<story><title> Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/10/04/1042921981/facebook-whistleblower-renewing-scrutiny-of-social-media-giant</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ozzythecat</author><text>I don’t personally use FB and don’t have a very favorable view of their products.&lt;p&gt;I would, however, like to see the same level scrutiny applied to the general American media, especially the news media. FB has come in and started eating their lunch. There’s a deeper problem here, and it feels more like the powers that he want to take down FB.&lt;p&gt;I’m not denying any allegation made against FB, but why is it that Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and Hollywood get a pass when they’ve been damaging America for much longer than FB has existed?&lt;p&gt;If the government sees a problem and wants to get involved - great. But let’s hold an equal bar.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gorwell</author><text>I agree, and further it smacks of Manufactured Consent. First, notice the surge in specifically anti-facebook stories over the past month.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hn.algolia.com&amp;#x2F;?dateRange=pastMonth&amp;amp;page=0&amp;amp;prefix=false&amp;amp;query=facebook&amp;amp;sort=byPopularity&amp;amp;type=story&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hn.algolia.com&amp;#x2F;?dateRange=pastMonth&amp;amp;page=0&amp;amp;prefix=fa...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;While twitter and the corporate media are largely absent from the same scrutiny, as you note. They are just as responsible for eroding democratic norms, eroding trust and whipping up the public into a frothing, misinformed rage.&lt;p&gt;Now this culminates with an impeccably credentialed, rich, Harvard elite `whistleblower` who is largely repeating what we&amp;#x27;ve long known? And who just started a twitter account and web site while on a whirlwind tour. And who is roundly supported by the corporate media and government. This doesn&amp;#x27;t strike me as speaking truth to power. It&amp;#x27;s the opposite.&lt;p&gt;Contrast with Snowden, who came out with new revelations and  knowingly took on a great amount of risk to do so. There was no anti-NSA media surge leading up to his appearance. He was not embraced by the ruling class. Rather he infuriated them. That is speaking truth to power.&lt;p&gt;What we are seeing is the ruling class desperately trying to reassert control over the flow of information. Using facebook as a mechanism to take back control is smart, clearly. Both sides of the aisle want to regulate them. Mark is not a sympathetic character. People want to see a powerful corporation and CEO finally get more than a slap on the wrist. We thirst for a hanging. It appears they are going to give it to us, but I fear we will regret it in the end. As the response will reach far beyond the walls of facebook.&lt;p&gt;To understand the dynamic we are seeing play out, the book `Revolt of the Public` is worth reading.&lt;p&gt;“All over the world, elite institutions from governments to media to academia are losing their authority and monopoly control of information to dynamic amateurs and the broader public. This book, until now only in samizdat (and Kindle) form, has been my #1 handout for the last several years to anyone seeking to understand this unfolding shift in power from hierarchies to networks in the age of the Internet.” --Marc Andreessen&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Revolt-Public-Crisis-Authority-Millennium&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;1732265143&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Revolt-Public-Crisis-Authority-Millen...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title> Facebook Whistleblower Leaks Thousands of Pages of Incriminating Internal Docs</title><url>https://www.npr.org/2021/10/04/1042921981/facebook-whistleblower-renewing-scrutiny-of-social-media-giant</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ozzythecat</author><text>I don’t personally use FB and don’t have a very favorable view of their products.&lt;p&gt;I would, however, like to see the same level scrutiny applied to the general American media, especially the news media. FB has come in and started eating their lunch. There’s a deeper problem here, and it feels more like the powers that he want to take down FB.&lt;p&gt;I’m not denying any allegation made against FB, but why is it that Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and Hollywood get a pass when they’ve been damaging America for much longer than FB has existed?&lt;p&gt;If the government sees a problem and wants to get involved - great. But let’s hold an equal bar.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>philwelch</author><text>The elephant in the room here is the First Amendment. The government, legally, cannot do anything to censor &amp;quot;hate speech&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;misinformation&amp;quot; on CNN or Fox News. They also can&amp;#x27;t do anything to censor &amp;quot;hate speech&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;misinformation&amp;quot; on Facebook, but they can certainly harass Facebook into doing it for them.</text></comment>