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Nov 2023 Mod notice:


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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#332151: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:06:12 PM

@Galadriel: I'm just saying that moving thousands of people safely involves more than a day's worth of logistical planning that Biden won't actually be in a position to do before he's President.

SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#332152: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:07:32 PM

Nvm, I’m stupid.

Edited by SatoshiBakura on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:08:04 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#332153: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:08:27 PM

Heck, it'd probably take more than a month. Especially when you consider everything else a Biden administration will have to unfuck.

Edited by M84 on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:08:53 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#332154: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:11:09 PM

@Redmess. I’m not talking about biting his head off.

I’m talking about holding his feet to the fire. Politicians respond to public pressure when they’re deciding what’s most important. There needs to be constant pressure to close the camps. It can’t be delayed or become a secondary concern.

Letting people go free doesn’t need that many logistics.

Edited by Galadriel on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:12:10 AM

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#332155: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:11:22 PM

Has Biden said anything about what he intends to do about the concentration camps?

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332156: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:17:41 PM

Meanwhile, Facebook turns just a little more dystopian:

Facebook's latest "groups" disaster will only make it more toxic: Every single time Facebook could improve, it doubles down on causing more harm.

Basically, Facebook is making it so that you now will get alerts from groups you are not even subscribed to. Facebook will also make suggestions for related discussions about your private conversations. All in the name of "engagement" and more profit.

The most recent issue is a frustrating set of changes to the way that Facebook handles groups. Last week, Facebook announced yet another new way to "help more people find and connect with communities," by putting those communities in your face whether you want to see them or not. Both the groups tab and your individual newsfeed will promote group content from groups you are not subscribed to in the hope that you will engage with the content and with the group.

Having that kind of content also appear in your personal newsfeed (which has not yet been rolled out to me) is apparently even worse. "It was creepier than I expected to see 'related discussions' hyped next to a short comments thread between my mom and my brother about her latest post," tech writer Rob Pegoraro (who has occasionally written for Ars) tweeted after experiencing the new feature. (He added that Facebook's obsession with engagement "needs to be shot into the sun," a sentiment with which I agree.)

Meaningful, thoughtful conversation—even in small, serious, well-moderated groups—has become almost impossible to maintain. That, too, drives sniping, bickering, and extremism on a small, conversational scale.

"The social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 years have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity," Kendall told Congress. "At the very least, we have eroded our collective understanding—at worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war."

The Wall Street Journal back in May of this year obtained internal documentation showing that company leaders were warned about the issues in a 2018 presentation. "Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness," one slide read. "If left unchecked," the presentation warned, Facebook would feed users "more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention and increase time on the platform."

Even worse, the WSJ found that Facebook was totally and completely aware that the algorithms used for groups recommendations were a huge problem. One Facebook internal researcher in 2016 found "extremist," "racist," and "conspiracy-minded" content in more than one-third of German groups she examined. According to the WSJ, her presentation to senior leadership found that "64 percent of all extremist group joins are due to our recommendation tools," including the "groups you should join" and "discover" tools. "Our recommendation systems grow the problem," the presentation said.

Facebook's failure to act on one event may have contributed to two deaths in Kenosha. Facebook's failure to act in Myanmar may have contributed to a genocide of the Rohingya people. Facebook's failure to act in 2016 may have allowed foreign actors to interfere on a massive scale in the US presidential election. And Facebook's failure to act in 2020 is allowing people—including the sitting US president—to spread rampant, dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 and the upcoming election.

The consequences of Facebook's failures to take content seriously just keep piling up, and yet the change to promote groups will create even more fertile ground for the spread of extremism and misinformation. Facebook's services are used by more than 2.7 billion people. How many more of Facebook's "operational mistakes" can the world afford?

This. This is what Biden needs to crack down on. Facebook is becoming a danger to world peace. Forget Tik Tok. Facebook is the one who needs taking down.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Scarecrow4774 from In Wonderland Since: Mar, 2017 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
#332157: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:21:01 PM

Trump's Twitter is going insane right now. I wonder if this is the steroids talking.

“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” - Lewis Carroll
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332158: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:21:51 PM

Sorry if I'm not familiar with the nuance between "biting someone's head off" and "holding their feet to the fire".

It wouldn't take much if we were talking about dozens of people, but thousands is quite another matter. It won't be as easy as "just use some hotels". That's just not feasible when you are talking those numbers. Do you expect hotels to just accept that? Or is the government going to compensate them for it? I imagine congress, any congress, will want to have a debate on what is the best course of action, so one disaster does not inadvertently turn into another.

[up] Probably. From what I understand, those do quite a number on your psyche.

