Facebook crosses the line into mind control territory

medium.com

3 points·ASquare··6 comments

From the article:

In light of this story, Facebook deserves to lose every one of its users. It is completely unacceptable that by using a given platform to share one’s personal life with others one is suddenly, and without consent, subjected to such a highly manipulative experiment.

The entire chain of command that approved this experiment, worthy of Dr. Josef Mengele, should be sacked, and at the same time a rigorous internal audit carried out to discover whether other such experiments have been undertaken.

Hear, hear!

I have been involved in small clinical trials involving 50 subjects or so and it is a huge amount of (necessary) work to get proper approval. That Facebook somehow thinks they can "study" (by intentionally seeking to manipulate users' moods!) 700,000 people without proper informed consent being sought boggles the mind.

Who knows, it's entirely possible that in FB's T&C, there's some legalese that says that using FB means you allow them to do whatever they want while you are on their site, which amounts to "proper approval"

Given the recent neuroscience research that people exposed to particular stimuli will alter their decision-making behaviour, it is now, in combination with this new research, possible for Facebook to manipulate election results.

Speaking as a Brit, it's time for Ofcom to start sampling feed content to detect shaping. Don't know what the US equivalent would be.

In light of this story, Facebook deserves to lose every one of its users.

Ad mortem te duci iam pridem oportebat.

If those users would give a rodent's backside, that is.

Wow! That experiment is incredibly sociopathic - using unsuspecting users as pawn in your games. I am disgusted...

Bullshit. Every company runs experiments on their users.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com