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Zuck: Meta will follow X’s lead, add community notes, simplify policies, prioritize free expression over censorship

Yes, there is. It's called objective truth. You can make a case that some subjects are more difficult to moderate than others, especially if they target emotions, culture or large societal changes e.g. trans or gender identity. However there is lots of other information that is not subject to an opinion e.g. global warming. This is not how life should be:

If you think the government or fact checker companies should police climate change discussion online, I'd be interested to know what other subjects you think they should decide. Speaking of climate change censorship, this video makes a good case how even that example has been mishandled.




And here's another solid video on the bias of fact checkers:




There are opinions and there are facts. One should be clearly noted as one or the other. In case of blatant wrong opinion one should be called out and ridiculed - you have a right to an opinion, you don't have a right to not be called out for holding such opinion.
Isn't that the point of community notes? And I don't think anyone is arguing that people shouldn't be called out. That's just part of open debate and disagreement.

There is no need to tip toe about the subject - Zuck is a cuck trying to simply enrich himself by aligning with Trump.
Perhaps Zuck has been wanting to stand up to the government for years about this topic (but he didn't want to fight the government), or maybe this is a blatant attempt to appeal to the next presidential administration (because he doesn't want to fight the government), or maybe a little of both are true.

Another likely factor is when you lower the amount of censorship on your platform, you also lower the amount of work that needs to be done censoring your platform, which ultimately saves your company money. It's likely that Facebook could consider this change beneficial for a number of reasons.
 
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Kacho

Gold Member
I don't understand this thought process... Tons of accounts of far right folks are still there saying whatever the eff they want ... Tons of maga groups and pages on there too ... Even some neo-nazi pages (like with swastikas and battle flags)...

So I don't get the "no approved language or they will be silenced" talk.
I’d say criticisms towards Covid is the most obvious example where the was a concerted effort between social media platforms, the Democratic Party and mainstream media to control the conversation. Whether what people were saying was right or wrong, I don’t want Facebook or X outright banning or silencing people for not saying the ‘right’ thing. 4 years ago posting on Twitter felt like posting on ResetEra.

Look at Marvel Rivals. There’s tons of banned language in the chat because it’s a game made in China. I don’t want my social media platforms to be like that.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I’d say criticisms towards Covid is the most obvious example where the was a concerted effort between social media platforms, the Democratic Party and mainstream media to control the conservation. Whether what people were saying was right or wrong, I don’t want Facebook or X outright banning or silencing people for not saying the ‘right’ thing. 4 years ago posting on Twitter felt like posting on ResetEra.

Look at Marvel Rivals. There’s tons of banned language in the chat because it’s a game made in China. I don’t want my social media platforms to be like that.
I don't want ideologues who refuse to define what a woman is, controlling public discourse.
 

natjjohn

Member
Will just continue the downward trend in facts/news. People getting their facts from social media has been a disaster. Twitter is a flaming pile of trash (I use but not for news…) and FB similar in the news domain and gonna get just worse like Twitter has.

classic news generally did well on this at calling out the bullshit even if hurt people’s feelings. All this is is swaying to people’s hurt feelings over being actioned in some way that was probably 100% accurate to do.

Even GAF has censorship and moderating not some dumb shit community notes. For example, if I said @fakeuser is a dumb, cocking sucker, I get banned. Not a community note explaining that @fakeuser is not known to currently felate penises
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
The Big Lebowski Signings GIF
 
Just let people say whatever they want online. If people are calling for violence, then deal with it on an individual level. And if someone is dumb enough to post something super controversial on a public profile then it’s on them if their job fires them. This worked before and was never a major issue until everyone on all sides lost their minds during covid.
Well yeah. It's even more fun getting a $5 burner phone paid for with cash so it doesn't get traced and only using it on Starbucks or work wifi a few times.

You can make a gmail account called janedoe90210, where Jane doe is the name of the annoying asshole at work you want to get even with and sign up on a bunch of social media, and just put his picture on the account and then go act the fool on social media lol.

