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Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's 2018: We've Changed, We Promise (cnet.com) 184

It's nearly the new year, which means time for some reflection on what's happened and what's to come. For Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, that means looking back on one really tough year. From a report: In his year-end post on Friday, Zuckerberg is optimistic, if a little defensive. He ticked off changes the company's made -- or, as he put it, "We've fundamentally altered our DNA" -- to focus more on handling the bad stuff that happens on Facebook. That includes tackling Russian interference in our elections, stopping harmful and bullying posts, and promising to give people more control over their data. He also noted that Facebook now has 30,000 people working on safety and harassment issues, and it's investing billions of dollars in security each year. He also acknowledged these issues will take more than a year to fix. But he said the company's started multiyear plans to address them. That doesn't mean he thinks Facebook is fully on the ball. "In the past we didn't focus as much on these issues as we needed to, but we're now much more proactive," he wrote.

"I've learned a lot from focusing on these issues and we still have a lot of work ahead," Zuckerberg added. "I'm proud of the progress we've made in 2018 and grateful to everyone who has helped us get here -- the teams inside Facebook, our partners and the independent researchers and everyone who has given us so much feedback. I'm committed to continuing to make progress on these important issues as we enter the new year."

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Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's 2018: We've Changed, We Promise

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:32PM (#57872032)

    Nobody will ever believe you ever again, and if they do, fuck the morons harder. They deserve it.

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:40PM (#57872118)

      Sure, Mark made some mistakes, but he is a good guy at heart and deserves another chance. I think we can trust him.

      • I think we can trust him.

        I think we can trust him, as far as we can throw him.

      • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:28PM (#57872410)

        ...Mark made some mistakes, but he is a good guy at heart...

        He made fundamental mistakes of deception and dishonesty. A "good guy at heart" does not do that. Therefore, your premise is invalid.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by budsetr ( 4952293 )
          whooosh
        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          To put it in a funnier fashion, he made mistakes with regards to lesson we were taught as children. Don't be a sticky beak, don't be a tattle tail, don't tell fibs and longer ones like, sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me, let the other children speak, don't be greedy. From childhood no lessons learnt, we know what kind of children they were and you could not trust them with anything. Clearly the only thing Facebook or the idiot that runs it understands is punishment, until th

      • I was with you until you said he was a good guy.
         
        We all know he's a robot, not a human.

      • by syn3rg ( 530741 )
        I heard the same thing from George Lucas after Episode 1...
    • by Anonymous Coward

      You are right that nobody will believe him but its also true that most Facebook users are too stupid to care.

    • Some people say that I'm a bad guy.
      They may be right, they may be right.
      But it's not as if I don't try.
      I just fuck up, try as I might

      But I can change, I can change!
      I can learn to keep my promises, I swear it!
      I'll open up my heart and I will share it.
      Any minute now I will be born again!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      See, I entirely believe him. Facebook has changed. I'm sure they've doubled down on the evil. Meanwhile, clearly most Facebook users just don't care on the news they read. Or they're willfully ignorant of the news that's available.

      Really, though, I don't get why Mark even gives a fuck. He could almost certainly extract out a substantial portion of his supposed worth from Facebook and retire on his own personal island. Maybe it's all the power trip of it all. Maybe it's just to see how high a value he

      • by dryeo ( 100693 )

        Really, though, I don't get why Mark even gives a fuck. He could almost certainly extract out a substantial portion of his supposed worth from Facebook and retire on his own personal island.

        Islands with suitable lava flows and a good supply of piranhas are in short supply. At least there's lots of white persian cats.

    • If people can still believe a known and well established liar, scammer and con-man who's built his entire carreer out of screwing people like them when he says he will fight for them, or when he promises that he will build a great wall and make Mexico pay for it while the governement is now paralized precisely because Mexico won't pay for it, then you can be sure they'll believe Mark Zuckerberg again.

      Because even though the Zuck is a lying, manipulative, sociopathic piece of shit, he's still ten times more

      • Shhh. Don't go giving Zuck ideas for what to do when he gets bored with FaceBook.

        I was going to write "bored with/ousted from" but the latter isn't possible, is it? DIRC or did FOMO cause investors to chuck money in for second-class shares with less voting power?

    • Zuck Fuckerberg and zuck bookface. Never touched it, never will.
    • Arrest Zuckerberg. Shut down Facebook. Seize and sell their assets. Ban businesses from cyberstalking and data hoarding. For a better future!

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward

    He shoulf be removing the facbook icons on all websites and drop the facebook shared logon feature. Then i might believe him

  • this just in (Score:5, Informative)

    by zlives ( 2009072 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:39PM (#57872108)

    Fuck you mark

  • Too bad there's nothing worth Eddie Lampert's attention in FB.

