children)
I've been saying for many, many years that trusting Facebook is idiotic, but no one wanted to listen to me. I warned that putting your lives up on display for anyone to see is a bad idea. I've seen people lose jobs because of things they posted on Facebook.
I've also been saying for many years that people interested in social media should be using a decentralized service like Diaspora so they can control what they share with the world, or selectively with other people. But no, no one wants to do that because it isn't as easy.
You (Facebook users) are all getting what you deserve.
One final comment: in the article, some loser "tweets" this:
There's nothing forcing all these people to connect to family/friends/business with Facebook instead of other methods, such as good ol' email. And what does this moron think that a "real discussion" is going to accomplish anyway? Facebook is a private company, and can do whatever the fuck they want with your data once you've given it to them. They're not a fucking democracy. If you don't like the way they run their business or handle your data, then stop using them. Does this idiot think that "having a real discussion" about Microsoft's forced updates is going to accomplish anything there? Or that "having a real discussion" about payday loan practices is going to make payday loan lenders act better? Or that "having a real discussion" about Mafia business practices will get them to abandon organized crime and racketeering? Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) is a naive idiot.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:33AM (7 children)
Grishnakh is a privileged elitist who needs to check his privilege!!!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:46AM (6 children)
Or, on the contrary, he might just be your average Boomer non-rabid-right-wing Soylentil. Like most of us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:21AM (4 children)
One of these things is not like the other...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:12AM (3 children)
This is one of those things we should ponder. We have no data. But my self-reported age is coming up upon 2400, actually not there yet. TMB is at least 40, so he says. Several other Soylentils have let slip ages that are in the 50-60 range, like the really old dude, Runaway1953. Wow, is he old! And so stupid! But that is not our present issue. The alt-right is a Millennial rebellion against the Old Right, the Republicanism of Reagan, the Bushes, Goldwater and Nixon, and Eisenhower. They are young, conservative, and stupid. Not necessarily in that order. And, they are a minority in America, and a minority on SoylentNews. But they seems, for some reason, to have an oversized voice? *Freearistarchus!!! Remember, "*Freearistarchus!!!" has the correct lowercase spelling of "aristarchus" and three (3) exclamation points. You, too, could be part of the rebellion!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:30AM (1 child)
Sometimes I do wish your screeds would be useful. Young and stupid they may be, but obi wan you are not.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:21AM
Patience, my young padewan! When 2400 years old you be, begin to understand you might.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:16AM
Funny, my alt-right button is labelled 'AltGr' instead...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:24PM
... conveniently ignoring his many posts advocating authoritarianism and fascism.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:21AM (3 children)
I agree with you on pretty much everything you say here. I don't use facebook, actively block it. However, since that loser you quoted wanted real discussion: there IS another way - treat it like Ma Bell:
1) Break up facebook (into national / regional / state entities as appropriate). Let them federate so you can message from one to the other. (Phones wouldn't have been much use to everyone if you couldn't call from one to the other either.)
2) Open up the system so additional competors can startup and federate with the system.
3) Optionally some nations / states may wish to further regulate or even nationalize their fragement. Up to them and their citizens.
After that, take a good hard look at Google (no brainer). Microsoft (separate cloud / OS/desktop / and advertising so they aren't constantly trying to turn a desktop OS into advertisng platform for Candy Crush); and even apple -- split it into os/hardware and itunes/app store and break down the walled garden. Give consumers the choice to pick which stores they want to shop at.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:42AM (2 children)
You can't treat it like Ma Bell and break it up. That's politically impossible. The trend right now, in many industries, is consolidation, and anti-trust enforcement in the US is completely non-existent, with zero interest in reviving it from either major party. Honestly, it's amazing that we still have 4 major cellular carriers instead of 2 or 3.
For federation, what you're describing is essentially Diaspora.
For other nations, none of them except China have shown any willingness to take such measures.
For your other examples, sure, breaking up MS and Apple and Google sounds great, but again, good luck with that pipe dream. It's about as realistic and likely to happen as my pipe dream of redrawing the state borders to be more sensible. Governments (esp. the US one) just haven't shown any willingness to do any such thing. The most we see is some complaining by the EU followed by some fines.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:49AM (1 child)
Politically impossible right now, but the tide is slowly turning. Eventually it could get there. If facebook is that entrenched, but simultaneously becomes sufficienlty distrusted and unpopular, a break up might become possible. But yeah, we're not even close yet.
Yeah, the diaspora 'model' is good. But it needs critical mass that it doesn't have. And likely can't get.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:04AM
Especially with little or no help from the fucking devs.
Had they focused on ease of installation/administration back in 2012, they could have completely kicked Facebook's ass.
I joined up even before that, but it was a fucking ghost town except for twelve Germans and a few Japanese. None of whom I knew. I invited a bunch of people, some of whom actually signed up, but...crickets...
Too damn bad.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @01:38AM (7 children)
Obama does it. Earth shattering new way of doing things and reaching the people. Insiders basically GAVE him this info.
Trump does it. You evil nazi scum. You should die in a bath of acid.
Facebook is a platform DESIGNED to do this shit. People are shocked? What do they think all those privacy permission flags are for? Why do they think they are twiddled and removed and added in all the time? In the words of the founder of the company, "dumb fucks".
The DNC is grasping at straws to not come to terms they picked a crappy candidate. They want to blame everyone but who convinced everyone to not vote for her. She skipped whole states. Her attendance was pitiful and her opposition was filling stadiums. She was the 'well her I guess' vote. Not "yeah I like her" vote. Trump had people who did that. Hillary had a pitiful showing. She literally called half the country 'deplorable' then tried to walk it back. Trump had 'grab her by the pussy' well no shit he is on the fucking cover of a playboy issue what did you think he was doing there?
