The time Todd Gurley was threatened by a troll and answered back

[NJRamsFan]

These days with nutjobs, school shooters and terrorists running around, any threat no matter how minor it may seem should be taken seriously.

Eh...I guess I can see where you’re coming from...I just have a different view on it. In my line of work this is consider being nice lol

 

[Selassie I]

I remember when this happened like it was yesterday. My fandom for TGIII went to level 10 after the "Pull up then".

Good stuff.

 

[Prime Time]

Eh...I guess I can see where you’re coming from...I just have a different view on it. In my line of work this is consider being nice lol

We do agree however that journalism has gone down the toilet.

 

[LesBaker]

Right on cue this has come to light......and the guy is still a high level exec at FB. He should have been fired and publicly shamed for this.

Social media platforms don't care.

Why? Simple.

People who use social media are not the CUSTOMER. So why would they care if a kid gets bullied to the point he or she commits suicide? FB has 2.2 billion ACTIVE users what's one of two kids here and there or a suicide bomber blowing up a marketplace?

You are the PRODUCT they sell. They are free to gather all sorts of info about you without real consent and sell you to companies.

I have been saying for a few years now that these companies need to be watched very, very carefully and should be held accountable for the content on their platforms. I've no problem with them making a profit but it's just gone to far.

Now with the scandal at Cambridge Analytica and the Russian troll farms being exposed it's being highlighted to the world how dangerous this type of unchecked big brotherish shit really is.

The level of greed they display makes NFL owners look charitable.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/30/technology/facebook-zuckerberg-ugly-memo/index.html

Mark Zuckerberg has disavowed an internal memo written by a top Facebook executive in 2016 that argued growth should be prioritized even if users were harmed.
The memo, written by Facebook executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, argued that the social network should focus on its core mission of connecting people even if that work had negative consequences.


"Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people." Bosworth wrote in the memo, which was published Thursday by BuzzFeed News.

Zuckerberg said in a statement to CNN on Friday that "Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things." But the chief executive said he disagreed with the memo's message.

"This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the means. We recognize that connecting people isn't enough by itself," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook (FB) has been under intense pressure after admitting that a company linked to President Donald Trump's campaign had accessed and improperly stored a huge trove of its user data.

The company is now facing tough questions about user privacy, and the role it plays in communities around the globe.

Zuckerberg said in his statement on Friday that the company is now putting less emphasis on growth, and focusing instead on bringing people "closer together."

"We changed our whole mission and company focus to reflect this last year," he said.

Bosworth acknowledged in a post on Twitter that he had authored the memo, which was titled "The Ugly." He claimed, however, that he "didn't even agree with it when I wrote it."

View image on Twitter


Boz

✔@boztank
https://twitter.com/boztank/status/979478961582325760

My statement on the recent Buzzfeed story containing a post I wrote in 2016

6:02 PM - Mar 29, 2018

• 
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• 
  354 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy




"The purpose of this post, like many others I have written internally, was to bring to the surface issues I felt deserved more discussion with the broader company," he wrote. "Having a debate around hard topics like these is a critical part of our process."

 

[RamFan503]

The difference is that if something really terrible happened, you could change schools. We all had the space to change if we made a change...behaved differently, worked on a problem differently, relocated, etc.

Now, if something goes viral, you'd have a hard time changing countries.

Not sure where you went to school but in LA, there was plenty of shit to go around and there was no way you were changing schools unless you were forced to when they bussed kids around to really get them fucked with.

the reach of social media is such that instead of having a few bullies who are in your local vicinity, a person could have literally thousands of bullies.

As far as the danger, social media has absolutely escalated that. There are been murders, assaults and a plethora of death threats that simply wouldn't have happened without social media.

It's like the difference between dealing with family at a reunion... and having that broadcast live over network TV during the Super Bowl.

Lastly, what are people supposed to do as we get people to stop self-medicating with drugs and alcohol? That's how MANY dealt with those issues, even as teenagers.

With VASTLY more inputs, potentially good and bad, almost no check on the volume or amplitude of those inputs and virtually no editing system in place (I mean, that little thing here...Think before you post...is kinda genius)... I tend to swing close to Les' outlook.