Edited by Redmess on Oct 6th 2020 at 3:22:29 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Resileafs I actually wanted to be Resileaf Since: Jan, 2019
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
#332159: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:22:56 PM

Who woulda thought that Mark Zuckerberg would become the biggest mass murderer in history.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#332160: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:24:20 PM

Why do they keep going back to Hillary Clinton? Who considers her relevant to anything currently going on?

They literally have nothing that works to scare people of Biden. He's a conservative (small c) old white man. Yes, his VP is a black woman but these guys don't have the same instinctual fear of that as they would if she was running forefront.

Ugh.

Trump's campaign is FOR nothing, only against. Thus they've been floundering from the beginning.

They have not a single policy to help the working man or woman.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Oct 6th 2020 at 6:24:43 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332161: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:25:37 PM

He's not getting the Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon, that's for sure.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#332162: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:26:01 PM

Eh, I tend not to take op-eds all that seriously, even if I agree with the sentiment.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332163: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:26:27 PM

What op-ed?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#332164: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:27:05 PM

The Ars Technica one you linked to about Facebook. Did you not see the "op-ed" in the header?

Edited by M84 on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:27:37 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332165: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:28:45 PM

Oh, I see. Well, it is also news. This is about a new tweak to Facebook that stands to make things even worse on the platform, on top of being rather invasive in general.

And I don't see why we should dismiss it just because it is an op-ed?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#332166: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:29:18 PM

Biden is up at least 20% among seniors according to new polls. This is better than any Democrat has done in over 20 years. In the final polls before the 2016 election, Trump was up 5% over Clinton in this same demographic.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/politics/trump-senior-vote/index.html

Edited by Rationalinsanity on Oct 6th 2020 at 10:30:11 AM

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#332167: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:29:59 PM

I imagine there are probably some logistical concerns involved with letting those people free, but I don't think anyone here really disagrees that Biden's administration should work on closing those camps and freeing them as soon as possible.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Oct 6th 2020 at 10:33:35 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#332168: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:30:40 PM

Speaking of tech companies, Congress has found that large tech firms hold too much power. On the one hand, yes, breaking them up because of too many disparate consolidated businesses is one thing. On the other, some of the things they're focusing on are... odd? "Squashing innovation" in this sense seems a bit vague and peculiar, since these companies also do a lot of R&D. And the eternal focus on Amazon's domination of online retail rather than the fact it's that, plus Twitch, plus Amazon Web Services, plus Prime Video, plus whatever else they're working on. I have no idea what they expect to achieve for online sales by trying to break that side in particular up on the consumer end...

Oh, and amusingly given current legal cases, they brought up the Apple marketplace.

(I'm going to crosspost this on the Computer thread)

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332169: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:30:43 PM

Oh, an interesting detail about those steroid, those are apparently only used for the most severe cases of covid. Hard to tell if that is because of covid or because it is the president, though.

[up][up] Oh, absolutely. I'd rather have it happen on day one too, but that just is not realistic under the circumstances.

Edited by Redmess on Oct 6th 2020 at 3:31:59 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#332170: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:31:20 PM

[up][up][up][up]Because op-eds tend to be loaded with weasel words and/or are geared to cause an emotional reaction. An op-ed, at the end of the day, is nothing more or less than the opinion of its writer.

Edited by M84 on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:31:30 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#332171: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:31:42 PM

The fact that Biden is doing so well with older voters is really bad for Trump since they are one of his main demographics and one that tends to vote reliably. It's especially notable when you consider how massive a difference it is compared to 2016 where Trump was more popular with elderly voters by about 5%.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Oct 6th 2020 at 10:32:43 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#332172: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:33:13 PM

Like I said, I predict a landslide victory if the election is fair.

How do we make that so is the question.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#332173: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:33:41 PM

[up][up][up] So do you think that is the case here?

Edited by Redmess on Oct 6th 2020 at 3:33:54 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#332174: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:37:13 PM

[up]Oh definitely. Just because I happen to agree with the writer on the whole "Facebook is dangerous" thing doesn't mean I'm going to treat this as a legit news article.

Generally I don't like linking op-eds to make a point. If I do, I at least make sure to point out it's an op-ed first.

Edited by M84 on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:38:11 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Resileafs I actually wanted to be Resileaf Since: Jan, 2019
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
#332175: Oct 6th 2020 at 6:37:59 PM

[up][up][up]The average citizen can't do much, save make sure to send their mail-in ballot or do whatever they can to vote in person (preferably safely), but the majority of the work has to be done by Democrat election officials to ensure Republican funny business is kept to a minimum.

Edited by Resileafs on Oct 6th 2020 at 9:38:07 AM


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