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Comment by bepotts | Hacker News Reader

This is exactly it.

Look, Facebook needs to get its act together. They are in need for serious reform. However, mainstream media knows that Facebook is under a ton of pressure and these types of stories generate a ton of clicks. I know people want Facebook to die, but Facebook's usage has remained pretty much the same during all these negative stories. The public is not hating Facebook as much as people want to believe.

But the media has its narrative and it'll continue this "Facebook is evil" beat. The same with Clinton's email server, and more recently, the same with that immigrant caravan coming up from Central America.

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> The public is not hating Facebook as much as people want to believe.

> But the media has its narrative and it'll continue this "Facebook is evil" beat. The same with Clinton's email server, and more recently, the same with that immigrant caravan coming up from Central America.

The media doesn't just report on the public's current taste; its also an agent for advising the public to change their taste. To throw light on darkness. The article is not just some slander on Facebook, it goes into detail about exactly how much Facebook execs knew about the problem and the (extreme, IMO) political steps they've taken to protect their interests.

About second half 2016, iirc, Facebook changed the News Feed, so instead of showing first Pages content in your feed, they were showing what your friends posted/shared first. One could argue this was a good thing. What happened after is that many, if not all pages got a hit in reach/traffic. Who do you think has been hit the most by this? Media maybe? (less traffic redirected to their websites, less opportunities to show adds on said websites, less money for them). I think there even was a story about Murdoch trying to persuade Zucky to change his mind, found one: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/facebook-rupert-murdoch-thre...

If Facebook has hurt the bottom line of the nyt so much, why has their share price doubled since mid 2016?

Because of Trump and the US Government abdicating all responsibility in checking the Executive Branch? NYT's subscriptions jumped after the 2016 election because a free press is extremely vital at this point.

The US is in a very weird spot right now with Democratic norms sliding. Once we exit this weird period and US Government returns to normal, lets see how the NYT's stock price fares then.

> The US is in a very weird spot right now with Democratic norms sliding. Once we exit this weird period and US Government returns to normal, lets see how the NYT's stock price fares then.

I don't think the US Government will ever return to what it used to be pre-Trump, and I think its a good thing. One thing we've seen is just how brittle our Republic really is; how much we rely on so many people doing the right thing. I suspect the new wave of younger Congresspersons, who campaigned in an environment with a completely undemocratic and vile POTUS, will be deeply suspicious of unchecked Presidential authority. And I would argue that's a good thing.

I mean, you can bloody well hate some business and still patronize it. I'd wager most Americans hate their cable company.

I agree there's little risk of users deserting Facebook en masse, but what we may see is lawmakers coming down on FB like a ton of bricks. It will be popular, too: Heavily regulating social media and slapping them with massive fines will be winning issues with constituents on both sides of the aisle.

If 3 other people pledge with me, I’ll delete my Facebook account right now. I’ve already exported all my data.

I did it 3 months ago. Its really made my life so much better. No more worrying about not being good enough as my peers who live far away in a different country. No more dealing with ads.

However, I cheated somewhat and switched to twitter and continued to stay on Instagram (for sharing photos) and Whatsapp (talk to social circle).

I left their whole enterprise, I was just sick of them from top to bottom.

I still use twitter, but I keep my distance, and it’s hardly a social platform.

No takers so far after 6 hours. Expected to see at least one person.

I'm definitely not one of them. I use it for networking. Pretty much everyone in the board game industry is on Facebook at the moment (publishers, designers, developers, artists, media, etc), to get feedback from each other, coordinate events, and reach out to fans and potential customers.

I commented pretty far down a long thread. I didn’t expect much. Like you, the network is what I’m afraid of losing.

Just do it, you don't need other people to affirm you

I know I don’t need it, it’s about impact.

I'd wager most Americans hate their cable company.

Pro tip (no pun intended): never use residential cable service. Always sign up for business-class service. You will get more-or-less infinitely better support, less telephone tag when things go wrong, faster maintenance attention, and fewer hassles in general, all without paying much more. Anecdotally, this also keeps you off the radar of anti-piracy crusaders, since users in business-grade IP blocks are more likely to have the resources to fight back.

If newspapers were only interested in clicks, no one would write such a story. No journalist would spend 6 months of their time researching such a story. Would you please stop with this simplistic media meme? This is not how things work in journalism.

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