Yeah, it's always been hard, but we can't ignore that kids today aren't growing up in our time. Heck, who here didn't have a dad that thought WE were soft??? That sorta ignores the point.

Rather than tell people to toughen up, maybe we should go after the assholes who make life harder for others??? I mean, rather than just admit defeat and accept that there will always be assholes.

I dunno. I just blanche at the notion that it's okay to be an icehole, but not take issue with the icehole or their actions (not that you're saying that).

And this generation of social media matters needs to get a clue and stop making everything out to be life and death. The drama queen mentality is staggering. You won't be able to address the bullying without addressing that as well.

Now I'm not saying that bullies shouldn't be dealt with - be they in person or on the internet - and out of conscience, FB, Twitter, or any other media outlet should police their own membership far better than being concerned about political comments and more about threatening behavior. Getting the government involved? Yeah - they'll do their usual tremendous job.

They are avenues used for dishing out crap far too often, and I say they shouldn't be, they need to police themselves more thoroughly and stop letting people use their service to freak with people sometimes driving them to commit suicide.

There needs to be some accountability, if nothing else the last few years have taught us that these two companies (at least, and probably many more) need to be checked.

Where/when I grew up mild teasing was about as far as it went. If someone got physical with someone else, especially if it was a larger guy picking on a smaller guy other kids stood up and shut that crap down. I got teased and goofed on about my name, but no more than that. Had someone decided to shove me around I know people would step in. I've done it and saw it done through Jr. High and High School.

I'm not saying fights didn't happen because they did happen plenty, and I got into many myself. But the actual bullying was a minor, minor issue and it usually got snuffed out by other kids. It was just not accepted.

My generation was raised with some level of respect for others. These days kids will egg the bully on and then video the attack so they can post it to their social media accounts. And then attack the kid that got bullied on his social media. All unchecked by the social media companies that should delete the videos and if a person continues they should shut down the account and ban the IP address.

I'm fine with the companies shutting down the account of those who engage in threatening behavior. And yes - they should. But the fact is that this IS a different time and not only is respect for others lost for too many but what is also lost is the ability to let things roll off. Now EVERYTHING is a dramatic event. Kids bully more at school not just social media. Kids make a bigger deal out of bullying than ever before and not just on social media. I hear it from my boys all the time. Hell - kids pull this shit in college. Grow the fuck up.

 

[Ken]

Facebook (FB) has been under intense pressure after admitting that a company linked to President Donald Trump's campaign had accessed and improperly stored a huge trove of its user data.

Why the outrage now? The Obama campaign did the same thing 8 years prior and was praised for its innovative use of social media.

Other than sports fans forums, I don't bother with social media. I've never tweeted or texted (why try to text using a small ass keypad when you can just call!!) I joined FB to interact with some old HS friends prior to my 30th HS reunion 10 years ago and have never used it since. I tried to delete my account but couldn't do it (probably forgot my password or something). My wife is into that stuff, but I don't like it. I've heard that both FB and twitter are heavy into some kind of censoring of conservative viewpoints, which is way out of line, if true. My wife has told me Clint Eastwood uses something called Gab instead of Twitter because of this.

Guys. I'm apparently pretty dense. What's Gurley mean by 'pull up then'? Pull up to my home and take your best shot? I don't get it.

 

[Selassie I]

Why the outrage now? The Obama campaign did the same thing 8 years prior and was praised for its innovative use of social media.

Other than sports fans forums, I don't bother with social media. I've never tweeted or texted (why try to text using a small ass keypad when you can just call!!) I joined FB to interact with some old HS friends prior to my 30th HS reunion 10 years ago and have never used it since. I tried to delete my account but couldn't do it (probably forgot my password or something). My wife is into that stuff, but I don't like it. I've heard that both FB and twitter are heavy into some kind of censoring of conservative viewpoints, which is way out of line, if true. My wife has told me Clint Eastwood uses something called Gab instead of Twitter because of this.

