from Hacker News

Facebook is directly responsible for violence globally and in American society

by top_post on 9/6/20, 11:21 PM with 2 comments

• by srtjstjsj on 9/6/20, 11:31 PM

  Flamebait title.

  That's not what "directly" means, and the article never uses the word "directly" outside the headline.

• by Barrin92 on 9/6/20, 11:42 PM

  I'm confused by the focus on liability or responsibility as the relevant question when it comes to the issue, the article brings it up a lot. Is the stalker responsible who harassed someone on grindr? Are the regulators responsible? Are customers responsible? Is society responsible for being racist and enabling violence and the platforms just reflect it? Is capitalism responsible for creating an incentive to produce more verbal diarrhoea?

  I think the answer to all of those is "yes, it depends on where you're coming from", which makes it kind of futile, it's like the thing with the blind people touching the elephant

  I have a simpler question. Given that we hopefully can agree that genocide and stalking are bad, is intervention on those social platforms actually possible and is there a lever to actually prevent those things from happening?

  If the answer is yes we arguably ought to do something, if the answer is no we ought to be looking for other solutions. That seems pragmatic and more fruitful than hunting down the guilty parties in a quest for justice