<story><title>With Facebook at ‘War,’ Zuckerberg Adopts More Aggressive Style</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-facebook-at-war-zuckerberg-adopts-more-aggressive-style-1542577980</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jseliger</author><text>This is a very good comment and I hope it rises to the top of the heap.&lt;p&gt;I wrote this post on an HN comment, but I wonder, &amp;quot;Is there an actual Facebook crisis, or media narrative about Facebook crisis?&amp;quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jakeseliger.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;is-there-an-actual-facebook-crisis-or-media-narrative-about-facebook-crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jakeseliger.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;is-there-an-actual-facebo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that Zuckerberg doesn&amp;#x27;t know that he&amp;#x27;s in a media scapegoating situation. When you&amp;#x27;ve become the scapegoat, there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can observe the scapegoating mechanism, but even that will likely do very little to halt it in action.&lt;p&gt;The media cannot accept (or comprehensively address) its own culpability for the 2016 election. So let&amp;#x27;s put the blame on those guys, over there, instead of looking at ourselves.</text></item><item><author>tabs_masterrace</author><text>Is there a Facebook smear campaign going on or people just love to pile on Zuckerberg? Facebook is an advertisement company and collects data, but so does everybody else. Gmail launched in 2004. Snowden leaks in 2013 were greeted with general apathy. But know it&amp;#x27;s the time to crucify Zuckerberg for what exatly? Make use of targeted advertisement? Or letting Facebook have user-generated content, that may or may not have influenced votes in the past?&lt;p&gt;Either way, the ongoing collection of all kinds of data has been obvious for many years now. And it&amp;#x27;s not going to stop, so some advice: Instead blaming this one actor, better get used to it.&lt;p&gt;Platforms also can&amp;#x27;t fully and completely be responsible for political views expressed by user-generated content.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pm90</author><text>It is not a good comment at all. I know its the go-to reaction for engineers in SV to empathize with a fellow engineer and portray him as a martyr in the altar of an east-coast elitist media. But please look at the facts and details of what NYT has uncovered.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It seems to me that Zuckerberg doesn&amp;#x27;t know that he&amp;#x27;s in a media scapegoating situation. When you&amp;#x27;ve become the scapegoat, there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can observe the scapegoating mechanism, but even that will likely do very little to halt it in action.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s much much smarter than you give him credit for. A lot of folks think of him as a clueless programming genius, but this is brilliant guy who understands politics a lot better than most engineers in SV. All the feel-good tours were not for his personal political ambition, but to create goodwill for his most precious, valuable child, Facebook. And he has done every thing in his power to cut the criticism, scapegoat critics and regulation.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The media cannot accept (or comprehensively address) its own culpability for the 2016 election. So let&amp;#x27;s put the blame on those guys, over there, instead of looking at ourselves.&lt;p&gt;Certainly there is some aspect of that. But please lets look at the facts. Facebook did hire a PR firm that spread Soros-based conspiracy theories against its critics. They fired Stamos when he exposed the extent of Russian intervention and kept quiet or dismissed the magnitude of Russian activity until it became untenable for them to do so.&lt;p&gt;All the steps they have taken to become better, have been forced onto them ... by who? Its by the Media. The media uncovering &lt;i&gt;facts&lt;/i&gt; about the company. That&amp;#x27;s their job: to bring to light these facts. Let them do their job, and lets hope Facebook does its job as well.</text></comment>
<story><title>With Facebook at ‘War,’ Zuckerberg Adopts More Aggressive Style</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/with-facebook-at-war-zuckerberg-adopts-more-aggressive-style-1542577980</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jseliger</author><text>This is a very good comment and I hope it rises to the top of the heap.&lt;p&gt;I wrote this post on an HN comment, but I wonder, &amp;quot;Is there an actual Facebook crisis, or media narrative about Facebook crisis?&amp;quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jakeseliger.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;is-there-an-actual-facebook-crisis-or-media-narrative-about-facebook-crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;jakeseliger.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;is-there-an-actual-facebo...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that Zuckerberg doesn&amp;#x27;t know that he&amp;#x27;s in a media scapegoating situation. When you&amp;#x27;ve become the scapegoat, there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can observe the scapegoating mechanism, but even that will likely do very little to halt it in action.&lt;p&gt;The media cannot accept (or comprehensively address) its own culpability for the 2016 election. So let&amp;#x27;s put the blame on those guys, over there, instead of looking at ourselves.</text></item><item><author>tabs_masterrace</author><text>Is there a Facebook smear campaign going on or people just love to pile on Zuckerberg? Facebook is an advertisement company and collects data, but so does everybody else. Gmail launched in 2004. Snowden leaks in 2013 were greeted with general apathy. But know it&amp;#x27;s the time to crucify Zuckerberg for what exatly? Make use of targeted advertisement? Or letting Facebook have user-generated content, that may or may not have influenced votes in the past?&lt;p&gt;Either way, the ongoing collection of all kinds of data has been obvious for many years now. And it&amp;#x27;s not going to stop, so some advice: Instead blaming this one actor, better get used to it.&lt;p&gt;Platforms also can&amp;#x27;t fully and completely be responsible for political views expressed by user-generated content.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spamizbad</author><text>Facebook received largely anodyne coverage for most of its life; it&amp;#x27;s only been the last few years that people took a critical eye.&lt;p&gt;And I don&amp;#x27;t understand your media argument. &amp;quot;The media&amp;quot; spends a tremendous amount of time analyzing and criticizing its own output, even within institutions. If anything, the media tends to catch flack for too much navel-gazing instead of covering actual news.&lt;p&gt;Facebook would benefit from some of that introspection, rather than top-down order-following.</text></comment>