Guys. I'm apparently pretty dense. What's Gurley mean by 'pull up then'? Pull up to my home and take your best shot? I don't get it.

You got it.

He's telling him to hurry up and get there at the same time. LOL

 

[LesBaker]

I'm fine with the companies shutting down the account of those who engage in threatening behavior. And yes - they should. But the fact is that this IS a different time and not only is respect for others lost for too many but what is also lost is the ability to let things roll off. Now EVERYTHING is a dramatic event. Kids bully more at school not just social media. Kids make a bigger deal out of bullying than ever before and not just on social media. I hear it from my boys all the time. Hell - kids pull this crap in college. Grow the freak up.

I think after all the shit that has hit the fan lately social media platform will move more quickly to delete posts that are not appropriate and to shut down accounts.

A lot of people want them to be more accountable, and as you saw in the article I posted they haven't given a fuck about anything. With the recent scandals they will have to change or face backlash.

Why the outrage now? The Obama campaign did the same thing 8 years prior and was praised for its innovative use of social media.

That's just not accurate. At all. What Cambridge Analytica did was illegal, they violated US campaign laws. And it was unethical. They lied to Facebook, who was too busy counting money to keep an eye on them as they stole data right out from under their noses.

It's a big enough deal that they suspended the CEO. You should take a moment to read up on it, it'll piss you off. There is plenty of accurate coverage of it available all over the net.

Obama's campaign buying targeted ads is in no way, shape or form like what happened with Cambridge Analytica.

Here is a start, it is bothersome and should be to any American. More is leaking out little by little.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html

 

[LesBaker]

And this generation of social media matters needs to get a clue and stop making everything out to be life and death. The drama queen mentality is staggering. You won't be able to address the bullying without addressing that as well.

I agree with you, so we are in step there, though IMO many of the social matters are worthwhile. Not all, but many. There are too many people that are quick to be outraged, and that lessens the ability to display real outrage that will move the needle. Recently Jennifer Lawrence (sp?) was attacked for wearing a dress outside without a jacket! How fucked up is that. And it wasn't just one person, she got dogpiled by trolls. So yeah it cuts both ways.

But people whining is not causing kids to kill themselves. And the exec at FB having that casual of an attitude about it says a lot about the culture there. And none of it is good. He should have been fired, but Zuckerberg kept him on board, which means he agrees with a powerfully vile statement.

But this is beyond just being a dick or a bully. And that's the issue I have with it. For all you know your data may have been swiped. I don't know how much time you spend on FB because you're busy, but I know some people who use it a lot throughout the day and I know two that essentially use it as their "news and information" source. Both of them are so full of misinformation it's comical. So FB is not only allowing them to be "dumber" and "uninformed" they empower and assist the people doing it because those people are paying them.

I have a real problem with all this because it's dangerous and they need to be reigned in. So does Twitter, YouTube and all the rest. It's gone past the point of entertainment and touching base. Well past I'd say.

 

[RamFan503]

Obama's campaign buying targeted ads is in no way, shape or form like what happened with Cambridge Analytica.

Here is a start, it is bothersome and should be to any American. More is leaking out little by little.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html

While it should be bothersome - absolutely - the practice started with the Obama campaign. If you read your own article, you will figure out that they simply couldn't get it all put together but they certainly tried. You will also notice that it appears that they never have actually put it all together to do what they were attempting and that is use FB data to shape votes and product marketing campaigns.

The fact that FB essentially sold this information is the most troubling and I hope they get huge fines for it. But they won't and this will be looked at, conjectured upon, and slowly go away.

 

[RamFan503]

Recently Jennifer Lawrence (sp?) was attacked for wearing a dress outside without a jacket! How freaked up is that.

That anybody gives a shit that she did it or that it was an issue on FB? Pretty fucked up indeed. But it didn't ruin my day. Oh wait.... I never even heard about it and I'm on FB every day generally. But you see Les - this is exactly what I'm talking about. NO ONE SHOULD GIVE A SHIT!!! Quit putting your personal shit out there. Quit worrying about what some tool with no life says about you. Quit making mountains out of mole hills. And for fuck's sake, quit posting shit like this:

 

[LesBaker]

While it should be bothersome - absolutely - the practice started with the Obama campaign. If you read your own article, you will figure out that they simply couldn't get it all put together but they certainly tried. You will also notice that it appears that they never have actually put it all together to do what they were attempting and that is use FB data to shape votes and product marketing campaigns.

