
Ask HN: Why exactly is FB on trial, and why not Google? - rotrux
It&#x27;s plain FaceBook may have been a bit negligent ~a half-decade ago, but why is this exceptionally public trial happening right now?<p>Google told me where to park yesterday. Google also has had  privacy lawsuits laid against them.<p>Why are we not paying attention to Google?
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elmerfud
I think it has to do with how each is used.

Facebook has positioned itself as a social space to facilitate socialization
with others of your choosing. Then from that aspect it has tried to move in to
the life quality enhancements. In people's minds the information they share on
this platform is intended better the aspect of socialization with those they
want to socialize with.

Google has been a facilitator of life enhancements like an assistant. Starting
at its beginning of just search, you share what you're looking for and it will
help you find it. While it may not be obvious in people's minds it still
registers at some level when you search you're yelling out to the world, "does
anyone have any 6's". Google has tried to move in to the social space but
that's not how they are viewed at their core. Everything Google does is ease
of life assistance.

I think a fair analogy in public perception is this. Telling things to
Facebook is like telling your friends things. You don't expect them to share
that information. Telling things to Google is like requesting something of
your personal assistant, you expect them to be discreet but ultimately they
will need to share things about you and your request in order to fulfill it.

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sheepmullet
It is politics.

Facebook has been weaponised against the political left and right.

Google has only been weaponised against the political right.

Since most techies lean left they are happy to give Google a free pass and
focus on Facebook.

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pasabagi
The obvious answer is that Facebook were having some reasonably public
disagreements with traditional media organizations, most notably Rupert
Murdoch's, over the question of news articles viewed on Facebook.

The problem was, Facebook was essentially running ads against the content of
Murdoch's media. Murdoch reportedly asked Zuck to simply pay for the news
articles that were in the Facebook feed - and Zuckerberg reportedly laughed
him off.[0]

So now, we have a massive public trial, conducted by all the public figures
most indebted to Rupert Murdoch.

[0]:[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/22/rupert-
mu...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/22/rupert-murdoch-
facebook-should-pay-news-publishers)

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yuhong
I wonder why my essay has gotten little attention:
[http://yuhongbao.blogspot.ca/2018/04/google-doubleclick-
mozi...](http://yuhongbao.blogspot.ca/2018/04/google-doubleclick-mozilla-
essay-final.html) I was planning to write it before Facebook hits the news.

~~~
dredmorbius
It is, frankly, not very good.

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rajacombinator
Zuck was floating some political ambitions but he hasn’t paid his dues to the
establishment yet. This was their way of putting him back in place. Same thing
happened to Bezos recently with the negative press on Amazon working
conditions. Google guys have steered clear of the spotlight, and already
collaborate closely with tptb anyway.

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samfisher83
I think facebook helped win Trump the election or at least that is how its
being framed. People are in front of facebook more. They are clicking on
stories etc. I guess you could do the same think with youtube, but for example
if you use google search its not like you are just sitting there and looking
at articles. You find what you need and move on.