You can cause someone a lot of grief with just 5 minutes of lol time by just taking their natural personality and turning the volume up pro wrestling style on a burner phone while taking a shit at work on the same wifi 300 people use.

It's not like cops drop whatever they are dealing with that day when they finally get a complaint to investigate a complaint of identity theft. It takes months before they even get to it, and by then you have thrown that burner phone. If they can't easily trace it, they throw in the towel. They don't go "hmm, ask Starbucks to pull video footage from 2 months ago so we can see all 30 people who were in and guess which one it is!" Or "triangulate the exact room the phone made the post from.....oh, it's the work toilet"
 

TTOOLL

Member
Yes, there is. It's called objective truth. You can make a case that some subjects are more difficult to moderate than others, especially if they target emotions, culture or large societal changes e.g. trans or gender identity. However there is lots of other information that is not subject to an opinion e.g. global warming. This is not how life should be:

the dude your opinion GIF


There are opinions and there are facts. One should be clearly noted as one or the other. In case of blatant wrong opinion one should be called out and ridiculed - you have a right to an opinion, you don't have a right to not be called out for holding such opinion.

There is no need to tip toe about the subject - Zuck is a cuck trying to simply enrich himself by aligning with Trump.
Well, the fact that women have no penises has become what nowadays?
The censors didn’t respect facts.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
I'm only 20 minutes into the Rogan podcast but Zuck's "no no we were the good guys the whole time but we got bullied by the Biden administration" schtick is insufferable.

He clearly practiced this story, too. He's basically reciting lines, this is not an organic conversation at all.
 
I'm only 20 minutes into the Rogan podcast but Zuck's "no no we were the good guys the whole time but we got bullied by the Biden administration" schtick is insufferable.

He clearly practiced this story, too. He's basically reciting lines, this is not an organic conversation at all.
It's hard to care what Zuck says anyways, the entire organization below him is woke to the core as are all the big SV tech companies

He's saying a bunch of shit for window dressing before the next President takes the oath of office but the company is undoubtedly business as usual
 
A lot of interesting stuff was revealed during the interview (though we knew most of it). I think if Harris won, they would have gone after Meta for sure. Plus all other regulators.

Now I am curious how the worldwide dynamics will change.
 

Doomtrain

Gold Member
A lot of interesting stuff was revealed during the interview (though we knew most of it). I think if Harris won, they would have gone after Meta for sure. Plus all other regulators.

Now I am curious how the worldwide dynamics will change.
Gone after Meta in what sense?
 
Gone after Meta in what sense?
There was a push during the Biden administration (and across the europe) to break up Meta and prohibit them from operating in various countries unless they comply with this or that (Brazil, Australia etc). Not sure if they were planning to jail Zuck though.
It was a general trend in a regulatory world with FTC/DOJ, CMA, EU are all were going after social networks / big tech. Like after Google for example.

With Trump, the dynamics might change but we will see.
 
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DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I don’t use this platform so I couldn’t care less, but with this and News they’re removing DEI and getting rid of “non-binary” themes, it appears we are trending toward the beginning of the end with our societal capitulation to madness and nonsense. Sanity is finally being restored. And the usual crazies are melting down over it, but unlike a few years ago, this time everyone is just ignoring them. Like should have happened years ago, but back then no one had a backbone. Finally higher ups are growing a backbone to all this insanity.

Other companies will follow, it’s a lot now who are joining the pool of sanity again.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I don’t use this platform so I couldn’t care less, but with this and News they’re removing DEI and getting rid of “non-binary” themes, it appears we are trending toward the beginning of the end with our societal capitulation to madness and nonsense. Sanity is finally being restored. And the usual crazies are melting down over it, but unlike a few years ago, this time everyone is just ignoring them. Like should have happened years ago, but back then no one had a backbone. Finally higher ups are growing a backbone to all this insanity.

Other companies will follow, it’s a lot now who are joining the pool of sanity again.
Amazon joining in too. Looks like tech giants took a bit longer to change, since last year had a lot of blue collar companies change first.

