[dibstern]

Your comment reeks of hubris, hatred for Americans, and self-delusion. You question the value of ridding the world of bad-actors. Why? Why would this be a bad thing, if one company ensures it cannot accidentally allow foreign powers to interfere in elections?

You have one ‘source’ that claims, without evidence, that the impact of Russian meddling was minimal. To be so confident of your pretty big claim, with only that source to go on, that’s pretty crazy.

You also make it out like all of the US is actively working on this. Ridiculous. People all around their country are attempting to strengthen their democracy, to find ways to make it better.

That you think this is a bad thing... it makes it obvious how much you hate America. Deny it all you want. And I’m not even an American.

[dang]

Personal attacks and nationalistic flamewar, both of which you took a big step into here, will get your account banned on Hacker News. Please do not post like this, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[AndrewUnmuted]

What a bizarre reply. This kind of evasion is reminiscent of the neoconservative responses to people dubious about the Iraq war back in 2003.

Not only did the poster point to source material for his claims, he constructed a sound argument based upon the age-old wisdom of asking the question, "Who benefits?"

I didn't even see one value judgment about the US in the comment.

[aylmao]

I don't think it's a bad thing (: I'm sorry you felt my comment was of hatred towards Americans, it was not. It's mostly to provide the perspective of someone who is not from the US and who as such isn't as scared of the Trump election, and thus thinks this whole situation is about more than good and democracy vs evil and Russian tyrants.

Let me address some points:

1. Never did I mention Facebook shouldn't rid its platform of bad users-- I'm glad they are (and if this hadn't happened they probably wouldn't have, again, cause it takes time and money).

2. Never did I say Americans were dumb or insult them in any other way that should make someone believe I hate them. Saying a people is scared shouldn't be taken as an insult, many peoples and individuals are scared of different things.

3. I didn't expect this to be read as a research paper haha. I'll add more references next time. In regards to the one you pointed out (wether the Russian meddling had high impact), I'd suggest these other articles by The Verge [1] and the New York Times [2] to form an opinion. I'd also suggest watching Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN Crossfire [3]: he was talking about the loss of civilized discourse and transformation of American Politics into a divisive "me vs. you" game back in 2004, before social media was widespread.

[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17138854/cambridge-analyt...

[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/world/europe/russia-us-el...

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

[ninkendo]

> Never did I mention Facebook shouldn't rid its platform of bad users

Sure you did:

> That being said, there are inflammatory parties on the internet, and since Americans now seem to think the future of their country depends on removing them, Facebook needs to abide for the sake of PR

You're implying that the only reason Facebook would need to get rid of bad actors is "for the sake of PR", and that Americans only want to be rid of bad actors "because they're scared."

> Never did I say Americans were dumb or insult them in any other way

Sure you did, you implied through your tone throughout the comment that the desire to be rid of bad actors on facebook is a knee-jerk reaction that Americans are only making due to fear.

It's the tone of your post that is being critiqued, not explicit words you're using per se.