[aviraldg]

Please stop assuming everyone shares your values and beliefs. Personally, I think that while there is some mismanagement at Facebook (that can be fixed) most of the issues brought up can probably be expected from anyone in this problem space at this scale. Facebook has allowed me to discover a lot of opportunities and connect with some long lost friends, so I would say the cost is worth it.

[thomasjudge]

I do agree with this part of the statement from the company: "If any research had identified an exact solution to these complex challenges, the tech industry, governments, and society would have solved them a long time ago." The social costs of social media are complex, and solutions are not obvious. Unfortunately it's likely that if the companies can't meaningfully address these problems on their own, congress will attempt to, and the results of that the companies may not find to their liking.

[bjt]

If you're trying to optimize for engagement AND avoid rewarding divisive content or misinformation, then yeah, that's complex and maybe impossible.

But as Haugen points out in her 60 Minutes interview, they don't _have_ to optimize for engagement above all else. They have tools to drive down divisiveness and disinformation. They just choose to leave them turned off most of the time.

[runarberg]

idk. If you found out that your product is harmful, I would expect you to stop producing it. This is the case for every other consumer products except maybe cigarettes and alcohol. For example, if they find out a car is not safe, they pull it of the market at the very least, sometimes they even issue a recall. Why do we not hold social media products to the same standards?

[wintermutestwin]

>allowed me to discover a lot of opportunities and connect with some long lost friends, so I would say the cost is worth it.

This value that they are providing should not necessitate the wholesale pillaging of user data. My data is worth way more to me than a simple weblog service. These thieves are trading trinkets for land and the natives just don't realize how valuable their land actually is. (hint - it is worth way more than FB charges their advertisers)

[otterley]

Facebook was awesome in the first few years, when the feed was merely a chronological timeline of your friends’ status updates and photos. Then, they started putting crap in the News Feed that users didn’t explicitly subscribe to, down-ranked updates by actual friends, and made it far too easy for people to amplify garbage via the Share button.

The problem is not that Facebook exists; it’s that they wrested control from their users and assigned it to themselves and their advertisers.