I keep reading that guardian article with that interview they did with kieran culkin and now I'm starting to think that interview was a set up.

I think it was maybe a set up to get something out of him but idk really

Also uh, Kieran says in that interview that he doesn't want to say anything bc it'll "hurt someone" well if that's the case, WHOMST is he protecting

And I was on twitter and I'm just gonna quote some tweets I agree with here:

*OP posts ET version of the guardian article*

Person: "Whether he thinks MJ is innocent or guilty or has doubt he’s being careful and respectful about it. Good for him, he’s smart"

OP: "Very smart. I respect him for that. He's clearly protecting those he cares deeply about and trying not to hurt or compromise them. I respect that so much more than those that just come out and flatly deny anything could possibly have happened."

This whole case is starting to remind me of the Dan Schneider thing, but I really do hope both Macaulay and Kieran are okay.

Survey #438

“i won’t let you die, keep you alive just to remind you of what you are not”

What is your favorite card game? Probably Magic: The Gathering, even though I'm not great at it. I just ADORE the artwork, mainly. Is YouTube one of your favorite websites? Yeah, given I'm constantly on it. Does your mother have a sister? If so, what’s her name? Yeah, named Kelly. What are you doing tomorrow? I'll be going with Mom to the pool at the gym. She goes Tuesdays and Thursday, so I'm going to start joining her to help ease soreness from my exercise days. Would you ever want to go to Africa? It's high on my bucket list! I am DESPERATE to visit the KMP and photograph and pet and pamper the meerkats. :') Last time you went bowling? Not since I was on a date with Girt. Would you ever want to own a bakery? Noooo, I don't enjoy cooking of any sort. I'm way too impatient. Do you like to text? It's funny, I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. I make typos too much and autocorrect only wants to work at the WRONG time, it seems. I'd still rather text than actually talk on the phone, though. You want your next pet to be what? To be realistic, it'll probably be a western hognose snake. I REALLY want a tarantula, but Mom absolutely will not allow it for as long as I live with her, lol. Trust me, I've pestered her about it. Would you rather be a vampire or a mermaid? Eh, probably a vampire. Do you prefer white or black electronics? Black. Do you like Nerds candy? Yeah. Is your favorite animal something you can have as a pet? I could write a college-length essay on why you absolutely shouldn't, but it's sadly legal in some countries. Thankfully, not America. What was the last classic novel you read? Did you enjoy it? Oh yikes, I have no idea. Name three movies which have a soundtrack you really love: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Tarzan, and The Blair Witch Project: Book of Shadows. What’s the scariest video game you’ve ever played? I know it's super cliche, but I genuinely found Outlast terrifying. As well, SCP Containment Breach is a game I can't even play because the jumpscares startle me too much, lol. They're just too loud. Do you own any pet fish? What kind of fish are they? No. I'm not really interested in keeping fish as pets. What is the most irritating thing that a boyfriend or girlfriend has ever done to you? Tyler wanted to talk CONSTANTLY. Barely even two weeks in and he got all bent out of shape over there being days we just didn't text. Like dude, especially this early in a relationship, I don't want to talk 24/7. He acted like we were together for years or some shit. Like sorry I want alone time. That relationship was just a bad idea. Have you ever known someone who was in an abusive relationship? Sadly. Out of all of your friends/relatives, who would you say has the best vocabulary? Probably Girt. He's just in general very smart. When yawning, do you cover your mouth? If out in public, yes. If you had a garden, what would you plant in it? Would you actually tend to it, or would it wind up neglected & withered? I could NEVER maintain a garden, but if I had the motivation and tolerance for the heat, that'd be nice. I'd love mostly flowers, and a grapevine would be pretty! Plus some strawberries. Do you like peanut butter? Yeah, definitely. What about marshmallows? Yep. How do you roast your marshmallows? They have to be BARELY brown at all. Like it has to be the liiightest toast. Do you eat s’mores? Ugh, hell yes. I really want some now, thanks. Own a lava lamp? No, but I'd love a pink one. :( Or black. Own any sort of glow-in-the-dark room accessory? No. Ever done something sexual in public? No, I have common decency. Do you like the taste of squid or eel? I COULD FUCKING NEVER TRY EITHER. Slimy or rubbery stuff like that is such a massive no. Ever date anybody in middle school? Yeah, Aaron in the 7th grade for a few months. Did you like to get dirty when you were little? I think I did. Like I know I loved speeding through mud puddles on my bike as a kid. Own anything that has to do with dragons or unicorns? I have a lot of dragon decor. Ever wanted to be a vet? Yep. Ever written your number in a public bathroom or a school text book? If so, did anyone actually call you? No. What type of weapon do you prefer? Uh, none...? I don't like weapons. Is there something that you haven’t told anyone that you actually would like to tell someone? No, not really. Would you rather watch a full season of American Idol, or So You Think You Can Dance? The latter, by far. I used to love that show. I really enjoy watching dances. Have you ever worn boxers? Pretty sure no? Last hickey was from? I've only gotten to that point with one person, you can figure it out. Have you ever put a kick me sign on the back of someone? No, that is so rude. Are there any inappropriate pictures of you anywhere? No. I've never taken an inappropriate picture. How many times do you tend to sneeze in a row? Two or three. Karma; believe or don’t? I don't believe it's a thing. I wish it was. Ever changed a diaper? Once. Or maybe twice? No plans on ever doing that again. When you see anything smaller than a quarter on the ground, do you pick it up? I don't even pick quarters up, really. Can bald guys ever be attractive? Um, yes? Do you like hugs? Yessss. Would you ever donate blood? Yeah, I have before. I'd just have to get better about drinking water so I don't faint. Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth? No. Ever had the opposite sex over when no one was home? You make that sound so scandalous, lmao. Yeah. What is the last song to make you cry? "Another Life" by Motionless In White. Have you ever kissed someone in the rain? Yeah. Have you kissed someone with braces? No. Are you anyone’s first love? I don't believe so. Anything happen to you within the past month that made you really happy? I'M LOSING WEIGHTTTTTT. :') The gym is paying off! Is there a person of the opposite gender on your mind? That's kinda a permanent thing. He's always there, even if only in the back. Who was the last person to wink at you? My cat, ha ha. Did you parents know what gender you were before you were born? Yes. Are any of your really close friends pregnant right now? REALLY close friends, nope. Are you for or against inter-racial relationships? ... You know it's 2021, right???? This never should have been controversial. Have you ever been addicted to something unhealthy? Well, there's caffeine... When the holidays come around, do you watch holiday movies? No. When was the last time someone insulted you? What was the insult? I don't recall. Do you say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” in order to avoid offending people who don’t celebrate Christmas? I honestly just say "merry Christmas." Have you ever made/played with a sock puppet before? Yes. Have you ever seen a waterfall (aside from in a fountain or other manmade things)? Only small ones. Are you a frequent sufferer of heartburn? Yes; I actually have a prescription for chronic heartburn. If I don't take it, I'll get heartburn to the point I come near tears. How many different colleges have you gone to? Three. How much stress can you handle? Ha, not a lot at all. What is one thing you thought you’d never do but have done or are doing? I'm 25 and feel like I've just... wasted so much, and I continue to. I never thought I'd make it to this age and to have gone so short a distance in terms of being a successful adult. Have you ever disowned a friend or family member for their beliefs? I've stopped being friends with people, yes. Do you ever feel like your life is too boring or predictable? It 120% is. Do you think you will die happy? To be honest... I think no a lot of the time. Do you like looking at pictures? Yeah. Are you a submissive person? Very. Do you believe the dead can have connections with the living? I do. What are your views on the death penalty? I support it in extreme cases. Once you prove to be a thorough monster that deeply endangers other humans... you don't deserve life. We as a society have to work together, not destroy one another. Do you like horror movies? Why or why not? Yeah! I like the thrill of them. Would you ever be able to become a vegan? No; I am FAR too picky with my food. I want to be vegan, but I just wouldn't survive. What was your favorite toy as a child? I had a whole story based around some plastic dinosaurs, alligators, deer, and Pokemon figurines. Who was your first best friend? What is your favorite memory of/with them? Are you two still friends? Brianna. I don't know what my favorite memory is... We made a lot. We're Facebook friends, but we don't talk anymore. Would you rather hang out with someone who is always high or someone who constantly wants to get drunk all the time? High, I guess. Drunk people I think get sloppier and, in some cases, angry. The (few) high people I've been around have just been chill and friendly. How did you meet your newest friend? I'm not entirely sure who I consider to be my newest friend. The last time you kissed someone, were your arms around their neck? I don't think so? I'm pretty sure I was just hugging her around the waist. You have to get a facial piercing, what do you get? I've mentioned how I wanna get my nose re-pierced in multiple surveys. Do you straighten your hair? No. When is the next time you will see the person you like? Who knows, dude. I really want to be able to walk for two minutes without feeling like I'm dying before I go to an airport again, and even more importantly, even as a fully-vaccinated person, I want Covid to chill out before I travel again. And who the fuck knows when that'll be since people don't want to listen to goddamn professionals. Did you get to sleep in today? I actually slept through my alarm and was late to gym today. :x Your first dog? I was born into the family with a collie named Trigger, but she passed when I was a baby, so I don't have any memories of her. We got what I want to say was a Rottweiler mix named Angel at one point, who I consider our first family dog, but she was born with that disease that some puppies have where they just... die. Who I consider MY first REAL dog was Teddy. <3 Stood loyally by my side as my furry son and most devoted friend for around 13 years. Do you prefer mint, citrus, or cinnamon toothpaste? Mint. Are you one of those people who are always cold? No, I'm always hot. Have you done anything sneaky lately? No. Have you ever had feelings for someone and thought “This is the person I want to be with forever”? Yeah, twice. Do you keep notes, drawings or letters that people give you? Of course! Have you had a significant other that you never kissed? Well, boyfriends, but I wouldn't count the ones I haven't kissed as truly "significant other"s. Has anybody ever dated you only for your looks? I don't think so. Do you have any handshakes with anybody? Nah. What are you listening to? "Necessary Evil" by Motionless In White & Jonathan Davis. Would you take back your last boyfriend/girlfriend? Yeah. Who is your favorite band? How long have they