
Facebook has suspended all social accounts of Cambridge Analytica whistleblower - neya
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/facebook-has-suspended-the-account-of-the-whistleblower-who-exposed-cambridge-analytica/
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kareemm
I've said it before, but it's shocking that Facebook has escaped regulation
thus far. They have 1,860,000,000 monthly active users. What other business
has this many customers (or "product") AND can profoundly impact its users
happiness... AND goes unregulated?

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portofcall
Twitter, Snap, Instagram, Uber, Palantir, and pretty much every SV unicorn
which exists because the law is slow to react and they’re running at full
tilt? This seems like the accepted playbook in SV, and until recently it was
lauded on this site and elsewhere.

That’s how.

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kareemm
Being lauded on HN has zero impact on regulation.

What amazes me is that there's so little regard for privacy amongst
legislators (and by extension their constituents, I suppose) that these
behemoth companies have escaped so far.

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ucaetano
I've been monitoring the "trending news" section on Facebook since yesterday,
just for fun.

There has been zero mentions of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica or any related
news.

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Froyoh
Tbh that's not surprising at all

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Chardok
_This_ fact alone should be reason enough to leave Facebook for good.
Facebook's goal is to be the middleman for all communication, and why the hell
would you trust a corporation that can blacklist you from all of their
platforms with a snap of a finger?

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Freak_NL
I've never accepted any of Facebook's offerings, because I don't find their
terms of service acceptable. But I'm an idiosyncratic exception (certainly not
alone here on HN, but statistically speaking rare).

Ask any of the millions and millions of people who built their online lives
around Facebook's offerings (including Whatsapp and Instagram) though, and
you'll likely get a variety of answers along these lines:

Some say all this stuff doesn't impact them (I have nothing to hide, and don't
do anything illegal).

Some say they have no alternative (I need Whatsapp, because if I stop using it
I'll miss all important messages about my kids' sports training
schedule/birthday parties/extracurricular activities/scout troop/school
committees — this is currently true for parents of young children in the
Netherlands).

Some are afraid of losing contact with those who choose to do everything on
Facebook.

Some are simply addicted to social media (well, not many will give you that as
an answer truthfully, but it's certainly a factor).

Some feel that a behemoth like Facebook should be regulated by the government,
and trust that someone else will protect their interests (i.e., they treat
Facebook and its subsidiaries like a an unavoidable utility, and don't feel
that they have a choice in the matter).

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ttflee
Mr Zuckerberg must have learned a lot during his trips to China!

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mschuster91
It's time to regulate Facebook (and the other social networks, like Twitter,
Google Mail, Youtube, Whatsapp), like telcos in Germany.

For example, unless I commit crimes using my internet/phone uplink or stay
behind more than 75€ on payment, my provider has no right to terminate my
account given the importance for communications.

Facebook, Twitter and friends can decide to terminate my public handles and
cut me off from communication with anyone without any legal way of recourse.
This is not OK given their importance to modern communication.

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mtgx
The account deletion page doesn't seem to be working either. Interesting
coincidence, with yesterday's #deletefacebook campaign and all.

[https://www.facebook.com/account/delete](https://www.facebook.com/account/delete)

What I want to know is who are the people at Facebook that actually think they
can get away with such shenanigans, when all of the media's attention is on
them? Are they really that oblivious?

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ucha
The account deletion still works. It's here:
[https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account](https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account)

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r721
Recent discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620454](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16620454)

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ikeboy
"hey guys I helped steal your data for profit, but I've come clean now, why
are you still upset with me?"

Yeah no, whistleblowing doesn't absolve you from the bad stuff you did.

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Tostino
It goes a long way, especially if they were part of a much larger group.
Breaking rank and whistle blowing is something to be commended.

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ikeboy
I don't think that extends as far as expecting a company that was in some
sense the victim to welcome them with open arms.

