Facebook, By Its Very Design, Cannot Avert the Tragedies it Creates

Recently, Facebook has suffered some difficulties that were caused by its very design. It’s clear now that one of the features of large, complex social services is that they contain within themselves the seeds of tragedy. Worse, thanks to the money at stake, there’s no remedy. Not even a tough-to-implement one.

Facebook has the popularity and power to become the new Web of Trust – and the features are already in place (Image Credit: geralt)

Two recent tragedies come to mind. The first has been the systematic exploitation of how Facebook functions to distort the news, influence Facebook subscribers and even promote the interests of a hostile foreign government.

The second event was an abuse by a subscriber so horrendous it brought national attention to the foundations of how Facebook is used. “Father in Thailand Kills 11-Month-Old Daughter Live on Facebook.”

In the first case, Facebook has issued a report that, according to The Verge, “details a comprehensive plan for dealing with what Facebook calls ‘information operations’ — any sustained attempt by an organized force to distort public discourse.” The Verge analyzes the 13 page report here: “The most important part of Facebook’s disinformation strategy is what it leaves out.”

Facebook After Action Report

Author Russell Brandom has some interesting and depressing things to say about this Facebook report.

In some ways, Facebook faces an impossible task.

But what we’re left with is the real prospect of foreign powers manipulating public discourse, and no clear way to fix it.

As a result, what should be a reassuring document ends up as an admission of defeat.

No matter how one feels about Facebook, it’s slowly becoming clear that the very design of Facebook naturally leads to the exploits and abuses described above. In the case of that horrid video, CEO Mark Zuckerberg may suggest that Facebook will do a better job filtering those kinds of videos, but it’s really just a continuing game of whack-a-mole.

I’ve heard it said that a uniquely American psychology is that we think we can fix any social problem, no matter how difficult. However, some things just can’t be fixed by their very design, complexity, size, and financial ties.

It seems to me there are only two approaches. The first is to remain stuck amongst the Facebook goings on, remain immersed in the wretched hive and slowly become more and more depressed.

The second is to delete your account and go skiing.

Next Page: The News Debris For The Week Of April 24th. False narratives about Apple.

Page 2 – News Debris For The Week Of April 24th

False Narratives About Apple

Not everything going on with Apple is in great shape. But Apple remains a great company, and one shouldn’t fall for the logical fallacy that because some things are going wrong that everything is going wrong.

The spaceship building at Apple Park.

And yet that very fallacy is used to treat everything that Apple does as an opportunity for criticism. After all, if we only wrote about the modest number of real problems Apple has, there wouldn’t be enough material to keep journalists busy five days a week.

Every so often, I’ve found, it helps to stabilize one’s perceptions of Apple. There’s no better way to do that than to read the works of Daniel Eran Dilger at Apple Insider.  In this three part series. author Dilger examines the false narratives that have been building up around Apple. I highly recommend this body of work.

• A very false narrative: Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Apple’s iPhone


• A very false narrative: Microsoft Surface vs Apple iPad, Mac


• A very false narrative: Apple Watch and the future of wearables

Autor Dilger has an incredible grasp of historical facts that he uses to great effect. And when he’s not reminding us of the historical record, he bursts the balloons of pompous, self-serving observers. Like this:

Apple releases sales data to transparently inform its investors, not to impress tech columnists. It’s incredible that some of the same people perpetuating these false narratives are also insisting that it’s “time for Apple to release Watch [sales] data,” as if Apple were a representative democracy run by the popular whimsy blowing from the least competent and intelligent members of society.

If you read nothing else I point you to this week, read this trio above.

More Debris

4K/UHD TV technology is amazing. The introduction of High Dynamic Range (HDR) has just about eliminated the excuse that HD is good enough. Often, however, the technical discussion elicits a response from readers that there’s “no content.”

While it’s true that 4K content, let alone 4K content with HDR, is still limited, it’s helpful to monitor the content situation. There always comes a tipping poing when even the most conservative viewer is ready to embrace what’s available. To help with that, here’s a nice summary from hdreport . “4K UHD Movies & TV Shows.” It’s nicely organized.

For the cord cutters, Glenn Fleishman has posted a nifty tutorial. “How to turn your Mac into a digital video recorder for over-the-air TV.”

The distinguished Tim Berners-Lee is considered the father of the World Wide Web and even wrote the first browser for the Mac in the early 1990s—even before Mosaic. Here are his recent thoughts at The Guardian. “Tim Berners-Lee: selling private citizens’ browsing data is ‘disgusting’.” It’s a good interview.

And along those lines, Re/code brings us down to earth in a discussion about the attempt to purchase the browsing history of individuals, namely U.S. lawmakers. It turns out to be more difficult than a GoFundMe campaign thought it would be. “GoFundMe campaigns to buy lawmakers’ web histories raised hundreds of thousands of dollars — then failed to deliver.”

Related: Previously, I didn’t have space for this gem by Mike Wehner at BGR, one that seems to have been overlooked, especially by that GoFundMe campaign. “Sorry, but nobody actually cares about your web browsing history.” Author Wehner writes: “Gerard Lewis, Comcast’s chief privacy officer, told Reuters:”

We do not sell our broadband customers’ individual web browsing history. We did not do it before the FCC’s rules were adopted, and we have no plans to do so.

Wait. Ski season is over. Time for tennis. Sun. Exercise. Perspective.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the tmo headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holidays.

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