Comment by drb91 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by drb91 | Hacker News Reader

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> you cant deny it does a lot of good for a lot of people

I'm not really interested in having a value judgment discussion of Facebook here, but it really annoys me when people assume this. At least have an open mind enough where you can imagine someone thinking different from you. It really doesn't take that much imagination or empathy to see why some people view it as, yes, completely and totally a net-negative on the world, regardless of whether you specifically believe it or not; I think the good that facebook does do is both incidental and replaceable.

Besides, c'mon, how can you be "nasty" to a corporation? People publicly complaining is probably the only way this change happened in the first place.

> some people view it as, yes, completely and totally a net-negative on the world [...] I think the good that facebook does do is both incidental and replaceable.

OP wasn’t claiming that Facebook is a net positive for the world, just that it indisputably provides a valuable service for at least some people[0] and improving the privacy features is only a good thing. It’s unproductive and misguided to attack Facebook for this.

[0] https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/ex-flds-new-chapt...

Exactly. I am personally all for replacing it with open source decentralized options, I am even working to further that cause, but do you actually think that'll happen anytime soon? Network effects are not so easily replaceable...

One can never be nasty enough against an organization, especially one that deceives its supporters so frequently.

"... both incidental and replaceable."

Sometimes it seems like there is an underlying, unspoken presumption that no progress, no innovation making use of the internet could occur unless funding comes from exploiting data gathered from its use.

Sadly it has reached the point where some of that "progress" and "innovation" is simply in the mechanism for gathering more user data, unbeknownst to users. The beast is feeding itself. I have no interest in funding that, either directly or indirectly.

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