been? Ozzy Osbourne. Since middle school. Who is your favorite author? I don't have a fave. Do you like cheesecake? BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH- How did you meet the last person you kissed? YouTube, back when it had more social aspects. Do you wake up cranky? Not usually, no. I'm actually in my best mood in the morning. Have you ever met your favorite band/singer? No, but holy fuck would that be awesome. I want to thank him for his music so badly. Do you have a good relationship with your parent(s)? Yeah. Has the last person you kissed ever been to your house? My old house, yes, but not this one. Do chickens have feelings? Yes. Have you ever been to a spa? Yeah, even though I really wasn't interested. I just went with Colleen because she invited me. I appreciated her wanting to hang out and include me of course, so I was happy to go, but it's not something I'd do of my own volition. The last time you were in the fridge, what were you looking for? The lemonade. Favorite South Park character? I don't have one, given I'm not interested in the show. How often do you have to shave? When/where I shave grows back FAST, so frequently. Ever go ghost hunting? No but omg I'd love to. Someone date me just to go do this together one night lmao. Do you have any family in the military? No. Can you talk to your mother about most things? I know I CAN talk to her about absolutely everything, but I don't always. Would you ever homeschool your children? If they wanted it and it'd be beneficial to their health and educational success, then yes. Are you afraid of change? Oh boy, am I. Who’s your favourite character from one of your favourite books? I'll go with The Outsiders, in which case I remember it was Dally.

Why Zuckerbergs 14-Year Apology Tour Hasnt Fixed Facebook

In 2003, one year before Facebook was founded, an internet site announced Facemash began nonconsensually cleaning pictures of students at Harvard from the school’s intranet and expecting customers to frequency their hotness. Clearly, it began an protest. The website’s developer speedily proffered an apology. “I hope you understand, this is not how I symbolize for things to go, and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect to consider how quickly the site would spread and its consequences subsequently, ” wrote a young Mark Zuckerberg. “I surely see how my meanings could be seen in the wrong light.” In 2004 Zuckerberg cofounded Facebook, which rapidly spread from Harvard to other universities. And in 2006 the young busines blindsided its users with the launching of News Feed, which assembled and presented in one target information that beings has hitherto had to sought for piecemeal. Countless useds were outraged and fright that there was no warning and that there were no privacy ascertains. Zuckerberg rationalized. “This was a big mistake on our component, and I’m sorry for it, ” he wrote on Facebook’s blog. “We really shambled this one up, ” he read. “We did a bad errand of clarifying what the brand-new pieces were and an as bad enterprise of giving you verify of them.” Zeynep Tufekci( @zeynep) is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina and an mind writer for The New York Times. She lately wrote about the( democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech. Then in 2007, Facebook’s Beacon advertising system, which was launched without suitable ascendancies or acquiesce, discontinued up compromising user privacy by making people’s acquisitions public. Fifty thousand Facebook customers indicated an e-petition titled “Facebook: Stop conquering my privacy.” Zuckerberg responded with an regret: “We plainly did a bad hassle with this release and I apologize for it.” He promised to improve. “I’m not proud of the way we’ve treated this situation and I know we can do better, ” he wrote. By 2008, Zuckerberg had written only four poles on Facebook’s blog: Every single one of them was an justification or an attempt to explain a decision that had unnerved users. In 2010, after Facebook infringed useds’ privacy by making key types of information populace without proper approval or forewarn, Zuckerberg again responded with an apology–this time published in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “We just missed the mark, ” he mentioned. “We examined the feedback, ” he included. “There needs to be a simpler style to control your information.” “In the coming weeks, we will include privacy controls that are much simpler to application, ” he promised. I’m going to run out of space here, so let’s hop to 2018 and skip over all the other accidents and justifications and have committed themselves to do better–oh yeah, and the approval fiat that the Federal Trade Commission formed Facebook sign in 2011, billing that the company had deceptively predicted privacy to its useds and then frequently break-dance that promise–in the intervening years. Last month, Facebook once again garnered widespread attention with a privacy related backfire when it became widely known that, between 2008 and 2015, it had allowed hundreds, maybe thousands, of apps to scrape voluminous data from Facebook users–not just from the users who had downloaded the apps, but more detail from all their friends as well. One such app was run by a Cambridge University academic called Aleksandr Kogan, who apparently siphoned up detailed data on up to 87 million consumers in the United States and then surreptitiously sent the plunder to the political data firm Cambridge Analytica. The happen made a lot of disorder because it connects to the flattening storey of bias in the 2016 US presidential election. But in reality, Kogan’s app was just one among numerous, many apps that amassed an enormous amount of information in a manner that is most Facebook users was totally unaware of. At first Facebook indignantly represented itself, claiming that people had consented to these calls; after all, the disclosures were implanted somewhere in the thick-witted communication surrounding obscure used privacy ensures. Parties