
Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws - sorokod
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment
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kartan
> I don’t think it’s a surprise that the UK chancellor would meet the chief
> operating officer of one of the world’s largest companies …

It is. Politicians need to be transparent and serve the public. Private
meetings without public record with big influent corporations is concerning.

Politicians should keep public records of this kind of encounters. That a
public officer talks about his right to keep secret talks to remove privacy
from his citizens is wrong at many levels.

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sorokod
"Facebook... Used chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist memoir
Lean In to “bond” with female European commissioners it viewed as hostile."

and

"the memo reveals that Sandberg’s feminist memoir was perceived as a lobbying
tool by the Facebook team and a means of winning support from female
legislators for Facebook’s wider agenda"

cute.

~~~
pjc50
If someone was looking for a genuine place to deploy the trite phrase "virtue
signalling", this is what that actually looks like.

~~~
sorokod
from [https://leanin.org/book](https://leanin.org/book)

 _In response to Sheryl’s 2010 TEDTalk on the ways women are held back—and the
way we hold ourselves back—viewers around the world shared their own stories
of struggle and success. This overwhelming response inspired Sheryl to write
this book. In Lean In, she shares her personal stories, uses research to shine
a light on gender differences, and offers practical advice to help women
achieve their goals. The book challenges us to change the conversation from
what women can’t do to what we can do, and serves as a rallying cry for us to
work together to create a more equal world._

I guess that in a more equal world men and women can more equally act in a
morally reprehensible way.

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dannykwells
Serious question: how should we as informed individuals act towards our
friends/family that work at Facebook? Is it like working at Blackwater or
Haliburton, i.e. worthy of scorn or st least distance ? Or do we accept them
and not talk about it and just have a nice time, even though they are actively
undermining democracy as we speak?

~~~
baroffoos
I talked to a guy working at facebook and he just insisted its not actually
that bad and nothing shady is going on. He clarified that nothing shady meant
nothing that the public doesn't already know.

~~~
dannykwells
I mean, was that guy Zuck? Because I would guess that every engineer at
Facebook wasn't aware of all of the shady stuff before it broke. Personally,
I'm guessing that much more of this is to come.

Plus, shady is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe it's legal to sell ads that
undermine democracy in the West, lead to ethnic cleansing in Burma etc., but
it doesn't mean it's not horrendous. And it's guaranteed there will be more
examples like those until the platform is regulated (which it _has_ to be
imo).

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Spearchucker
It's great that this is reported by The Guardian. What's missing is a way to
communicate the same thing to the masses in a way that motivates them, i.e.
somehow linking knowledge of this to a sense of loss or impending loss to the
reader or user of Facebook.

Just on Sunday I had lunch with a friend who works at the ECB and asked
disbelievingly whether phones and apps can really track your location or not.

So if Guardian readers with TWO PhDs don't get it, how are we going to educate
a woman on the breadline with two kids, living in a shanty on the outskirts of
Lilongwe?

~~~
craigsmansion
I fully agree it would be great if the masses would somehow absorb and process
this information, but in this case I'd like to think the Guardian a very
effective venue.

No politicians on a European level, especially female representatives, would
want to be caught dead getting cosy with Facebook. Facebook lobbying efforts
are effectively dead in the water for the EU for the moment.

~~~
jos6
Facebook can prop up or destroy a politician in every EU country overnight by
minor tweaks that no one will ever be able to detect. And for every politician
that takes a tough stand there will be a politician who won't. They will
actively put feelers out about their "flexibility" in return for social media
"training/consulting services" for their campaigns before elections, funding
for pet projects etc etc etc.

We are way past the point were anything can be done by politicians or the
responsible press (both of whom have benefited from social media and have
stuff to loose by being hardline). Things should have happened 3-4 years ago.
Now we just wait it out till everyone learns lessons the hard way.

Niall Ferguson makes the case that this moment in time (transitioning from
hierarchy to hyperconnectedness) has similarities to events that unfolded
after the invention of the printing press. People remember the Reformation or
Martin Luther as the positive outcome as information and connectedness
suddenly exploded. But there were huge chaotic negative outcomes too -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion)

Educating the masses today is as hard as it was back then. Education requires
a healthy environment and a good guide/teacher and time. In todays world
assuming the press is going to fill this role is very unrealistic.

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renholder
> _“Sheryl took a firm approach and outlined that a decision on the data
> center was imminent. She emphasized that if we could not get comfort from
> the Canadian government on the jurisdiction issue, we had other options.”
> The minister supplied the agreement Facebook required by the end of the day,
> it notes._

As the old adage goes: Money talks.

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Ultramanoid
At least they didn't succeed in derailing the passing of the GDPR. That's
certainly encouraging and I guess the only piece of good news from the
article. The rest paints a pretty depressing picture.

~~~
NeedMoreTea
The amount of worry they showed in the two articles about GDPR reassures that
it was adequate. So long as it's enforced adequately.

~~~
jonathanhd
The Irish DPC has 10 open cases on Facebook, we'll have to wait and see if
they shake out to meaningful change.

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darawk
What exactly is the expose here? "Company lobbies against laws that threaten
its business model", seasoned with various innuendo phrases that mean nothing
like "secretive".

~~~
Krasnol
> What exactly is the expose here?

Facts & Names.

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mc89
It's been a while since a Trump or Brexit type unexpected/unpredicted event
that Facebook influenced has happened. As in nothing at a national scale.

Does this mean the architecture is getting better? Or are we going to get hit
by more randomness soon?

~~~
clydethefrog
There was reporting last year about Facebook being a catalyst for spreading
violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar.

Facebook owned Whatsapp also caused several so called Whatsapp lynchings in
India based on rumors that were quickly spread via the app. Brazil's current
president's campaign also used a succesful disinformation campaign via
Whatsapp.

