I know one personally. Hubs and I have a saying...

Dweeb gonna dweeb.

Marky hates Google!

that haircut? Wouldn't let my six year old grandson go around like that.

Barbers know what that haircut should look like.

Remember? He was Barbie's main squeeze.
And that little zucker's hair looks just like it to me.

So, I am proudly NOT among them though I am NO Luddite. If people fully realized the reasons I am not on FB or other social media, I'd bet they'd be rethinking their own use.

But, those statistics are nothing less than frightening. How can one man (or a couple when you add in twitter) have soooo much control over the world's information and thus "group-think?" It is intensely disturbing.

a product of its members, really. Facebook's members are the product Facebook sells. Marky thinks he owns Facebook members, too. He's always been socially inept that way.

I'm on Facebook. It's useful for keeping track of my friends and family. I use it only for that.

. . .and to get laid, and that's why he founded FB.

You're right, though. Before the Internet, many colleges had actual paper books full of photos of students, with their names and a little information about them. Those were called face books. Zuckerberg just put the concept online. Eventually, it became a worldwide "face book."

I remember the face book from my college in 1963. Anyone who wanted to could get their picture taken and write a brief entry for the book. It was a very popular thing with the dorm students, who could identify people of interest to them and know which dorm they lived in. But, only a minority of students were in the face book, so it didn't work all that well.

what content stays. COMPLETE. It is appalling and yes, dangerous.

Nobody is required to join it. I use it - only for the purposes I mentioned. Anything else on Facebook, I simply ignore.

Someone owns Democratic Underground, too. That person (or persons) has "complete ultimate decisionary (not a word) control over what content stays."

Membership in Democratic Underground is also voluntary.

Lots of people choose not to join Facebook. Even more don't join Democratic Underground. Are you on Facebook?

You appear to think you know me. You are incorrect.

I note that you did not answer my question: Are you on Facebook?

How high will this percentage be there (and here) when/as FB and Twitter allow more hate speech, lies, and even violent content to target susceptible audiences--all who, granted are there willingly as you would argue. And all ultimate decisions for what is posted lies with one man--not a group of experts constantly evaluating what is onsite and the impacts. One man focused only on profits. This is what you are ignoring.

One In Four Germans Hold Anti- Semitic Beliefs, Study Finds
Source: DW

Anti-Semitism is gaining a stronger foothold in German society, the Sddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a new study from the World Jewish Congress (WJC). Out of the 1,300 Germans who took part in the representative survey, 27% agreed with a range of anti-Semitic statements and stereotypes about Jewish people.

Some 41% said they agreed with the statement that "Jews talk about the Holocaust too much." The same portion said they believed "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Germany."

Over 20% of respondents said they agreed that Jewish people have "too much power" over the economy, international financial markets and the media. Another 22% agreed that "people hate Jews due to the way they behave."

The survey was carried out two months ago, prior to the anti-Semitic attack targeting a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle...

Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/one-in-four-germans-hold-anti-semitic-beliefs-study-finds/a-50958589

Sorry.

the "best President ever."

with no restraint or restrictions whatsoever?

The Facebook platform is what it is. No amount of reprogramming will change it into something else. It's a platform that is easy to manipulate, in large part because it has no mechanisms for verifying that its users are who they say they are. Since no effort is made to verify users, anyone can establish an account with solid anonymity.

Similarly, the platform's tools for spreading and promoting content are essentially uncontrolled by human beings. Everything is automated at Facebook. It has grown far too large to be able to hire enough actual people to monitor and fact-check the massive amounts of content that appear daily on the site.

Impossible, really. Content that is introduced on Facebook can spread throughout the platform with a speed that is hard even to imagine. A network of fake accounts can almost instantly create a viral spread of such content, and Facebook's algorithms will automatically spread it even farther.

It's not a matter of Zuckerberg "allowing" anything. He doesn't write any of the platform's algorithms any longer, if he ever did. It is doubtful that any individual at Facebook knows exactly how the entire platform works at this point. Seemingly innocent features, designed to capitalize on social approval can be recognized and used by anyone, without that use even being noticed by any human beings involved with Facebook until whatever is being done has spread throughout the network.