 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
There were clearly threats from the outgoing administration to drag companies into government bureaucracy litigation hell for non-compliance, like they had started doing for SpaceX and Tesla. Bigger companies like the tech giants are easier targets than smaller traditional companies and could ensure downstream effects of information control.

Elon went all-in as he always does, and deserves the credit for that. It’s obvious that Zuck was not on board with the outgoing ideology but he wasn’t willing or able to risk Meta with a bet until after the outcome was locked in.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
There were clearly threats from the outgoing administration to drag companies into government bureaucracy litigation hell for non-compliance, like they had started doing for SpaceX and Tesla. Bigger companies like the tech giants are easier targets than smaller traditional companies and could ensure downstream effects of information control.

Elon went all-in as he always does, and deserves the credit for that. It’s obvious that Zuck was not on board with the outgoing ideology but he wasn’t willing or able to risk Meta with a bet until after the outcome was locked in.

It is incredible how nuts Elon’s whole Twitter and right turn seemed not long ago, yet now the X purchase has paid off handsomely to the investors (via xAI) and more crucially, himself - via the value growth in Tesla. And even crazier, while his turn was totally unpalatable to public opinion not very long ago, now Zuck did exactly the same. Wild stuff.
 
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DrFigs

Member
I think people getting their news from social media has made every much dumber, and I don't think getting rid of basic standards is going to improve things. it's also interesting how facebook can fire a bunch of employees and replace them with contract workers (or maybe H1B visa holders in the near future), but because they call this action anti-DEI, or anti-woke, or whatever that this is seen as a good thing actually.
 
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Kacho

Gold Member
I think people getting their news from social media has made every much dumber, and I don't think getting rid of basic standards is going to improve things. it's also interesting how facebook can fire a bunch of employees and replace them with contract workers (or maybe H1B visa holders in the near future), but because they call this action anti-DEI, or anti-woke, or whatever that this is seen as a good thing actually.
What basic standards?
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Bit of an awkward moment at the 54th mark where Rogan talks about mainstream media: No one trusts them. People are like "you were just lying to us about this, that and the other thing and now I'm supposed to believe you're one of the good guys? That you're one of the straight shooters now?" and Zuck is completely flustered.

Went completely over Rogan's head, unfortunately.

You can tell when Zuck is talking as himself and not as a corpo when he uses the word "like" three times in every sentence. So weird hearing him phase in and out of personas.
 

Vlodril

Member
I think people getting their news from social media has made every much dumber, and I don't think getting rid of basic standards is going to improve things. it's also interesting how facebook can fire a bunch of employees and replace them with contract workers (or maybe H1B visa holders in the near future), but because they call this action anti-DEI, or anti-woke, or whatever that this is seen as a good thing actually.

Is H1B visa holders the new boogeyman in America?
 
Social media is not news agencies so there's no objective need for checkers, other than manipulating and controlling the online discourse (as real media does). That was the only purpose of it and you just need to check the people involved, all the usual suspects: George Soros (a real-life James Bond villain), the Gates Foundation, the Rockefellers, etc. And of course, the useful idiots claiming this is all conspiracy theories (one of the favorite expressions of every idiot)

Zuckerberg, like Musk, is an amoral bastard who will do what is best for business, so I don't give a damn about his intentions. I care about actions. Whoever complains about this measure is defending censorship and hence, an authoritarian, be it alt-right or leftist. It's stupid to argue over whether Maduro is better than Putin or vice-versa. They are both horrible.

And, for the record, Putin has in his pocket more people from the left than from the right. It was Trump who warned about him in 2018 and all Europe laughed. WHERE were the fact checkers, back then? Spending the Russian money, most likely.
 

-Minsc-

Member
I hate to keep coming back to this, but the real story to me is how dumb he looks. He looks like a 40 year old man cosplaying as a teenager. This should not be normalized. It’s horrifying. I get that he’s always gone for the whole “I’m the CEO of one of the largest companies but also super casual and approachable” look. But this is a step too far. He looks like a complete tool.
I never did watch Napoleon Dynamite.
 

