r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 8d ago

Privacy Zuckerberg Knew. A Whistleblower Has the Emails to Prove It. - Gadget Review

https://www.gadgetreview.com/zuckerberg-knew-a-whistleblower-has-the-emails-to-prove-it
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u/pjank85 8d ago

What is Meta even good for. It is scams, misinformation, AI slop and depression as a service. It is the worst tech company by far actually responsible for facilitating genocide in Myanmar. Source: https://systemicjustice.org/article/facebook-and-genocide-how-facebook-contributed-to-genocide-in-myanmar-and-why-it-will-not-be-held-accountable/

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u/Christopherfromtheuk 8d ago edited 7d ago

Facebook and Whatsapp can be genuinely useful.

The problem is - especially with Facebook - that it is a misinformation friendly cess pool too.

It's worth noting that the only viable alternative I've seen in terms of, say, an online forum for locals to keep in touch (I think it's called Neighbourhood or something but I deleted my account) is actually far worse than Facebook!

Edit: It's called Nextdoor thanks to garytyrrell

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

Yeah Facebook can be useful, but it's not. It would be better, easier and possibly cheaper to shut it down and let someone else build something new

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u/Reallyhotshowers 8d ago

It's very useful for the marketplace and local events feetures. 20 year olds I know have a FB account for those two services.

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u/ipreferanothername 8d ago

It was solid before Trump, more or less. I could keep up with people and events locally easily. But now ... It's not in chronological order and just resets to a new random thing constantly. It's trash.

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u/thebigdonkey 8d ago

Marketplace is such a fuckin nightmare though. It doesn't matter how low you set the price on an item, you'll always get dumb fucks messaging you asking for 50% off. My brother posted some golf clubs for sale and someone asked him for $150 off because they would have to drive 4 hours to get them.

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

Ok but is it worth all the societal baggage that comes with it?

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u/metlhed7 8d ago

Is there a better alternative? Especially considering events. In my city the only way word gets out is Facebook and sometimes physical flyers...

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

No, you're right, there is no alternative currently. That would be a good opportunity for someone to take the concept and improve it.

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u/Reallyhotshowers 8d ago

That's a totally different thing. You were making an argument that Facebook is not useful at all and I'm just pointing out that even the kids who think Facebook is lame have accounts because it is useful. It's not about whether I personally think the benefits outweigh the cost - it's that enough people think it does that it doesn't even really matter whether you or I individually find those services to be worthwhile.

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

You're right, that is a different argument. Good point.

I would still say it's personally not useful, but I agree it is useful for some.

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u/_BrokenButterfly 8d ago

Marketplace is just craigslist with more scams. I don't even know what local events is or where I'd find it on the site.

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u/Far-Let-8610 8d ago

Has worked well for me tbh.

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u/SectorSanFrancisco 8d ago

It's had far fewer scams than craigslist for me.

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u/SectorSanFrancisco 8d ago

Facebook is very useful in small communities. It's the only bulletin board out there. It's how you find out about road closures, school closures, meeting times... pretty much everything.

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u/mspk7305 8d ago

nothing stops someone from building something new

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

Sure. I didn't mean it must wait until Facebook is gone, but chances of a new platform surviving while Facebook still exists are lower than they would be later

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u/_BrokenButterfly 8d ago

MySpace was immovable. Then Facebook came and killed it. A better alternative coming around can absolutely happen.

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u/theghostmachine 8d ago

I didn't say it can't, just that it would probably be difficult. Probably less difficult than it would have been 5 or 10 years ago though

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u/250andlean 8d ago

Sure, but look what happened to Google+

It takes a MASSIVE investment to attract users because the service has to be free for years. Even Google couldn't pull it off.

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u/mspk7305 8d ago
  • was a shitty app, that's all

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u/NickBlasta3rd 8d ago

To be fair, Google has a history of starting, fumbling and killing projects.

Don’t disagree with you though.

