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Comment by grzm | Hacker News Reader

And if it's not for profit, it will still need income. Where will that income come from?

Again, I was arguing that the company doesn't need to exist. They showed the public a new use of information technologies and executed their expansion admirably. However, since saturation of the initial (rich/western) target population they have been steadily removing value from the platform that got people excited.

Why should they be assured of revenue if their business is bait and switch?

[edit: typing is hard]

I simply dont know answers to all these questions!!

And quite frankly their top executives have to be worried about that. Not us.

And they obviously are. Facebook has been trying to address these issues, and has made missteps on the way. They wouldn't have issued the statements they have if they weren't concerned about it. I'd be really surprised if they're happy with the current situation and are going to just stop working on it.

Maybe they're not working fast enough or in the way you want them to. But it's helpful to recognize that they're human, too. The issues of free speech and privacy and business and how they inter-relate are not solved issues, and things that we've grappled with as societies for at least a couple hundred years. Coupled with the novelty of online communities, it's not something I expect them to figure out overnight.

It's good that you admit that you don't have answers to these questions. I don't either. Which is why I'm very slow to make statements like Facebook simply kills democracy for their own benefit. It just doesn't recognize the reality of the situation as I understand it.

> And they obviously are.

Don't you think they are bit late in the US? :D

>The issues of free speech and privacy and business and how they inter-relate are not solved issues, and things that we've grappled with as societies for at least a couple hundred years

But this time its much more hurting than before because we know more now and shouldnt let bad things happen because of a company's business decisions.

Obviously this is something you care about. I suggest you take some time, do some research, and spend some serious time thinking of concrete steps Facebook could take, and more importantly what you can do to help make the changes you want to see. At the end of the day, it's people that make changes. Expecting others to make those changes for you is likely to lead to more frustration for you. Be well, and good luck!

In my opinion, you have it backwards. It's not about what anyone can do with/about the platform. The center of the issue is that facebook/google et al are selling convenience to the public who assumes the platforms are to some extent trustable.

I think you might be reading too much into what I've said. When I talk about individual action, I'm talking about that in all realms: on the site, in person with other people, in their communities, what projects they work on, how they choose to engage in politics: How they can actually make the change they want to see. And that includes taking a stance on how to engage with Facebook et al. IMO the solution to "the public who assumes the platforms are to some extent trustable" has to center around peer-to-peer education of self-responsibility, critical thinking, and choice.

While I agree that its an extremely complicated problem to solve, I would be more inclined to believe they are trying to solve it if they took responsibility for (at least some of) them, instead of saying:

"We don’t favor specific kinds of sources — or ideas. Our aim is to deliver the types of stories we’ve gotten feedback that an individual person most wants to see."

Of course they could be working behind closed doors, while PR spins its yarn, in which case I wish them best of luck. It would be interesting to see how they solve it.

I understand the desire to have Facebook and others take a stronger or more explicit statement of intent or purpose. That said, no matter what they say, some are going to call them out as being disingenuous, that it's just PR. At this point I'm just interested in specifics of what they're going to do.

No, we all need to worry because the outcome affects all of us, whether or not we use Facebook.

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