[zaphod12]

This is literally the saddest article I have ever read. I really don't know what's worse - how many people believe what these folks say or that we've built the platform that gave them a voice. Did anyone become an engineer to do this to humanity? Sure they aren't the first, but it's just so damn easy, now.

[erikpukinskis]

I wish more techno-utopians would take note of this. I says so as a techno-utopian myself.

We are building tools that take power away from entrenched interests and give that power to just about anyone. I think that's a good thing on balance. But just how good or bad it is depends heavily on the details. And as an engineer or a designer or a product person of any kind, we get to decide which people we use as the prototypical user that we keep in our head and use in testing to get our services up and running.

If we just skip that, and throw the tools out there and see what happens, we get, among others, people like those in this article.

I think it's very valuable to think about what kind of journalists we do want to enable, and take the time to go see how they are doing. Is my tool working for the kind of people it is supposed to? Are there little things I can do to make sure they are effective?

Too many engineers and designers act like they're just putting a product on the shelves and their decisions aren't political, but every decision is political. It's just a question of whether you take the time to understand the political effects.

[gdulli]

> We are building tools that take power away from entrenched interests and give that power to just about anyone. I think that's a good thing on balance.

Well the "entrenched interests" knew at least that putting a demagogue sexual predator in power would be a bad thing. That's a win in their column off the bat. Perhaps having elites preserve the status quo in Washington, while not ideal, at least leverages their knowledge of history that not all voters have and keeps us from driving off a cliff.

Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton can only work towards their own self-interest within the boundaries of staying accountable to voters and preserving the power (and reputation) of their respective parties. The nihilistic short-term profit-seeking of fake news is not accountable to anyone.

[helpfulanon]

Many of the social media manipulation techniques used to spread disinformation right now, are things I experimented with in the early days of social media that I proudly discussed in public forums widely and were reproduced by others...

I feel as though the tech industry is collectively to blame for the global power grab that is taking place right now. I've devoted a significant amount of my time to trying to correct this, but it is so far beyond the capabilities of any single person or group at this point.. like a wildfire burning out of control and all I can do is sit and stare as it consumes everything around me

[MisterBastahrd]

The thing about bullshit is that the only thing most people need to continue their belief in it is a single article somewhere on the web that supports that assertion. It's the political version of claiming that your religious belief is true because your religious text of choice affirms it.