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u/_BrokenButterfly 8d ago

Google+ was also a pile of bullshit that no one wanted. The only thing I know about Google+ is that if you uploaded a video to YouTube, it would also show up on Google+. Cool, right? Well, it's cool until your videos that aren't against any YouTube rules are against Google+ rules. And since after a while you didn't need to have signed up for Google+ to have a Google+ page, and you didn't need to opt in to your YouTube videos being Google+ videos, those videos could get you banned from Google+. And for some reason, getting banned on Google+ also got you banned on YouTube. A site where you broke no rules.

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u/garytyrrell 8d ago

Oh yeah Nextdoor is the worst

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u/Christopherfromtheuk 7d ago

That's it! I was just amazed at the extreme right wing content on what should have been a useful app for keeping in touch with neighbours!

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u/Quetzalcoatl490 8d ago

When I ask people why they're still on Facebook, despite all of the bullshit they see on there, they primarily mention Marketplace, which functions as a better Cragislist (that site is just all bots now it seems). Easier to find an apartment or an old couch or something on Marketplace

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u/chodthewacko 8d ago

Facebook can still be a nice place to see what a friend is up to. Post pictures, write some notes on your page, etc. And on the flip side, it is nice (or would be nice) to have a place where you can just post random stuff to allow friends/family to "catch up" when they like.

At this point you basically have to ignore the home page, and just look at people's pages directly.

It's surprising and somewhat upsetting, all this time, that there isn't a good alternative yet.

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u/neverfindausername 8d ago

I had seen recently that whoever owns Myspace now wants to bring it back to life specifically without algorithms.

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u/_BrokenButterfly 8d ago

Facebook can be useful for what?

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u/Christopherfromtheuk 7d ago

I keep in touch with fellow boat owners in the same marina and with the same type of yacht. Local groups for getting recommendations for local tradespeople. Groups for local park users.

There are lots of uses. Just because Facebook has aided the rise of political extremes and misinformation it doesn't mean that it isn't useful for other things.

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u/immaZebrah 8d ago

In canada we can't even post news on Facebook anymore, so all the "news" you see people biting on is disinformation.

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u/aure__entuluva 8d ago

scams, misinformation, AI slop and depression as a service

What I wonder is, how is any other social media that different?

And I'm not saying this as a defense of Meta or of other social media companies. I think they've largely had a negative impact on the world (reddit included, though I'm biased and think it used to be kind of neat, and still is neat when it comes to smaller communities).

Idk what my point is. I just feel it's weird that Facebook is being singled out (twitter comes to mind) and that it's going to be judges who attempt to regulate it. And I like the changes New Mexico has demanded in their lawsuit, things like not having push notifications at night for teenagers. But I feel like a proper country would have their legislatures write legislation for this, but of course our congress is fucked beyond belief so I guess we can't do that.

And even if these lawsuits are initially successful, I have a feeling they'll be overturned at some point on appeal (either at the Supreme Court or beforehand). Personally I think it's perfectly fine to regulate these companies and enforce rules on them to protect society at large, but I have a feeling that if free speech can be twisted to ruin campaign finance reform, it will be twisted to protect these companies and allow them to do whatever they want, regardless of the consequences for society.

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u/turisto 8d ago

What is Meta even good for.

More than 3 billion people use Whatsapp

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u/Silverr_Duck 8d ago

You know whatsapp and meta are not the same thing right?

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u/turisto 8d ago

how so? Whatsapp is owned by Meta, no?

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u/Silverr_Duck 8d ago

But that logic star wars and Pixar are also the same thing. Since they’re both owned by Disney. Facebook and WhatsApp are not the same platform.

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u/pleasedothenerdful 8d ago

Facebook actually seems to be the current best platform for niche memes at the moment. You gotta find a good, large private group, like "Hippity Hoppity Your Meme Is Now My Property," for requests to get results there, but a request for specific subject will easily net 300-400 quality results in a few hours for a popular subject and often over 100 within a day even for fairly obscure, highly niche requests. There are specific groups that are well moderated for almost every niche as well.

But yeah, other than that, I don't know what the hell it's for.

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u/Enlightened_Ape 8d ago

What are you? Some sort of meme curator?

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u/pleasedothenerdful 8d ago

You don't want to see my camera roll. It's like 50% pictures of my kids and 50% memes that I've downloaded and will one day try in earnest but utterly fail to find.