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The Honeymoon is Over in Silicon Valley

posted by martyb on Wednesday December 06 2017, @05:13PM   
from the thorny-questions dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

The bloom is off the rose:

It was about an hour and a half into a hearing with the Senate Intelligence Committee when Sen. Dianne Feinstein laid into Facebook, Google and Twitter.

"I don't think you get it," she began. "You bear this responsibility. You've created these platforms, and now they are being misused. And you have to be the ones to do something about it. Or we will."

The tech giants were being grilled by Congress over Russian trolls abusing their services to meddle in last year's US election, and the California Democratic lawmaker had had it.

It was just one of very public tongue-lashings the Silicon Valley companies received over the course of three marathon congressional panels last month, held over a two-day span. The hearings were anticlimactic, in part because the three companies only sent their general counsels instead of their famous CEOs -- a point several lawmakers bemoaned during the public questioning.

Is it Google, Twitter, and Facebook who don't get it, or Senators like Dianne Feinstein who don't get it?

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Original Submission

• Re:Are we a society that controls the message? Re:Are we a society that controls the message? (Score: 5, Funny) by DutchUncle on Wednesday December 06 2017, @07:10PM (4 children)

  by DutchUncle (5370) on Wednesday December 06 2017, @07:10PM (#606289)

  >>> I thought we were a society that taught critical thinking

  I just hurt myself falling over laughing.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Funny=2, Touché=1, Total=3
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5

• Re:Are we a society that controls the message? Re:Are we a society that controls the message? (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 06 2017, @08:45PM (1 child)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Wednesday December 06 2017, @08:45PM (#606382) Journal

  Get even. If you're an R, get a gun. If you're a D, get a lawyer. Whichever way you swing, that'll fix him for making you hurt yourself!

  Parent

  • Re:Are we a society that controls the message? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:03AM (#606747)

    As an I, I will invent a better chair.

    Parent

• Re:Are we a society that controls the message? (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday December 06 2017, @09:11PM

  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday December 06 2017, @09:11PM (#606405)

  Well - I can see that perspective. Could I restate: "We were a society that operates on the principles of caveat emptor, and presume that the citizenry will either be capable of evaluating risks for themselves, hiring competent fiduciary agents to evaluate risks for them, or suffer the consequences of their ignorance of the risks."?

  Yeah, it just gets more absurd as you go. They've actually taken the "fiduciary duty" language out of real estate licensing and contracts in Florida recently, I doubt it ever happened even before I was born, but it's clearly not been practiced for decades.

  This is the same society that's bidding up bitcoin at a ~200% gain per year, sustained for the last 7 years... makes me want to quote Morrison:

  But anyway, I don't believe in it
  I think it's a bunch of bullshit, myself
  But I tell you this, man, I tell you this
  I don't know what's gonna happen, man, but I wanna have
  My kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames
  Alright!

  --
  🌻🌻 [google.com]

  Parent

• Re:Are we a society that controls the message? (Score: 1) by messymerry on Wednesday December 06 2017, @10:20PM

  by messymerry (6369) on Wednesday December 06 2017, @10:20PM (#606442)

  Let's see: LOL, LMAO, ROFL, LMFAO,

  Did I miss any?

  --
  Only fools equate a PhD with a Swiss Army Knife...

  Parent