were ask questions it, in other words. But the backlash wouldn’t die down. Aiming to respond to the growing anger, Facebook announced changes. “It’s Day to Stir Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find”, the company announced without a clue of irony–or any other kind of hint–that Zuckerberg had promised to do just that in the “coming few weeks” eight full years ago. On the company blog, Facebook’s chief privacy editor expressed the view that instead of being “spread across roughly 20 different screens”( why were they ever spread all over the place ?), the assures would now finally be in one place. Zuckerberg again went on an confession expedition, giving interviews to The New York Times, CNN, Recode, WIRED, and Vox( but not to the Guardian and Observer reporters who broke the tale ). In each interrogation he rationalized. “I’m really sorry that this happened, ” he told CNN. “This was surely a breach of trust.” But Zuckerberg didn’t stop at an apologetic this time. He likewise protected Facebook as an “idealistic company” that cares about its users and spoke disparagingly about rival business that charge users fund for their commodities while maintaining a strong chronicle in protecting user privacy. In his interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, Zuckerberg said that any person who is reputes Apple attends more about useds than Facebook does has “Stockholm syndrome”–the phenomenon whereby captives start yearning and marking with their captors. This is an interesting argument coming from the CEO of Facebook, a company that essentially supports its consumers’ data hostage. Yes, Apple accuses amply for its products, but it also includes boosted encryption hardware on all its telephones, hands timely protection updates to its entire user cornerstone, and has largely locked itself out of user data–to the chagrin of many governments, including that of the United States, and of Facebook itself. Most Android phones, by distinguish, gravely lag behind in receiving security revises, have no specialized encryption hardware, and often handle privacy limitations in a way that is detrimental to user sakes. Few governments or companionships complain about Android phones. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it came to dawn that Facebook had been downloading and preventing all the textbook themes of its users on the Android platform–their content as well as their metadata. “The consumers consented! ” Facebook again hollered out. But people were soon affixing screenshots that showed how difficult it was for a merely someone to see that’s what was going on, let alone figure out how to opt out, on the indistinct permission screen that flashed before users. On Apple telephones, however, Facebook couldn’t harvest people’s text messages because the permissions wouldn’t allow it. In the same interview, Zuckerberg made wide-cut is targeted at the oft-repeated notion that, if an online service is free, you–the user–are the produce. He said that he found the contention that “if you’re not compensating that somehow we can’t am worried about you, considered extremely glib-tongued and not at all aligned with the truth.” His rebuttal to that accusation, nonetheless, was itself glib; and as for whether it was aligned with the truth–well, we just “re going to have to” take his statement for it. “To the frustration of our sales unit here, ” he supposed, “I make all of our decisions based on what’s going to are important to local communities and centre much less on the advertising side of the business.” As far as I can tell , not once in his apology expedition was Zuckerberg asked what on earth he signifies when he refers to Facebook’s 2 billion-plus consumers as “a community” or “the Facebook community.” A parish is a set of people with reciprocal claims, powers, and responsibilities. If Facebook actually were a community, Zuckerberg would not be able to induce so many statements about unilateral decisions he has made–often, as he boasts in countless interrogations, in defiance of Facebook’s shareholders and many factions of the company’s personnel. Zuckerberg’s decisions are final, since he powers all the voting stock in Facebook, and always will until he decides not to–it’s just the action he has structured the company. This isn’t a community; this is a government of one-sided, highly profitable surveillance, be carried forward on a proportion that has realise Facebook one of the largest companies in the world by grocery capitalization. Facebook’s 2 billion customers are not Facebook’s “community.” They are its user locate, and they have been repeatedly carried along by the decisions of the one person who controls the platform. These customers have invested season and coin in improving their social networks on Facebook, yet they have no means to port the connectivity abroad. Whenever a serious competitor to Facebook has arisen, the company to expeditiously replica it( Snapchat) or obtained it( WhatsApp, Instagram ), often at a mind-boggling cost that simply a behemoth with massive money substitutes could afford. Nor do people have any means to completely stop being moved by Facebook. The surveillance follows them not just on the scaffold, but elsewhere on the internet–some of them apparently can’t even text their friends without Facebook trying to snoop in on those discussions. Facebook doesn’t merely collect data itself; it has obtained external data from data intermediaries; it creates “shadow profiles” of nonusers and is now attempting to match offline data to its online profiles. Again, this isn’t a community; this is a regime of one-sided, highly profitable surveillance, carried out on a flake that has made Facebook one of greater fellowships in the world by busines capitalization. There is no other channel to perform Facebook’s privacy conquering moves over the years–even if it’s time to simplify! finally !