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by slibhb 1 hour ago
The idea that facebook is this "well-documented do-bad-for-the-world organization" that has caused "damage to the world" is a perfect example of scape-goating.

When you step back and try to explain exactly what the company has done that's so bad, there's nothing there.

3 comments

it's not a perfect exampe of scape-goating of the goat is still alive
Off the top of my head, a genocide, albeit by being careless people rather than malicious:

  The chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar stated that Facebook played a "determining role" in the Rohingya genocide.[98] Facebook has been accused of enabling the spread of Islamophobic content which targets the Rohingya people.[99] The United Nations Human Rights Council has called the platform "a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate".[100]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_content_management_co...
You might as well blame this on Tim Berners-Lee. It's just absurd, a clueless way of thinking about moral responsibility.
Before Facebook subsidised the internet in Myanmar via the internet.org initiative, only 1% of the population had internet.

The way Facebook chose to operate in the country made rumour indistinguishable from verified news by its users.

Myanmar's Facebook community was also nearly completely unmonitored by Facebook, who at the time only had two Burmese-speaking employees.

If TBL had managed to fund a huge rollout of the web, and convinced everyone that a random phpbb forum he made was filled with BBC reporters, and the defence was two full-time moderators, you can bet people would blame him if someone organised a literal genocide on that forum.

"We shouldn't give Burma the internet because they might commit a genocide"

Do you hear yourself? Let's not give them electricity and fossil fuels either. Just keep them in dark age conditions so they don't hurt anyone.

> You might as well blame this on Tim Berners-Lee.

You clearly don’t understand this, and maybe you never will (it seems beyond some people), but moral responsibility is assigned here because of the actions facebook and their employees took.

It is not assigned to Tim Berners-Lee because, again this is important, Tim Berners-Lee didn’t spend years spreading targeted genocidal propaganda in a country with a violent history and fragile peace.

Hope that helps. If you still can’t understand it, I can recommend some philosophy books on morality and our responsibilities to our fellow humans.

Based on this garbage-level post I have a strong feeling I've read more moral philosophy than you.
Great counter argument, it really illustrates your thought process - or lack thereof.

It’s really sad that you don’t comprehend basic morality, but unfortunately not much can be done in cases like this.

The will for change must come from within, but if you ever do find yourself feeling empathy or even sympathy for other humans I promise there are lots of resources available to help you learn and understand more about living like a responsible human. All it takes is asking for help.

See Sarah Wynn-Williams' book and congressional testimony for more.
> The idea that facebook is this "well-documented do-bad-for-the-world organization" that has caused "damage to the world" is a perfect example of scape-goating.

True, none of us are innocent.

> When you step back and try to explain exactly what the company has done that's so bad, there's nothing there.

WTF?