Facebook runs, mostly these days, through artificial intelligence, or artificial stupidity. The automation of its operation is massive and almost complete at this point. There's nobody there to check anything that appears on its almost infinite number of pages. If you report something, your report is simply tallied. If the number of negative reports reaches a preset number, then a human will take a look at the thing being reported, in the order in which it reached that preset level. If a problem is detected, that human will report it to someone higher in the hierarchy of control. Eventually, a decision will be reached.

It doesn't matter whether I think it's OK. What I think is irrelevant, as is what you think. Facebook is what it is - a publisher. As such, it will be very, very difficult to control what appears on the system, given the First Amendment. Facebook publishes everything from individual users' random thoughts to automated postings by large organizations. None of it is checked before publication. There is no mechanism for doing so, nor are there enough employees at Facebook to do it, if there were such a mechanism.

Once again, I ask: Are you on Facebook?

post.

And yes, all you have done is defend Zuckerberg, saying everyone using FB does so voluntarily (something I never denied either, yet it is totally beyond the point).

I get it. You find FB too "handy" and such a convenience that you are unwilling to criticize it. Thus you are willing to ignore the horrendous adverse impacts it is having and may cause in the future. I suppose we all have the lines we won't cross for the better good in the name of convenience, even if it means change may adversely impact us ALL.

But, I, for one, am glad we have the likes of AOC, and Joyce Beatty and Katie Porter and others in Congress not too entrenched in FB to absolutely grill Zuckerberg on his responsibilities. I believe they will eventually regulate the hell out of FB and Twitter as they do other media. Even if that inconveniences some. They are focused on the greater good and I solute them for it.

NPR had a segment this morning about Facebook users apparently not caring about the ramifications of exposure to political influence messaging, believing they can ignore whatever they want to. The segment didn’t address the reality of subconscious influence at all.

among users. The past half dozen or so threads here have been like that--mostly FB users who refuse to believe there is a problem since THEY block ads and don't feel susceptible to what is being "fed them."

People don’t know what they don’t know. The workings of our minds being among the most important of those areas.

Mindfulness training would immeasurably help, as well. But our tax dollars are going to more important things, apparently.

Facebook took on a life of its own. Zuckerberg has taken full advantage of it's spectacular growth, but without enough smarts to understand how it is being manipulated by others. It made him very wealthy, which no doubt surprised him. How it is being used at this point is not something he can truly understand nor control.

That social media platform has grown to the point that people outside of the organization can simply use its available tools to do many, many things that are inherently dangerous. Zuckerberg's limited view of the behemoth he created keeps him from seeing clearly how it is being used. Without that insight, he has no chance of controlling it in any real way.

Algorithms can be manipulated, once they are understood. So, those who wish to exploit Facebook merely have to use the available tools for that grossly swollen platform to accomplish their goals. The design of Facebook is deeply, deeply flawed, and is based on a naive understanding of its intricacies. Like many large corporations, it has grown beyond its founder's abilities to control. However, Zuckerberg has become fantastically wealthy, so he doesn't much care at this point.

Most of the users of his product aren't concerned about these things at all. He knows that. He is going to fight back against government interference in the US.

85% of facebook active daily users come from outside of the US and Canada.

The largest group of users on facebook are from India.

People can call the guy whatever names they want but he is running an extremely strong company and the percentage of people using it is astronomical. Almost seventy percent of adults in the US use the platform. Similarly, about seventy-five percent of adults do not know what facebook tracks(they don't care). Of those users, almost seventy-five percent are daily users.

Dweeb be dweebing.

As such, it has broad protection by the First Amendment. That will make it almost impossible to control, frankly.

He's not a dweeb, he's a cut throat business man who will do anything for more power. Never forget he started Facebook by stealing the idea from his business partners and going behind their backs to cut them out of the business. His dress and demeanor is an act, he cares about money and power, he's drunk on it.

What people think they know about him is from that movie "The Social Network", that was a carefully crafted story to paint him as some coding genius who created something. Guy can barely code, he's not all that tech savvy, he's business savvy.

Zuck’s practiced nerdy look is by design to deceive and disarm his opponents.