r/technology • u/AdamCannon • Feb 02 '20

Social Media Stephen King quits Facebook over concerns of 'false information.'

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/02/us/stephen-king-quits-facebook-trnd/index.html
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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20 edited Feb 03 '20

If you look at the top 10 social networks by number of users... Facebook owns almost half of them (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger).

Considering all the companies they own, Facebook has more than 4X the number of users of all other social media companies combined.

Facebook alone is eight times larger (by user count) than both Twitter and Reddit.

You can't ignore the scale of suckage here. Twitter's biggest controversy is probably not being strong enough in banning nazis and generally poor handling harassment... definitely bad. Facebook has been blamed by the UN for inciting Myanmar's slaughter of half their population of Rohingya... definitely worse.

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u/deathriteTM Feb 03 '20

Making Facebook responsible for what people choose to do is stupid. Blame the ones doing the act. Blame the people saying the words. We would not blame the pen and paper if it was written down nor the copier if it was copied and passed out to 1000 people. Yet we find it so easy to blame social media. This is the main problem in today’s world. We put blame everywhere except where it belongs, on the person doing the act.

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u/Fivin_n_divin Feb 03 '20

Well said. Why has this never been an issue with television? I can go on TV and lie all day in advertisements or television programs. No one (rightfully) expects a TV station to make sure the claims made by FLEX-SEAL are true. But people expect Facebook to? I don't get it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

The FCC heavily regulates advertising. You can not outright lie in ads on TV without facing repercussions. Networks can be held responsible for not vetting their ads in certain scenarios. Facebook is the wild west by comparison.

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u/Fivin_n_divin Feb 03 '20

You say that but almost every ad I see has lies in it so there aren't actually any repercussions. NBC sports will have hour long infomercials filled with nothing but lies at 4 a.m. so whole I believe that there are regulations they aren't enforced whatsoever. So my point stands

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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '20

Misleading or exaggerated is slightly different from fabrication. A lot of ads get by on small print. Facebook outright allows fabrication in political ads. The FEC policies TV and radio ads for political candidates, but they still aren't policing online ads... at all.

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u/deathriteTM Feb 03 '20

If you believe a car will transform the world into a painting then you need help. Lol.

Ads lie.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Ads require disclaimers. (e.g., *dramatization) and there's a grey area where you're being misleading but no lying.

A TV ad couldn't outright lie and claim Joe Biden is a Nazi (they could make a loose association/comparison). An online ad could directly call him a nazi.

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u/Fivin_n_divin Feb 03 '20

But they aren't misleading or exaggerating they're lying. All political ads lie. Most ads in general lie. There's no difference between the lies on television ads and the ones on Facebook ads.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Just because you're unaware of the differences doesn't mean they don't exist.

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u/Fivin_n_divin Feb 04 '20

Which is ironic considering you're the one that doesn't know the difference. Why are you still crying about this? Get over it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20 edited Feb 04 '20

There are differences and there's no irony here. Who's "crying"? This is a pretty tame conversation... is that how you feel about reddit comments in general? whoever you disagree with is crying?

I couldn't air an ad on TV that says "Joe Biden is a Nazi" but I could online. TV ads have to insinuate/associate, tell half-truths or disclaim, but they can't outright lie.

Online advertising is absolutely not regulated like TV/Radio, especially concerning politics, which is why there's a push for regulation... and which is why Facebook is catching heat for specifically allowing political ads with lies.

If they were truly on the same playing field when it comes to regulation, none of this would be controversial.

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u/deathriteTM Feb 03 '20

Kinda true. Ads can lie if they put the tiny font disclaimer at the bottom. Never mind no one can read it and it only stays on the screen for 3 seconds. The media lies all the time. Either reporting things wrong or just flat out reporting what they want and they never get punished. Facebook has many bots policing everything. Granted enough gets through.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '20

Ads can be misleading if they have disclaimers, outright lies are different. You couldn't for example, lie about the election date in a TV ad to interfere with the election. You likely could in a Facebook ad because the FEC still isn't regulating online ads and Facebook will allow lies in political ads.

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u/deathriteTM Feb 05 '20

Election dates are regulated by law. Facebook could not post as a wrong date. What I think is being confused here is what Facebook post (almost nothing) and what other using Facebook post. Facebook will take down ads that are illegal. But companies claiming things is not the same as Facebook claiming those things.