Cambridge STOLE users info. Fifty freaking million users. VERY BIG difference. There are no methods for FB to stop that?

And they are a foreign entity and are not allowed to be involved like this in US elections. The former CEO is the "whistleblower" on all of this. The British Parliament is involved investigating them.

That did not happen with the Obama campaign.

 

[RamFan503]

But this is beyond just being a dick or a bully. And that's the issue I have with it. For all you know your data may have been swiped. I don't know how much time you spend on FB because you're busy, but I know some people who use it a lot throughout the day and I know two that essentially use it as their "news and information" source. Both of them are so full of misinformation it's comical. So FB is not only allowing them to be "dumber" and "uninformed" they empower and assist the people doing it because those people are paying them.

I hate to seem callous but.... meh. Stupid is as stupid does. Now let's reign in that idiotic mentality that says all this shit needs to be taken seriously.

 

[RamFan503]

That did not happen with the Obama campaign.

Actually it did. They just didn't get it to work. All involved were foreign nationals at the time and they indeed were trying to get it to work. Anyway - this topic isn't about where this is has gone. Let's be done with it. Politics are for another board.

 

[LesBaker]

That anybody gives a crap that she did it or that it was an issue on FB? Pretty freaked up indeed. But it didn't ruin my day. Oh wait.... I never even heard about it and I'm on FB every day generally. But you see Les - this is exactly what I'm talking about. NO ONE SHOULD GIVE A crap!!! Quit putting your personal crap out there. Quit worrying about what some tool with no life says about you. Quit making mountains out of mole hills. And for freak's sake, quit posting crap like this:

I think it was Twitter actually.....I'm not sure.


I think we are talking about two different topics here. People can put anything they want out there about themselves. That's harmless, and generally laughable when people get upset. I used that example of how stupid the issue can be.

What's harmful is people ganging up on individuals ala the Troll Storm. That is a group that bombards a person online, and even gets info and calls them at work and home. They essentially threaten, terrorize and torture people electronically.

They still have a Twitter account, and a website. Daily Stormer I think.

 

[LesBaker]

@RamFan503 I sent you a PM.

 

[Mackeyser]

Yeah, I think we're talking past one another.

I don't want anyone to think I don't hear you. I do.

On the one hand, I (and probably Les) agree with you that people losing their minds over #firstworldproblems or being overly dramatic over minor things is something that ALSO wouldn't have gotten a megaphone or even noticed back in the day. And they clog the bandwidth with idiotic stuff that only inflames the situation. A girl complains about getting the wrong color Porsche for her 16th birthday and in almost every case, her immediate family realizes what a terrible person she is and that's it. Now, that gets posted and becomes a platform for a third of the planet to weigh in. The disproportionality of it is just staggering. And I'm the last person to defend entitled people.

That said, if you've never been doxxed or seen it happen...or been SWAT'd or seen it happen, it's terrifying. It's real. People have died and been seriously injured.

There have been people, especially women, who've had to move multiple times, change jobs multiple times and STILL can't get away from their legion of virtual stalkers because once they get the digital trail, it's almost impossible to sever it short of going off the grid.

When a high ranking Blizzard employee wanted to defend RealID (a system where people posting on their gaming forums would have to use their real names), to illustrate how bad an idea that was, the community doxxed him. HARD. Posted satellite photos of his house and a host of very private information. That never comes down (thanks Google Archive). And that took all of TEN MINUTES. And because of jurisdictional issues, even viable death threats can't be acted upon by law enforcement in most cases.

Also, a problem that doesn't get talked about is that young people form DIFFERENT types of relationships and attachments than we did. They have far more attachments, but they are generally much more superficial even as the tenuous connections run very deep. That means that while a person may pour their heart and soul out there looking for deep and meaningful connections, they have come to understand that it's not. Anyone can disappear at any time and even people who know their most intimate details could change their status or take umbrage at one statement or post and now their the "enemy".