– as anything other than decisions driven by a mix of self-serving inclinations: namely, gain rationales, the structural incentives intrinsic to the company’s business pose, and the one-sided ideology of its founders and some administrations. All these are forces over which the subscribers themselves have little input, aside from the regular given an opportunity to grouse through repeated gossips. And even the ideology–a ambiguou thinking that claims to prize openness and connectivity with little to say about privacy and other values–is one that does not seem to apply to people who race Facebook or work for it. Zuckerberg buys lives circumventing his and tapes over his computer’s camera to perpetuate his own privacy, and company employees get up in arms when a contentious internal memoranda that made an debate for growing at all costs was recently revealed to the press–a nonconsensual, surprising, and awkward disclosure of the species that Facebook has regularly imposed upon its billions of users over the years. This isn’t to allege Facebook doesn’t specify real value to its useds, even as it locks them in through network accomplishes and by suppressing, buying, and mimicking its rivalry. I wrote a whole volume in which I document, among other things, how useful Facebook has been to anticensorship efforts of all the countries. It doesn’t even mean that Facebook executives make all decisions purely to increase the company valuation or benefit, or that they don’t care about customers. But various things can be true at the same occasion; all of this is quite complicated. And fundamentally, Facebook’s business model and foolhardy mode of operating are a heavyweight knife threatening the health and well-being of the public sphere and the privacy of its useds in many countries. So, here’s the thing. There is indeed a instance of Stockholm syndrome here. There are very few other situation in which person or persons will also be able to make a series of decisions that have obviously improved them while diminishing its protection and well-being of billions of parties; to shape mostly the same justification for those decisions countless hours over the gap of precisely 14 years; and then to declare innocence, idealism, and full independence from the obvious structural incentives that have influenced the whole process. This should commonly stimulate all the other instructed, literate, and smart beings in the apartment to break into howls of rally or humour. Or perhaps tears. Facebook has tens of thousands of works, and apparently an open culture with strong internal meetings. Insiders often talk of how free works find to speak up, and really I’ve frequently been told how they are encouraged to differ and discuss all the key issues. Facebook has an instructed workforce. By now, it ought to be plain to them, and to everyone, that Facebook’s 2 billion-plus customers are surveilled and profiled, that their attention is then sold to advertisers and, it seems, basically anyone else who will pay Facebook–including unsavory authoritarians like the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte. That is Facebook’s business model. That is why the company has an almost half-a-trillion-dollar market capitalisation, together with billions in spare money to buy competitors. These are such readily apparent points that any negation of them is quite astounding. And hitherto, it appears that nobody around Facebook’s sovereign and singular ruler has managed to convince their master that these are blindingly obvious truths whose following may well provide us with some suggestions of a healthier acces forwards. That the repeated term of the use “community” to refer Facebook’s useds is not appropriate and is, in fact, misleading. That the constant repetition of “sorry” and “we intended well” and “we will define it this time! ” to refer to what is basically the same sellout over 14 times should no longer be accepted as a have committed themselves to work better, but should rather be seen as but one indication of a profound crisis of accountability. When a large chorus of beings outside the company invokes frights on a regular basis, it’s not a sufficient explanation to say, “Oh “were in” blindsided( again ). ” Maybe, just perhaps, that is the case of Stockholm syndrome we should be focusing on. Zuckerberg’s outright denial that Facebook’s business sakes frisk a powerful role in mold its behavior doesn’t augur well for Facebook’s chances of doing better in the future. I don’t disbelieve that the company has, on occasion, regarded itself back from bad behaviour. That doesn’t move Facebook that exceptional , nor does it justify its existing selections , nor does it adapt the facts of the case that its business pose is profoundly driving its actions. At a minimum, Facebook has long necessary an ombudsman’s power with real teeth and ability: the two institutions within the company that they are able act as a check on its worst compulsions and to protect its useds. And it needs a lot more employees whose task is to keep the programme healthier. But what the fuck is absolutely be disorderly and innovative would be for Facebook to alter its business representation. Such a change could come from within, or it could be driven by regulations on data retention and opaque, surveillance-based targeting–regulations that would make such practices least profitable or even forbidden. Facebook will respond to the latest crisis by remaining more of its data within its own walls( of course, that fits well with the business of accusing third party for access to users based on extensive profiling with data held by Facebook, so this is no sacrifice ). Sure, it’s good that Facebook is now promising not to spill user data to ruthless third party; but it should eventually allow genuinely independent researchers better( and secure , not foolhardy) access to the company’s data in order to probe the real effects of the platform. Thus far, Facebook has not cooperated with independent investigates who want to study it. Such investigation would be essential to informing the kind of political discussion we need to have about the trade-offs inherent in how Facebook, and definitely all of social media, operate. Even without that independent investigation, one thing is clear: Facebook’s sole sovereign is neither are available to , nor should he be in a position to, make all these decisions by himself, and Facebook’s long predominate of unaccountability should end. Facebook in Crisis Initially, Facebook used to say Cambridge Analytica get illegal access to some 50 million users’ data. The social network has now raised that figure to 87 million. Next week, Mark Zuckerberg will certify before Congress. The topic on our recollections: How can Facebook foreclose the next crisis if its general principles is and always has been connection at all cost? Facebook has a long record of privacy gaffes. Here are just some. http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/06/11/why-zuckerbergs-14-year-apology-tour-hasnt-fixed-facebook/

