Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/15/the-masters-tools.html
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Facebook caught doing questionably moral/ethical things film at 11…
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They seem like nice people…
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And I suppose that FB security somehow sneaks those FB apps onto the devices of its ex-employees and critics, yes? Such 1337 hxxors!
What is Facebook doing that they are so paranoid about?
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And what about people with shadow profiles?
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also even if you don’t say fuck zuck they may track you for “safety” reasons. i can totally picture a supervisor feigning concern to see why someone isn’t checking their email while out sick only to see they’re interviewing at another bay area company.
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I’m not sure this is a bad idea, although I’m sure Facebook implemented it in a profoundly shitty manner.
Employers have a responsibility to protect their employees from all kinds of risks, including physical attacks. Having a list of people who have previously issued threats is prudent. Furthermore, if you have the means to identify threats as they approach your employees, you have the responsibility to use it.
Should the list be more formalized, with processes for getting on and off it clearly defined? Perhaps, but that’s really up to Facebook’s risk management team to decide.
If I were a Facebook employee that had been the victim of harassment in the workplace, you can bet I’d be behind this 100%.
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Friends don’t let friends fail to
And friends certainly encourage friends not to work for that monstrosity.
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Yeah, they pretty much do. Lots of phone models include Facebook in the default installation and Facebook is well known for maintaining shadow profiles of people they track through like buttons and other methods. Just don’t use Facebook stopped being a sufficient option a long time ago.
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And yet, there’s still a little button to the right of this story reminding me I can follow BoingBoing on FB.
And Corey, you’ve still got an account on FB (as does pretty much everyone else at BoingBoing).
Which makes you a FB customer/product.
Which makes your daily handwringing pretty effin disingenuous.
So quit it, or STFU.
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Notice, they didn’t say “overstepped our limits” or “boundaries”. That would raise the question of what their limits are, if any.
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Also notice that they specified their “onsite physical security team” rather than their security apparatus generally.
Noting that your rentacops didn’t assault anyone as though it’s a meaningful indicator of the essential decency of your corporate intelligence apparatus isn’t technically lying; but it leans in that direction.
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It’s not at all hypocritical for someone to use a de facto standard platform while criticizing it. I regularly use the UK train network, but I’m not a hypocrite for complaining when it doesn’t get me where I need to be.
Wouldn’t it be far more hypocritical of me to bemoan a system I’ve never used?
Cory’s criticisms of Facebook would be true whether or not he used the service, so I’m really not seeing your point.
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Has the National Rail caused real and demonstrable damage to civic and social institutions around the world by permitting (and abetting) the proliferation of false information, for profit? Does the National Rail spy on and lie to its customers - again, for profit - and then continue to lie about the extent of its overreach when caught? Does the National Rail resist all attempts at transparency and regulation, fund smear campaigns against influential critics, track ex-employees and knowingly monetize the exploitation of the worst human impulses?
No, it doesn’t, because the National Rail has a transparent business model that provides a degree of accountability that Facebook has never had, and never will.
So apples and oranges.
And Cory’s criticism of Facebook isn’t motivated by his use of it; it’s not like he’s complaining about page design or whatever. The rapaciousness of FB’s business model isn’t apparent from its anodyne interface; the company’s power and revenue are derived from what it can extract, by any means necessary, from its users, for its customers (and you are not a customer, you are the product).
It’s not at all hypocritical for a non-user to survey the damage Facebook has done and pass judgment.
Cory and everyone else at BB still use Facebook because as beneficiaries of the attention economy they’ve made a financial calculus: self de-platforming would decrease exposure, with a corresponding decrease in…what? So whatever ‘criticism’ BB levels against FB, they’re tacitly cool with its models and methods because the calculus has indicated they get more than they give from the relationship, even if they’re not fully aware of what they’re giving.
Beware of Facebook (but it works for me)? Yeah, that’s most definitely hypocrisy.
Facebook is irreparably broken, and ‘criticism’ from within isn’t going to fix it. De-platforming oneself is the only morally defensible response to its toxicity.
So: quit it (and maybe build something else), or STFU.
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You’ve clearly never been on our trains.
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