> You are aware that's probably the most lame excuse to do evil one can think of?
Nice assumption of doing evil there. I'm saying someone else would fill Facebook's role whether it's evil or not. Do you disagree? Do you not see the others waiting in the wings, from direct clones to Twitter and Google and Amazon? Do you deny that they lack mostly the ability to collect as much information, but have the same will? Brin and Page would be glad to step into Facebook's shoes, or Bezos, or Thiel. How is that better?
Again, whether it's evil or not, this kind of information gathering will continue and accelerate. Personifying it as Facebook or Zuckerberg just makes privacy a big game of Whack-a-Mole. Bills of attainder are both immoral and ineffectual. We need to address the what, not the who. The only lame excuse here is failing to work toward a viable long-term solution because it's easier (or more fun?) to demonize.
> I'm saying someone else would fill Facebook's role whether it's evil or not. Do you disagree?
History says you're right.
There were many similar sites before Facebook existed, including Friendster and Google's Orkut. You might also count MySpace.
There have been a few attempts to replace Facebook, the most obvious one being Google Plus.
Typically, due to power law effects, technologies end up with a dominant supplier: there's only one Amazon, one Google, one Wikipedia, etc.
Given that Google is already dominant in search, email, online video (YouTube) and mobile phones, there's a case for defending Facebook as the lesser evil...
Nice assumption of doing evil there. I'm saying someone else would fill Facebook's role whether it's evil or not. Do you disagree? Do you not see the others waiting in the wings, from direct clones to Twitter and Google and Amazon? Do you deny that they lack mostly the ability to collect as much information, but have the same will? Brin and Page would be glad to step into Facebook's shoes, or Bezos, or Thiel. How is that better?
Again, whether it's evil or not, this kind of information gathering will continue and accelerate. Personifying it as Facebook or Zuckerberg just makes privacy a big game of Whack-a-Mole. Bills of attainder are both immoral and ineffectual. We need to address the what, not the who. The only lame excuse here is failing to work toward a viable long-term solution because it's easier (or more fun?) to demonize.