Why Zuckerbergs 14-Year Apology Tour Hasnt Fixed Facebook

In 2003, one year before Facebook was founded, an internet site announced Facemash began nonconsensually cleaning pictures of students at Harvard from the school’s intranet and expecting customers to frequency their hotness. Clearly, it began an protest. The website’s developer speedily proffered an apology. “I hope you understand, this is not how I symbolize for things to go, and I apologize for any harm done as a result of my neglect to consider how quickly the site would spread and its consequences subsequently, ” wrote a young Mark Zuckerberg. “I surely see how my meanings could be seen in the wrong light.” In 2004 Zuckerberg cofounded Facebook, which rapidly spread from Harvard to other universities. And in 2006 the young busines blindsided its users with the launching of News Feed, which assembled and presented in one target information that beings has hitherto had to sought for piecemeal. Countless useds were outraged and fright that there was no warning and that there were no privacy ascertains. Zuckerberg rationalized. “This was a big mistake on our component, and I’m sorry for it, ” he wrote on Facebook’s blog. “We really shambled this one up, ” he read. “We did a bad errand of clarifying what the brand-new pieces were and an as bad enterprise of giving you verify of them.” Zeynep Tufekci( @zeynep) is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina and an mind writer for The New York Times. She lately wrote about the( democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech. Then in 2007, Facebook’s Beacon advertising system, which was launched without suitable ascendancies or acquiesce, discontinued up compromising user privacy by making people’s acquisitions public. Fifty thousand Facebook customers indicated an e-petition titled “Facebook: Stop conquering my privacy.” Zuckerberg responded with an regret: “We plainly did a bad hassle with this release and I apologize for it.” He promised to improve. “I’m not proud of the way we’ve treated this situation and I know we can do better, ” he wrote. By 2008, Zuckerberg had written only four poles on Facebook’s blog: Every single one of them was an justification or an attempt to explain a decision that had unnerved users. In 2010, after Facebook infringed useds’ privacy by making key types of information populace without proper approval or forewarn, Zuckerberg again responded with an apology–this time published in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “We just missed the mark, ” he mentioned. “We examined the feedback, ” he included. “There needs to be a simpler style to control your information.” “In the coming weeks, we will include privacy controls that are much simpler to application, ” he promised. I’m going to run out of space here, so let’s hop to 2018 and skip over all the other accidents and justifications and have committed themselves to do better–oh yeah, and the approval fiat that the Federal Trade Commission formed Facebook sign in 2011, billing that the company had deceptively predicted privacy to its useds and then frequently break-dance that promise–in the intervening years. Last month, Facebook once again garnered widespread attention with a privacy related backfire when it became widely known that, between 2008 and 2015, it had allowed hundreds, maybe thousands, of apps to scrape voluminous data from Facebook users–not just from the users who had downloaded the apps, but more detail from all their friends as well. One such app was run by a Cambridge University academic called Aleksandr Kogan, who apparently siphoned up detailed data on up to 87 million consumers in the United States and then surreptitiously sent the plunder to the political data firm Cambridge Analytica. The happen made a lot of disorder because it connects to the flattening storey of bias in the 2016 US presidential election. But in reality, Kogan’s app was just one among numerous, many apps that amassed an enormous amount of information in a manner that is most Facebook users was totally unaware of. At first Facebook indignantly represented itself, claiming that people had consented to these calls; after all, the disclosures were implanted somewhere in the thick-witted communication surrounding obscure used privacy ensures. Parties were ask questions it, in other words. But the backlash wouldn’t die down. Aiming to respond to the growing anger, Facebook announced changes. “It’s Day to Stir Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find”, the company announced without a clue of irony–or any other kind of hint–that Zuckerberg had promised to do just that in the “coming few weeks” eight full years ago. On the company blog, Facebook’s chief privacy editor expressed the view that instead of being “spread across roughly 20 different screens”( why were they ever spread all over the place ?), the assures would now finally be in one place. Zuckerberg again went on an confession expedition, giving interviews to The New York Times, CNN, Recode, WIRED, and Vox( but not to the Guardian and Observer reporters who broke the tale ). In each interrogation he rationalized. “I’m really sorry that