  • BULLSHIT (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:40PM (#57872122) Journal
    So you're 100% not allowing anyone to have any users personal data, ever, except with with their explicit, written permission? No? That's what I thought.
    Take back your privacy and KILL FACEBOOK.
    • You gave them explicit permission when you signed up to use their service. I mean come on, morons, servers, employees, bandwidth, etc all cost money. What did you dumbasses think was going to happen? Are you gonna act surprised when you find out Gmail is a data mining operation for Google or that Youtube tracks what videos you watch, how long you watch them for, what you liked/save, and then proceed to build a profile about you to give that data to advertisers? Creativity isn't free. Work doesn't go unpaid.
      • by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @05:50PM (#57872798)
        Your rant completely fails to take into account the fact that Facebook was (is?) generating shadow profiles of non-Facebook users across the internet. I (and many, many others) never signed up for Facebook and never asked for any of their "creativity" to be bestowed upon me for free.

        So you can get something for nothing. Well, in this particular arrangement, I suppose Facebook can at least.
        • Your rant completely fails to take into account the fact that Facebook was (is?) generating shadow profiles of non-Facebook users across the internet.

          Even so, this doesn't make GP's points invalid. It just shows yet another way for Facebook to be sleazy.

          However, the GP is right: Facebook (and Google) users ignore the huge privacy invasion they subject themselves to, and, in the process, they are spoiling the internet for the rest. Facebook and Google users happily leak other people's personal information to the data vampires, by putting their contact info online, by tagging them in photos, and via hundreds of other mechanisms. Moreover, the large mass o

      • You gave them explicit permission when you signed up to use their service. I mean come on, morons, servers, employees, bandwidth, etc all cost money. What did you dumbasses think was going to happen?

        Explicit permission is where you say or write "I give X permission to do Y ...".

        The word you want is implicit.

        • Except that Facebook doesn't even get implicit permission from it's users, not really, because they do not disclose in detail who your data is sold or given to, they just do whatever they please.
      • I don't use Facebook or any other 'social media' nonsense and if you do knowing what you know then I don't think you're very smart.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Just come back. I'll be better. I won't punch you in the face anymore and I'll only fuck you up the ass without lube on national holidays.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Just come back. I'll be better. I won't punch you in the face anymore and I'll only fuck you up the ass without lube on national holidays.

      That would sound a lot more believable if it weren't the major source of your income.

  • I don't believe it (Score:5, Informative)

    by DaMattster ( 977781 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:44PM (#57872148)
    With as many tone deaf and disingenuous statements that Mark Zuckerberg has made, he has zero credibility in my book. As far as I am concerned this is a lie and he and his company will not be winning me back as a customer. I am a year and a month free from the assholery that Facebook is.
    • by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @03:55PM (#57872224)
      You were never the customer.
    • Zuck never had a cintilla of credibility to me from the day I heard of Facebook about 2 decades ago. Thus I never joined the lemming herd that eagerly believed it was an innocent innocuous place to share good feelings. I got singed once about 15 years ago when agreeing to let FB link to my old Yahoo mail name to post to some bulletin board; the very next day my Yahoo contact list was used to spam everyone I had on that list. It took several days to regain control and apologize to all my contacts. I broke th
  • Literally the only thing Mark Zuckerberg could do to convince me that Facebook has changed is shut down the entire enterprise, shred all the data they've collected, and donate every last scrap of technology they've developed to an open source foundation like Mozilla to build a new social network on the ashes.

    • Right. Because Mozilla has done such a great job not screwing up Firefox.

      • Right. Because Mozilla has done such a great job not screwing up Firefox.

        Firefox has made some missteps for sure (the plugin change, Pocket, and version number arms race all come to mind)...but they've kept things open source, they've improved their memory issues drastically, do the least amount of tracking, and with Edge, Safari, Chrome, and Opera all running on Webkit, they're basically the only browser between us and another browser monoculture.

        Firefox may not be your preferred browser, and perhaps Facebook donating all their tech to Mozilla may not be the best idea (I'd opt

  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:08PM (#57872294)
    To me, it looks like Zuckerberg built up Facebook upon a foundation of lying to people. Why should anyone believe anything he says now?
    • by tsa ( 15680 )

      Don't forget the stealing.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      To me, it looks like Zuckerberg built up Facebook upon a foundation of lying to people. Why should anyone believe anything he says now?

      That's the kind of behavior that got Microsoft where it is. Interestingly, they're using the same "trust us, we've changed" line, too, and a lot of people are dumb enough to believe them.

  • by OneHundredAndTen ( 1523865 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:13PM (#57872326)
    A good laugh in the morning always helps.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Yes you have changed, you used to have more conservative groups a year ago...

  • sure (Score:4, Funny)

    by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1@@@hotmail...com> on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:45PM (#57872476)
    I believe Facebook has altered its DNA just about as much as I believe Mark Zuckerberg altered his DNA in the last year.
    • by sinij ( 911942 )

      I believe Facebook has altered its DNA just about as much as I believe Mark Zuckerberg altered his DNA in the last year.

