Do you ever feel ashamed to be working/have worked in Big Tech?

New
Camb

New

Camb
Jul 30, 2020 37 Comments

I know I do.

I was watching the congressional hearings, and given what I heard during the proceedings, it only re-affirms Big Tech companies that are that massive have largely sold their collective souls. These companies seem to have become so concerned with exceeding their guidance or projections (so that shareholders see returns on their stock) that they will stoop to extremely unethical levels to produce their goods cheaply. They are also ruthless about stomping out competition by leveraging their monopolistic power.

It feels like Standard Oil all over again, but instead of taking over railroad tracks to control shipment of oil, these companies just copy others or buy them up to get them out of the way. And if the companies don't comply, like Amazon, they reduce their price below the break even margin to drown out the competition.

This is nothing to say of the highly unethical data breaches and complicity with the CIA/NSA etc that Snowden exposed. FB and other platforms have essentially become spy tools. Palantir makes no effort to hide their questionable connection to law enforcement and CIA.

2016 wasn't just tipping the election to Trump, FB as a platform allowed for a major psy-op experiment on the American public. It creeps me out. Hell, Julian Assange wrote years ago about Google's nefarious beginnings and it chipped away at their veneer substantially for me.

This is nothing new, but that hearing just reinforced for me that they need to be reeled it, and likely broken up.

All of them.

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 TOP 37 Comments
  • Amazon / Eng
    AWS-DEV

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    PRE
    Atlassian, Facebook, IBM
     AWS-DEV
    No, I have worked at Google, Facebook and Amazon. I sleep fine at night, granted I never worked or was involved nor personally heard any illegal or unethical acts.
    Jul 30, 2020 6
  • I love what I do, but at this point I’m not convinced that big tech is helping create a better world.

    In the past I was naive enough to think that big tech would lead to more access to information, less media manipulation and a society with more freedoms because of the knowledge people could gain from open sharing of information.

    I was wrong.

    Instead I see a society where people don’t question what they see or hear as long as it aligns with whatever their political ideology is.

    Most of this is enabled by the technology we build.
    Jul 30, 2020 3
    • Yes. Stupid people aren’t just consumers of technology, they build it too.

      If you can’t see the problems we’re busy creating while proclaiming censorship is for the greater good then I would say that’s part of the problem.
      Jul 30, 2020
    • Maybe you only see the negative side of things. And you know, plenty of fucked up things have happened throughout history without modern technology. I don’t agree with your premise that people’s lack of independent thinking is enabled by technology.
      Jul 30, 2020
  • Facebook / Eng
    onavo

    Go to company page Facebook Eng

     onavo
    This reads like someone who made up their mind and then spun up the justification.
    Jul 30, 2020 0
  • Amazon
    ShadowOfAD

    Go to company page Amazon

    ShadowOfAD
    I think the negative feeling many people have is born from an incredibly naive idea that somehow these big tech companies are helping society in a meaningful way and uplifting people to better versions of themselves.

    This has never been the case. All public businesses exist to make money for shareholders. Full stop.

    At best, if there is a majority shareholder that’s ideologically driven, the company will appear too be “good” or “bad” depending if you agree with their ideology or not.

    The only time I’d say they’re outright evil is when they actively work to undermine society like what Fox news does or how Shell and Exxon knew about climate change back in the 80’s and spent the next several decades subverting public knowledge of it.

    FB didn’t create any of that content. The problem is not FB, it’s the audience that actively seeks to confirm their biases and find echo chambers. (Both left and right people do this, by the way - most people don’t actively engage with people who have different opinions because that’s uncomfortable... even though a healthy democracy requires it)

    No, the real problem is that Americans have allowed themselves to form tribes and have not ensured that each successive generation retains good critical thinking skills.

    What you are blaming on big tech is really just an extension of the civil war. The losers never agreed with the winners but cooperated at gunpoint. What do you think they’re going to tell their kids? “Gosh, we were wrong, dont be idiots like us”. Fuck no, they spread their bitterness and fucked up worldviews to their kids.

    Same thing has happened with other ideological wars which resulted in mainstream “winners and “losers”. Do you think people who voted against gay rights, abortion rights, etc were suddenly convinced when they lost? Again, they retained their views and teach their kids.

    Search engines especially allow you to look up things to confirm you biases. Why do you think theres all these kooky flat earthers that have pooped out of the woodwork suddenly?

    Ill repeat it again. The problem with America is the people.
    Jul 30, 2020 12
    • I think you’re the one reducing complex issues to a black and white viewpoint
      Jul 31, 2020
    • You could argue that, but I would counter that big tech is politically biased, has its own agenda and then say “its complicated”.

      It’s not really that complicated. Remove content that violates the law, don’t mess with search results either by removing content or lowering the rank and let people decide what information to consume.

      The most complicated thing about using Facebook, Twitter, google search and YouTube is trying to determine what’s been censored, suppressed or otherwise manipulated.

      I don’t identify with either political party or ideology, I just think it’s unfortunate that people either don’t know or don’t care about what’s happening because as long as it benefits their chosen political position it’s not a problem.

      Perhaps it doesn’t matter anyway. Things are so polarized and ideologically driven that information is hard to interpret.

      To quote an old sci-fi series (B5)

      “Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”

      Right now, all I can do is consume information from as many sources as possible and make a guess at what may actually be close to the truth.

      I don’t know what the answer is, but I think we share some of the responsibility for the polarized society we live in.
      Jul 31, 2020
  • Apple
    LC->TC

    Go to company page Apple

    LC->TC
    No
    Jul 30, 2020 0