this happened, ” he told CNN. “This was surely a breach of trust.” But Zuckerberg didn’t stop at an apologetic this time. He likewise protected Facebook as an “idealistic company” that cares about its users and spoke disparagingly about rival business that charge users fund for their commodities while maintaining a strong chronicle in protecting user privacy. In his interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, Zuckerberg said that any person who is reputes Apple attends more about useds than Facebook does has “Stockholm syndrome”–the phenomenon whereby captives start yearning and marking with their captors. This is an interesting argument coming from the CEO of Facebook, a company that essentially supports its consumers’ data hostage. Yes, Apple accuses amply for its products, but it also includes boosted encryption hardware on all its telephones, hands timely protection updates to its entire user cornerstone, and has largely locked itself out of user data–to the chagrin of many governments, including that of the United States, and of Facebook itself. Most Android phones, by distinguish, gravely lag behind in receiving security revises, have no specialized encryption hardware, and often handle privacy limitations in a way that is detrimental to user sakes. Few governments or companionships complain about Android phones. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it came to dawn that Facebook had been downloading and preventing all the textbook themes of its users on the Android platform–their content as well as their metadata. “The consumers consented! ” Facebook again hollered out. But people were soon affixing screenshots that showed how difficult it was for a merely someone to see that’s what was going on, let alone figure out how to opt out, on the indistinct permission screen that flashed before users. On Apple telephones, however, Facebook couldn’t harvest people’s text messages because the permissions wouldn’t allow it. In the same interview, Zuckerberg made wide-cut is targeted at the oft-repeated notion that, if an online service is free, you–the user–are the produce. He said that he found the contention that “if you’re not compensating that somehow we can’t am worried about you, considered extremely glib-tongued and not at all aligned with the truth.” His rebuttal to that accusation, nonetheless, was itself glib; and as for whether it was aligned with the truth–well, we just “re going to have to” take his statement for it. “To the frustration of our sales unit here, ” he supposed, “I make all of our decisions based on what’s going to are important to local communities and centre much less on the advertising side of the business.” As far as I can tell , not once in his apology expedition was Zuckerberg asked what on earth he signifies when he refers to Facebook’s 2 billion-plus consumers as “a community” or “the Facebook community.” A parish is a set of people with reciprocal claims, powers, and responsibilities. If Facebook actually were a community, Zuckerberg would not be able to induce so many statements about unilateral decisions he has made–often, as he boasts in countless interrogations, in defiance of Facebook’s shareholders and many factions of the company’s personnel. Zuckerberg’s decisions are final, since he powers all the voting stock in Facebook, and always will until he decides not to–it’s just the action he has structured the company. This isn’t a community; this is a government of one-sided, highly profitable surveillance, be carried forward on a proportion that has realise Facebook one of the largest companies in the world by grocery capitalization. Facebook’s 2 billion customers are not Facebook’s “community.” They are its user locate, and they have been repeatedly carried along by the decisions of the one person who controls the platform. These customers have invested season and coin in improving their social networks on Facebook, yet they have no means to port the connectivity abroad. Whenever a serious competitor to Facebook has arisen, the company to expeditiously replica it( Snapchat) or obtained it( WhatsApp, Instagram ), often at a mind-boggling cost that simply a behemoth with massive money substitutes could afford. Nor do people have any means to completely stop being moved by Facebook. The surveillance follows them not just on the scaffold, but elsewhere on the internet–some of them apparently can’t even text their friends without Facebook trying to snoop in on those discussions. Facebook doesn’t merely collect data itself; it has obtained external data from data intermediaries; it creates “shadow profiles” of nonusers and is now attempting to match offline data to its online profiles. Again, this isn’t a community; this is a regime of one-sided, highly profitable surveillance, carried out on a flake that has made Facebook one of greater fellowships in the world by busines capitalization. There is no other channel to perform Facebook’s privacy conquering moves over the years–even if it’s time to simplify! finally !– as anything other than decisions driven by a mix of self-serving inclinations: namely, gain rationales, the structural incentives intrinsic to the company’s business pose, and the one-sided ideology of its founders and some administrations. All these are forces over which the subscribers themselves have little input, aside from the regular given an opportunity to grouse through repeated gossips. And even the ideology–a ambiguou thinking that claims to prize openness and connectivity with little to say about privacy and other values–is one that does not seem to apply to people who race Facebook or work for it. Zuckerberg buys lives circumventing his and tapes over his computer’s camera to perpetuate his own privacy, and company employees get up in arms when a contentious internal memoranda that made an debate for growing at all costs was recently revealed to the press–a nonconsensual, surprising, and awkward disclosure of the species that Facebook has regularly imposed upon its billions of users over