Hudo

Gold Member
The only worthwhile shit that comes out of Meta are the ML papers and the Quest devices. Their social media shit is, together with X, Bluesky and whatever, just for mentally ill people who are terminally online.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I don't think that's much of a conspiracy theory; they created an office of disinfo and it's well known they sent suggestions to social media companies.
At the time, when we said that is what they were doing, it was called a "conspiracy theory" and that nothing nefarious was going on. We had a Politics board here, and a roving bunch of idiots would say that wasn't happening. They weren't shaping discourse. They weren't threatening them, rabble rabble.
 
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Tams

Member
Like Zuck says, this is a tradeoff. Freer speech means more things that are generally offensive or odious.

X has definitely got a lot of whackjobs saying some very nutty and awful things. But if the last few years have proved anything, censorship doesn't make it go away.


Wealth and power have always been and will always be disproportionately benefited by any given setup.

The solution is to build up resilience in people. So what if someone posted something mean or offensive? Ignore it or fire back.

Sadly, the UK instead of redressing this issue in upbringing and education, is looking to go full mollycoddling.

This father's daughter killed herself because she wasn't resilient. His solution is more censorship.

 

Woggleman

Member
I love how people act like Social Media was this wonderful loving place before Musk. bought Twitter and now this. It has been a cesspool of hate and division ever since people abandoned MySpace which was the last time social media was nice.

Some people are just mad that everybody gets a say and they can't wield it as a tool of cancel culture with impunity anymore.
 

Jsisto

Member
I love how people act like Social Media was this wonderful loving place before Musk. bought Twitter and now this. It has been a cesspool of hate and division ever since people abandoned MySpace which was the last time social media was nice.

Some people are just mad that everybody gets a say and they can't wield it as a tool of cancel culture with impunity anymore.
And lets be clear....its become that way by design because it drives engagement and by extension advertising revenue.
 

YCoCg

Member
I love how people act like Social Media was this wonderful loving place before Musk. bought Twitter
Nah, it wasn't great before Musk bought it, Twitter was great in the 2009 - 2013 days when it was like an extension of the old wild west internet days. People freely uploading drug meet ups and all sorts or you had the classy side with the few celebs who were more on it back then and actually interacted with people or showing dumb shit that had no relevance to promoting stuff, like Patrick Stewart posting a pic of himself in a lobster costume.
 
I love how people act like Social Media was this wonderful loving place before Musk
Nah. Twitter has been a censorship hellhole, one step away from BlueSky but due to much more bigger population it never reached BlueSky level of censorship. People are just too used to the fact that everybody should agree with them and don't be "bad" to them. That's not how the real world works.
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Exactly the moment I mentioned a few posts up, such an weird moment.

Anyway, I don't think this whole thing worked out in Zuck's favor, there's a ton of posts like these on X (crazy amount of likes):


Easy for everyone to pile on to Zuck. Yeah, he took the path of least resistance. I somehow doubt everyone taking potshots would do anything different with the amount of political, legal, and financial pressure that was laid on. You'd have to be so narcissistic to be back in 2016, have the responsibility of something like Facebook and just ignore all of that.

Credit to Musk for leading the charge late in the game, but many of the people now enjoying the freedoms he provided to say damn near anything on X now have "concerns" about his "elitist impulses"/"narcissism" and such because it isn't working exclusively to their benefit (see the H1B debate).
 

Bert Big Balls

Gold Member
I love how people act like Social Media was this wonderful loving place before Musk. bought Twitter and now this. It has been a cesspool of hate and division ever since people abandoned MySpace which was the last time social media was nice.

Some people are just mad that everybody gets a say and they can't wield it as a tool of cancel culture with impunity anymore.
With myspace, bebo, Facebook etc back in the day, you also just saw shit from your friends, not from total fucking randoms spouting nonsense. Nowadays everyone is invested in US politics even if they aren't from the US and I don't fucking get it. Everyone follows celebrities or personalities online and has to form some sort of retarded opinion, but most of the time it doesn't make any sense. I wish social media went back to just being hanging with your friends online, instead of being sucked into global news bullshit that isn't going to affect us at all.
 
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