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Comment by granzymes | Hacker News Reader

This report was published by Common Sense Media, an advocacy organization with a clear interest in pushing this message as part of their lobbying efforts. Maybe their intentions are good (they seem to back some good bills!), but it’s not a neutral source of information.

If you look at polling data published as part of generic political surveys, you find that companies like Amazon and Meta are among the most trusted of U.S. institutions[0] (Amazon loses out only to the military).

[0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OgPzcB75uxXiFmTjUUb-ITIr7BF...

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Trust is multi-faceted and although I trust Amazon to deliver me a toaster, i don’t for a second trust them to handle my audio or video in a manner I’m comfortable. This survey is talking about the latter kind of trust, not the former.

Ye. The surveyees (is that a word?) probably interpret the question very differently.

I mean up until 5 years ago I trusted Microsoft and Google to handle my mail, since I though I was too unimportant and it would to much of an effort to read my mails for them. But I in no way trusted them.

Concerning Amazon I guess most trust they will have their toaster. Like the same question about Walmart would be about food safety and quality.

Not corporate culture or long term political influence.

Is there a private company whose corporate culture or long term political influence could be trusted?

I feel like this has not been possible in the West at least since Friedman

I trust them to deliver “a toaster” but, like, not necessarily the exact one I ordered, right? Either the one I ordered or a knock-off copycat that made it into the bin.

And Facebook and X are not advocacy organizations vehemently pushing an agenda? The fact that there is an organization looking to speak for teenagers and their rights to privacy in the face of the aggressiveness of FAANG lobbying should be the best news you hear today. Organizations like CSM and EFF are the last points of light in an ocean of darkness.

I wouldn’t trust a poll published by Facebook or X about how popular they are either!

There is a marked difference between trusting an institution to deliver a predictable experience for you, vs. trusting it to be able to go beyond its current practices to do something values-driven that you might want it to do.

Trying to collapse both definitions into a word “trust” in a headline is, well, the type of thing I expect of modern editorial practices where good journalism is given inane titles by click-optimizing editorial staff, and thus something that causes my “trust” in the headlines vs. in the reporting itself to diverge.

The data you're presenting doesn't limit those polled to teens though. The specific question asked also appears to be different. If you have an issue with Common Sense Media, please make a coherent argument. Don't be disingenuous.

Tbf, back in 2021 my view on the Silicon Valley oligarchy also was quite different than it is today ;)

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