the years. This isn’t to allege Facebook doesn’t specify real value to its useds, even as it locks them in through network accomplishes and by suppressing, buying, and mimicking its rivalry. I wrote a whole volume in which I document, among other things, how useful Facebook has been to anticensorship efforts of all the countries. It doesn’t even mean that Facebook executives make all decisions purely to increase the company valuation or benefit, or that they don’t care about customers. But various things can be true at the same occasion; all of this is quite complicated. And fundamentally, Facebook’s business model and foolhardy mode of operating are a heavyweight knife threatening the health and well-being of the public sphere and the privacy of its useds in many countries. So, here’s the thing. There is indeed a instance of Stockholm syndrome here. There are very few other situation in which person or persons will also be able to make a series of decisions that have obviously improved them while diminishing its protection and well-being of billions of parties; to shape mostly the same justification for those decisions countless hours over the gap of precisely 14 years; and then to declare innocence, idealism, and full independence from the obvious structural incentives that have influenced the whole process. This should commonly stimulate all the other instructed, literate, and smart beings in the apartment to break into howls of rally or humour. Or perhaps tears. Facebook has tens of thousands of works, and apparently an open culture with strong internal meetings. Insiders often talk of how free works find to speak up, and really I’ve frequently been told how they are encouraged to differ and discuss all the key issues. Facebook has an instructed workforce. By now, it ought to be plain to them, and to everyone, that Facebook’s 2 billion-plus customers are surveilled and profiled, that their attention is then sold to advertisers and, it seems, basically anyone else who will pay Facebook–including unsavory authoritarians like the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte. That is Facebook’s business model. That is why the company has an almost half-a-trillion-dollar market capitalisation, together with billions in spare money to buy competitors. These are such readily apparent points that any negation of them is quite astounding. And hitherto, it appears that nobody around Facebook’s sovereign and singular ruler has managed to convince their master that these are blindingly obvious truths whose following may well provide us with some suggestions of a healthier acces forwards. That the repeated term of the use “community” to refer Facebook’s useds is not appropriate and is, in fact, misleading. That the constant repetition of “sorry” and “we intended well” and “we will define it this time! ” to refer to what is basically the same sellout over 14 times should no longer be accepted as a have committed themselves to work better, but should rather be seen as but one indication of a profound crisis of accountability. When a large chorus of beings outside the company invokes frights on a regular basis, it’s not a sufficient explanation to say, “Oh “were in” blindsided( again ). ” Maybe, just perhaps, that is the case of Stockholm syndrome we should be focusing on. Zuckerberg’s outright denial that Facebook’s business sakes frisk a powerful role in mold its behavior doesn’t augur well for Facebook’s chances of doing better in the future. I don’t disbelieve that the company has, on occasion, regarded itself back from bad behaviour. That doesn’t move Facebook that exceptional , nor does it justify its existing selections , nor does it adapt the facts of the case that its business pose is profoundly driving its actions. At a minimum, Facebook has long necessary an ombudsman’s power with real teeth and ability: the two institutions within the company that they are able act as a check on its worst compulsions and to protect its useds. And it needs a lot more employees whose task is to keep the programme healthier. But what the fuck is absolutely be disorderly and innovative would be for Facebook to alter its business representation. Such a change could come from within, or it could be driven by regulations on data retention and opaque, surveillance-based targeting–regulations that would make such practices least profitable or even forbidden. Facebook will respond to the latest crisis by remaining more of its data within its own walls( of course, that fits well with the business of accusing third party for access to users based on extensive profiling with data held by Facebook, so this is no sacrifice ). Sure, it’s good that Facebook is now promising not to spill user data to ruthless third party; but it should eventually allow genuinely independent researchers better( and secure , not foolhardy) access to the company’s data in order to probe the real effects of the platform. Thus far, Facebook has not cooperated with independent investigates who want to study it. Such investigation would be essential to informing the kind of political discussion we need to have about the trade-offs inherent in how Facebook, and definitely all of social media, operate. Even without that independent investigation, one thing is clear: Facebook’s sole sovereign is neither are available to , nor should he be in a position to, make all these decisions by himself, and Facebook’s long predominate of unaccountability should end. Facebook in Crisis Initially, Facebook used to say Cambridge Analytica get illegal access to some 50 million users’ data. The social network has now raised that figure to 87 million. Next week, Mark Zuckerberg will certify before Congress. The topic on our recollections: How can Facebook foreclose the next crisis if its general principles is and always has been connection at all cost? Facebook has a long record of privacy gaffes. Here are just some. http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/06/11/why-zuckerbergs-14-year-apology-tour-hasnt-fixed-facebook/