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Comment by erikb | Hacker News Reader

Btw. are you a US citizen? Do you feel personally responsible for what your fellow citizens did there? Have you already packed your stuff and moved to Brazil?

I'm totally aware that asking these questions there is a chance >0 that you are actually not American and/or already living in another country. Let's just agree that you can still follow the intended purpose: People in a huge group don't really feel responsible for what other people on the other end of the world do unethically for the same group.

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Right, since I choose to remain on earth I'm complicit for the actions of everyone on earth. The logic doesn't check out.

The reason I'm asking about FB in particular is because employees didn't sign up to build "blasphemy traps" (as opposed to Palantir employees for example). If I were an employee of FB and realized what my work was being used for - I'd demand my employer stop the behavior or resign.

Edit: It's interesting that every day Uber is being trashed in the media yet here we have Zuck getting innocent people killed just to push his ticker up a fraction of a point. Uber is sexist but Zuck will kill you.

Yes, but that doesn't fit the lib agenda.

I agree. I wonder if people who work or looking to work for companies which make ad/surveillance software and get huge salaries are always different than people who rail against these companies. Or is it just different mode of same people?

I'm willing to bet that there are far more people concerned about increasing corporate surveillance than work at FB.

For a lot of people the salaries are too good to pass on. And its not hard to rationalize what you are doing. This is kinda why a broader education seems very important to me, so that smart people understand exactly what they are contributing to and can take a reasoned stand.

In other cases, it may be just a small part of an otherwise great organization. e.g. Palantir is used by CIA to track bad actors, but it can also be misused by police depts (hypothetically?). So the developers of the software think they are helping protect their citizens but it may be misused.

I assume most people working in these industries think the stuff they're working on is fine (or at least represents a benefit to the world on balance) but they choose not to debate this stuff online.

They probably think (a) there's a risk of embarrassing their employer, as such companies often rely on nuanced arguments to justify their actions; (b) they're unlikely to convince anyone, let alone change the community's collective opinion; and (c) they're likely to garner downvotes and similar expressions of disapproval.

>"Btw. are you a US citizen? Do you feel personally responsible for what your fellow citizens did there?"

What did US citizens do? And where is "there."?

I'd say an awful lot of things in many places, but parent is probably talking about the employees of Facebook in Pakistan.

So every nationality present at FB is guilty? The home country of every H1-B Visa holder is automatically guilty too right?

Or does it only matter where the company is head quartered?

The post you are quoting from is in a discussion thread about FB supporting governments in suppressing their people. FB is a US company.

The post is actually about BAE. I was responding to the question posed:

>">"Btw. are you a US citizen? Do you feel personally responsible for what your fellow citizens did there?

FB may be an American company but they recruit employees from countries around the world via H1B visas. The OPs suggestion that all Americans ares responsible for FB is completely ridiculous.

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