My prediction of what will happen. Facebook will eat a basket of crow and say it is their fault. Twiddle the parameters again. Continue to spy on everyone then for 2020 give all the info to the DNC again. Just like they did in 2008 and 2012. Dont think so? It is in the podesta emails how they were talking to top people in facebook.
Again the DNC has failed me. They continue to show me why I should hate someone else yet fail to show why their policies are better. They do not even try. Same ol shit from them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:01AM
Blah, blah, blah. Dude. Wasn't that last year or something? The rest of us just don't care.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:19AM (1 child)
Facebook is in trouble because they failed to stop Trump from getting the info and access they were supposed to reserve for Obama/DNC. A DNC that is looking for a scapegoat. I'm expecting an all out assault on the conduit to Trump, and changes to make it easier to restrict access to only one political side - possibly while claiming to restrict all access.
In other news - if you can't escape the vacuum cleaner, feed it disinformation. Why are people feeding FB the truth?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:45AM
Creating disinformation is usually a lot of extra work. Not many people have a lot of interest in that, and a few malcontents doing so isn't going to change anything.
(Score: 5, Informative) by tizan on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:27AM
Big difference that you want to ignore it seems...Scraping publicly available information is legal (remember the guy who made the #RobMe info page by getting info about vacation on social media and addresses etc...that is legal...you put that information out there) and using that for targeting ads to people who might vote for you rather than wasting moneyt on somebody who never voted for your camp. Target, Kroger etc does it.
Violating terms of use for an app on facebook and using that info to target misinformation (or fake news) is different.
The big issue here (there is an NPR interview today of an ex-FB manager) is that FB knew that Kogan and CA violated conditions of use the app (which basically psycologically profiled the users of the app and grabbed all their friends profiles, for a scientific reasearch it seems...that part was legal it seems but giving it away to CA was the illegal part) that Kogan used and told them to delete the 50 million users info they have gathered and shared illegally.
So it was in the rights of FB to go and check all their servers of Kogan and CA in 2015 under these conditions and make sure to erase everything aquired in violation but they did not and trusted Kogan and CA. They did not stand by their users and these were used in 2016 for targetted psychological profiling or whatever...
Whether that illegal business was useful or not does not matter (Trump or Ted Cruz is immaterial here, they are just clients of CA..clients of criminals are not necessarily criminals but have dubious standings like buyer of gold chain from a fence !) ...facebook failed to do the correct legal thing but left its users info with people who should not have gotten them.
Equating this to scraping public visible information is just incorrect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:35AM
Its different when we do it~~~
(Only because Cambridge Analytica wasn't American or so they tell me).
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:16AM
"... even if you're joking" --Clint Eastwood, "Line Of Fire"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:28AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:21AM (11 children)
Absolutely true. And what will that accomplish?
Very very little if you 'move on' from Facebook to the next centralized, ad-supported clone that Amazon or Google or whoever provides. Because they will simply turn around and do the same thing.
It should be peer to peer, with no central point of failure, no nerve-center to attack and exploit, no one at any point in a position to simply hoover up mass data. It can't rely on advertising for finance either - we've seen where that goes already.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:47AM (2 children)
"...no one at any point in a position to simply hoover up mass data."
-
-
Apparently you are not aware of a US government agency called the NSA.
Even if Facebook ceases to exist, the Hoovering will continue. And believe me, they are hoovering every fucking thing under the sun. If you knew the extent of it, you might not sleep for a while.
The game is over, and the bad guys won.
Seriously, unless you want to live in a cabin off the grid and only use barter for all transactions, not own a motor vehicle, etc., you may as well just try to enjoy your life and forget about the government knowing about you.
Like I said, the game is over and the bad guys won.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:39AM
There is no such thing as perfect security. Security always has to be relative to a threat model. There's things you can do to protect yourself from dragnet surveillance by the NSA or other state actors (e.g. use encryption so they at least have to do some work to read your data), but realistically, you have to accept that you don't have privacy from the NSA if they don't want you to. That doesn't mean you don't have privacy from anyone. Even keeping your life mostly private from Facebook and Google is not completely unreasonable if you try (e.g. don't use their services, use privacy add-ons and/or a hosts file to block access to them from 3rd party websites).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:01AM
Sure, bend over and submit. That'll teach them.
... Or you could instead make rational choices in your own and public interest and tell all your contacts about your reasoning.
Also Hoover was FBI, not NSA. :) (similar style tho, kudos if that was intentional)
(Score: 2, Funny) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:55AM (6 children)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:54PM (5 children)
For anyone else who is sick and tired of idiots who feel the need to post everything in TT tags resulting in monospaced fonts, just add a style to the "Stylus" Firefox addon for SoylentNews.org:
tt {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, "Bitstream Vera Sans", "DejaVu Sans", sans-serif !important;
}
It will make the TT tags look like all the other text.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:11PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:06PM (1 child)
I guess you used the <ecode> tags and therefore think that would not be affected.
However if you look at the page source, you'll see that the generated HTML contains <tt> tags anyway.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:34PM
I've got 26 tags here, I can hold out for as long I need to.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:02PM
But it will break anything that uses the tags for good reasons, like formatted code or ASCII art.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 23 2018, @03:12PM
Anyone who has a problem with reading monospace fonts for long periods most every day is on the wrong website. Or is a heretic who uses proportional fonts in terminals and while coding.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:33AM
- party
That's what black chains are for. They enable censorship resistant applications
The financial community is spooging all over blockchain these days but generally require that middleman. It would be far better were they to use flat files and assembly code
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]