You and I simply wouldn't put out that information in the first place. We came from a more guarded time.

But, as my kids have pointed out to me rather starkly, they can't have what I and my wife have. It's almost impossible to form the kind of deep connections we have in this current climate.

Young people will own this in time as they realize that they always had other choices.

That said, there are big companies making many billions of dollars to keep people engaged in drama. That's not healthy. Follow the money.

We won't have utopia because there's no money in it.

So when some kid in school who's already vulnerable gets picked on, it's not just at school. It's like saturation bombing. It's something like you and I have never experienced. It'd be like living with your worst enemies night and day. And in this digital age, to just say, "go analog, kid" is beyond ignorant and ignores the realities of daily life. None of us could "go analog" fully anymore. It's not possible.

Social media and the pros and cons are terribly complicated.

It's never as simple as saying, "toughen up" or "just ignore it". If it were, there wouldn't be multibillion-dollar companies feasting on everything from the Petabytes of data generated as well as the attention.

As well, just like it didn't work for our parents to use the word "just" when it came to our generation, it doesn't work to use "just" when addressing the current generation.

Especially when we have active bad actors both corporately and individually in the mix.

It'd be like blaming someone for jaywalking during an active shooter event. Without the active shooter, absolutely, don't jaywalk. If they're prancing down the street holding up traffic? Heck no. But during? That's an entirely different matter and when people kill themselves (btw, it's not just teens killing themselves, but middle age white men are the fastest growing suicide group), that in and of itself is reason enough to take it more seriously, both in cause and effect.

I don't disagree with you that the petty stuff that gets magnified to infinity is still petty stuff and that needs to be dealt with as the petty stuff it is.

I just also acknowledge that there is a real threat with real dangers out there where we can count the bodies, identify the bad actors and see the effect of the real problem.

They're not the same, but there are instances where they overlap.

Lastly, since when are feelings bad? I ask this because kids today get hammered for being open about how they feel. As in, I hear often, "it doesn't matter how you feel, do it anyway." The greatest gift my daughter gave me in her passing was the ability to feel. I was so closed off before. She broke my heart wide open and I recognize that gift every day.

I dunno why we have to go through failed marriages, disenfranchised children, bouts of self-destructive self-medication and all that only to realize that we had to get in touch with our feelings (because they really matter whether we acknowledge them or not)... and then tell others, especially the youth... "buck up kid, life's rough. No one cares how you feel."

Seems like the perpetuation of a destructive cycle to me.

I could be wrong, but it doesn't feel like it...

 

[LesBaker]

On the one hand, I (and probably Les) agree with you that people losing their minds over #firstworldproblems

LOL.....I'm essentially in Naples. So it's different here.

Here it's #naplesgirlproblems.

Which means you can't get a last minute appt at the organic nail salon. Hahahahaha.

So yes I agree.

One thing that this Cambridge scandal and the Russia troll farms being exposed has done, if people have read/watched and paid attention, is that it's revealing how FB (and others) monitors, saves and uses analytics to "figure out" who a user is so they can market those groups of users. And how people get emotionally and psychologically manipulated in ways we have not seen in the past. The software can identify pretty much what you are and how you feel and think which makes it easy to "nudge" someone in a direction with content delivers to them or moreso groups of people who are like them.

That should not be legal. They should not be allowed to just follow you all around and collect everything and then pimp you out.

If the general public that was on FB knew how they were being tracked and having profiles built based on everything they do on that social media clusterfuck they would leave in droves.

This is IMO dangerous stuff and should be squashed.

 

[Akrasian]

This is IMO dangerous stuff and should be squashed.

The question in all of our minds - how much personal data is ROD keeping?

 

[LesBaker]

The question in all of our minds - how much personal data is ROD keeping?

Hahaha don't trust @CGI_Ram ..........he's Canadian. And Canadians are pouring over the border bringing cold beer and hot loose chicks.

He is collecting data and marketing us to pron sites.