      Well, maybe he went back in time before he was born and had sex with his mother again?

  • Zuck the Cuck is still a Progressive Technocrat. Nothing will change, it's all about the $$$.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:49PM (#57872498)

    In 2017, people were seriously talking about Zuckerberg running for president. He’d been visiting “the common folk” in various states and talking like a candidate.

    With all that’s come out this year, that is almost certainly dead - he’d be an fool to try. Politicians aren’t good at much, but they’re experts at finding and using dirt against their opponents... and Zuck has left lots of dirt out there in plain sight, free for the picking.

    • He was just letting people know that he is real, not an AI or something.

      I figure it didn't work, people consider him an automaton.

      I do.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      In 2017, people were seriously talking about Zuckerberg running for president. He’d been visiting “the common folk” in various states and talking like a candidate.

      With all that’s come out this year, that is almost certainly dead - he’d be an fool to try. Politicians aren’t good at much, but they’re experts at finding and using dirt against their opponents... and Zuck has left lots of dirt out there in plain sight, free for the picking.

      I suggest you recheck who won the last presidential election and then repeat what you just said with a straight face.

    • and Zuck has left lots of dirt out there in plain sight, free for the picking.

      so did Trump.

    • What other candidate could win several states by promising a chronological news timeline?

  • FTS: That includes tackling Russian interference in our elections, stopping harmful and bullying posts, and promising to give people more control over their data.

    This is the reason I quit Facebook. This is what they claim. Meanwhile, mostly what they're doing is shutting down anyone that doesn't toe their SJW line with paternalistic oversight, while looking for ways to disguise their data mining.

    No thank you.

    • "FTS: That includes tackling Russian interference in our elections, stopping harmful and bullying posts, and promising to give people more control over their data."

      a. Russian inspired facebook adverts didn't hand Trump the election, it was all that free airtime the conventional media gave him that did. As someone onced asked - why me - because you're on television dummy.

      b. It isn't your data.
  • DNA doesn't change (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @04:59PM (#57872544)

    "We've fundamentally altered our DNA"

    Right.... and I've got some bridges I'd like to sell. Once someone is proven to be untrustworthy it's unlikely they ever change. Yes it happens but it's terribly rare and almost unheard of in companies unless their incentives change to align with honesty. Facebook made their fortune in large part through dishonesty and the people who permitted that are still in charge. There is zero evidence to suggest the company has changed in any meaningful way. Their incentives are more or less the same, there is basically no regulation of them, and the same people are in charge. Why should they ever change?

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Wow, that's a shock. An apparently insightful comment on Slashdot and with the mod to match. I didn't waste time searching for "Insightful", however, but just went for "evidence" with the next candidate keyword to be "proof".

      Anyway, I'm sure that your question is rhetorical, but I'll go ahead and answer it: If they (the people controlling the corporate cancer known as Facebook) realized there was a more profitable business model involved.

      Now I'll go all rhetorical on you. Appealing to the intelligence or wi

  • by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @05:21PM (#57872664) Homepage
    Where is the compensation for those who were harmed?
  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @05:46PM (#57872776)

    The infamous I. F. Stone quote, "All governments lie" should get an update.

    "All corporations lie." -- The next time we hear a press release or a public statement by a CEO, spokesperson, or PR firm, we should all repeat, "All corporations lie."

    That way we won't be tempted into believing that they mean what they say, no matter how well acted & presented it may be. Although they can mimic all the affectations of sincerity & empathy, they are incapable of human feelings. That's how they can make $billions by exploiting millions of people & creating miserable working conditions for the vast majority of their employees & contractors, & still claim that they're "philanthropists."

    Grrrrrrrr.

  • by AHuxley ( 892839 ) on Friday December 28, 2018 @08:33PM (#57873374) Journal
    So the ad brands can have even more confidence in the way users are tracked.
  • How about we also address Israeli influence on our elections? It is baffling that in order to be electable US presidential candidates must pledge loyalty to a foreign state.

  • A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

    The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

    Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."

  • I've been Zucked for the last time. I quit Facebook and I'm never coming back. Zuckerberg is a sociopathic liar and I refuse to volunteer for him to sell my information to advertisers.

  • You can't change. Being an asshole is your revenue model. You couldn't continue to operate as a business if you changed.

  • Dumb fucks."

    The Zuck
  • A coal mining company cannot possibly keep their business going without mining coal. And Facebook cannot possibly keep their scam going without getting paid for user data (while hitting their insane profitability targets) unless they start charging their users instead. Which is not going to happen.

    If anyone in this world deserves to be doxxed and have their entire life exposed, plus have others meddling in their private affairs, it is Mark Zuckerberg. Also, some rich person who cares should buy all the prop

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