Зло Фейсбука

[tijd]

Франклин Фоер продолжает свою критику технических монополий вроде Гугла и Фейсбука, противопоставляя их культуре дух "рынка идей" Джона Милтона.

Технократы склонны считать, что все общественные проблемы имеют, подобно инженерным задачам, единственное оптимальное решение. Неудивительно, что созданные ими платформы выхолащивают возможность диалога и дискуссии, в которых можно было рассматривать трудные вопросы с разных сторон и рождать истину в споре.

Facebook has made it possible to live in a filter bubble, where we don’t have to contend with the unpleasantness of confronting opinions we dislike-and where there’s a mute button to effortlessly quiet voices we would rather not hear. Mark Zuckerberg’s dream, the dream he continues to profess, even after all of the controversy, is the dream of global community-the idea of a global network that transforms the planet into a place of understanding. As we join Zuckerberg’s community, he fantasizes that the sense of connection will cause our differences to melt away-like a digital version of the old Coca Cola commercial, or, as I argue in my book, World Without Mind, a revival of the ’60s counterculture and the vision of life on a commune.
Yet the Miltonic search for truth and knowledge is all about friction, about the human growth that comes with the complications of human existence. Argument is the most important form of friction, and the distilled essence of democracy. Our public sphere has been a place of profound discomfort, because “that which purified us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.” Preservation of democratic society means that there is no escaping the trial, no fleeing from the discomfort.
In other words, preservation of democracy requires preserving this ecosystem of ideas that has miraculously persisted with us since the 17th century.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/07/the-death-of-the-public-square/564506/



Mежду тем Фейсбук преследуют другие проблемы. Британское агентство ICO оштрафовала компанию за нарушение закона о приватности частных данных при предоставлении данных Cambridge Analytica. Сумма штрафа для Фейсбука смешная, но на этом их легальные проблемы вряд ли закончатся.

Facebook is to be fined £500,000, the maximum amount possible, for its part in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the information commissioner has announced.
The fine is for two breaches of the Data Protection Act. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) concluded that Facebook failed to safeguard its users’ information and that it failed to be transparent about how that data was harvested by others.
Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach
Read more
“Facebook has failed to provide the kind of protections they are required to under the Data Protection Act,” said Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner. “Fines and prosecutions punish the bad actors, but my real goal is to effect change and restore trust and confidence in our democratic system.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/11/facebook-fined-for-data-breaches-in-cambridge-analytica-scandal

Just to sum up. 1) Facebook broke the law. 2) Cambridge Analytica broke the law. 3) Vote Leave broke the law. 4) LeaveEU broke the law. 5) Brexit and Trump were both won through breaking the law. 6) Facebook let it all happen and covered it up. https://t.co/CAOrP5rKry
- Christopher Wylie 🏳️‍🌈 (@chrisinsilico) July 11, 2018

Отставка Бориса Джонсона и других министров является симптомом сложностей, которые британское общество испытывает с перевариванием правды о жульничестве, связанном с Брекзитом, включая российское вмешательство. Пока Guardian расследует эту тему с упорством бульдога, BBC продолжает тщательно обходить ее стороной, по всей видимости опасаясь разбередить раны в обществе.

A story such as Brexit is paralysingly difficult for the BBC, just as Donald Trump has tied much of the established, studiedly impartial US media up in knots. If there are problems, it wants there to be problems on both sides, equally. (For that reason, the fact that the information commissioner is also fining Emma’s Diary, a website aimed at new mothers, for selling the personal data of 1 million people to Labour, may lead to an increase in BBC coverage.) It’s hard for it to report allegations that the Brexit case in the referendum was pushed dishonestly, just as it’s hard for it to report that the Brexit case is unravelling now.
But the BBC needs to put aside those fears and report the facts as they stand, facts which are becoming ever clearer. That, surely, is its primary duty.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/11/bbc-downplaying-facebook-brexit-scandal-bias



Между тем Cambridge Analytica оказалась не единственной компанией, с которой Фейсбук делился данными пользователей. Среди других компаний доступ был предоставлен также Mail.ru - российской компании, давно сидящей под колпаком спецслужб.

According to Facebook, Mail.ru was given a two-week extension to wind down a feature on two messaging apps that enabled users to see their Facebook friend lists and message with people who also had the Mail.ru apps. During the extension, at least, the app only had access to people's friend lists, not any information about those friends' likes or interests. And yet, long before that extension was in place, Facebook says Mail.ru ran hundreds of apps on the platform, all of which operated under Facebook's old rules, which did allow app developers to collect their users' friends' data. Some of those apps began operating as early as 2009.
"Some apps were built prior to the platform change in 2015, so they did have access to the earlier version of our platform," a Facebook spokesperson said. "That made it possible for users to consent to sharing information about themselves, as well as their friends."
https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-gave-russian-internet-giant-special-data-extension