Dale Smith
Platinum Member
In today's "Facebook" hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) remarked:
I'm not going to argue that part of the purpose of a user agreement -- any software firm's, not just Facebook's (FB's) -- is to cover the software provider's ass. It is there for that.
Equally important, however, is that the user agreement identifies to users what they can and cannot expect from Facebook.
Watch the video above and see for yourself. Sen. Kennedy, as is typical of Republicans, and most especially of Trumpkins (I don't whether Kennedy is a Trumpkin.), was sitting there trying to put Zuckerberg on the spot and "catch him," yet it's clear that Kennedy hadn't "done his homework" and that he'd not instructed any of his aides to do it for him so he didn't come off looking like the complete fool he did, a FB using fool who hadn't bothered to take the time to understand the platform/tool he'd willfully chosen to use.
- Kennedy said, "It's not to inform your users about their rights."
- Well, no, it's not because FB isn't a government; thus it does not confer rights. What it does is say, "This is what we offer and this is what we will do." Users aren't forced to agree to the user agreement, but if they want to use FB, they must agree with what FB indicates it will do with their information and with content placed on the FB platform.
- Kennedy said, "I'm going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite [the FB user agreement]...and tell your $1200/hr. lawyers you want it written in English...In non-Swahili, so the average American can understand it."
- Have you actually taken a look at FB's user agreement? It is written in plain English. Any American who can't understand that user agreement has no business using their time to post remarks of any sort on any platform. They need to enroll their illiterate asses in a remedial reading class.
- Kennedy asked, "Are you willing to allow me as a FB user to remove my data?"
- Zuckerberg replied, "You already can delete all your data."
- Kennedy replied, "Are you willing to work on expanding on that?
- Say what? Just how does one expand upon an extant ability to delete 100% of one's data? Maybe by allowing one to delete more than 100% of one's data, aka, someone else's data....
- Kennedy asked, "Are you willing to allow me to prohibit the use of my data?" (Watch the video; I may have the exact wording amiss.)
- Zuckerberg: You already can do that.
- Kennedy asked, "Are you willing to allow me to take my FB data and move it to another social media platform?
- Zuckerberg: You already can do that.
A world where these unintelligent people can be a part of the government.
As go the members of the Senate Committee, I'm not ready to go so far as to, without qualification, call them unintelligent. There's no question in my mind, however, that they sat their sorry asses in their chamber and hearing room seats and made no effort to get very well informed about FB and how social media works -- both as a business and as a software product.A world where these unintelligent people can be a part of the government.
For that, I have plenty of derisive contempt to give them; doing that is just straight-up imprudent. There is no excuse for trying to put someone on the spot when that person is more knowledgeable and better prepared than one is. That's exactly what Kennedy tried to do, and in so doing, he made himself look adolescent and anachronistic. Heck, a short order cook would have come off looking more credible trying to tell Gordon Ramsey how to cook Beef Wellington than did Kennedy trying to grill Zuckerberg.
And here's the thing: Kennedy didn't have to come off looking stupid. That could have been easily avoided in at least two ways, one being very low-effort:
Kennedy took nary a one of those approaches! No, not even close. He sat his hick-sounding ass there and tried to grandstand. Hell, the man had the temerity, given his torpid ignorance of the subject matter, to lean in and condescendingly try to ridicule Zuckerberg, who knew more about the topic under discussion than did all those Senators and their staff.
- Get well informed:
- First Person Approach:
- Join FB and take the time to explore it thoroughly, read the TOS, add and remove some apps, etc.
- Do it via a PC
- Do it via a phone
- Read a paper or two about the business model for web companies like Google, FB, Twitter and the like that offer something for free yet make billions of dollars.
- Read an industry overview about the IT industry or the social media and third-party apps portions of it.
- Second Person Approach:
- Have one or two Senate staffers do the hands-on testing/exploration and then provide a summary of what they found, discovered, learned, struggled with, found easy, etc. Printed screen shots with handwritten notes in the margins and whatnot would have been sufficient...It's just a briefing document for his consumption.
- Have one or two staffers read the above noted materials and provide a written summary or flow charts and/or some other graphics that conveys the key ideas and processes.
- Use one's time with Zuckerberg to get well informed by asking the man questions designed to expand Kennedy and others' subject matter knowledge. It was obvious from that hearing that Kennedy wasn't the only anachronism on the committee. That'd have been far more productive to the country as well as to the legislative process than were those dumb-f*ck questions designed to get the man to say things that suited Kennedy's political objectives.
No matter how fancy be the plane and pilot, neither can outperform a bird, bee or bat. But with careful study, maybe one day a plane and pilot will come close. From that frame of mind, Kennedy could have made use of Zuckerberg's testimony and knowledge and positioned one or more of his similarly unaware colleagues to ask "biting/bitchy" questions.- Don't get well informed: Do none of the above, accept that one doesn't know what one is talking about, doesn't know "this computer stuff," and simply yield/cede one's time to a senator on the committee who does know what s/he's talking about and who does understand the industry and who did bother to get well informed and who, therefore, won't come off sounding like they just walked out of a time machine and some nitwit(s) made them a U.S. senator.
If one was too busy to get well informed, this approach is an honorable alternative.
Truly, I 'bout fell out of my chair when I saw him lean! I thought, "No he did not just try to lean! What the hell does he think he's up to? I bet he's about to go "bear huntin' wit' a switch." And, Lord, but didn't he do just that! He sure 'nuff did. He went into his little diatribe of questions, came out looking too stupid to pound sand in a rat hole, and for all that, hadn't said anything worth so much as pea turkey squat.
Hmmm? For some reason, Zuckerberg had no idea why two black ladies that are Trump fans (Diamond and Silk) had their page deleted for months. Seems to happen to numerous people that are not good little fabian socialists. They were told that their content contained "unsafe material"....as in they weren't all that fond about the snowflake leftard agenda. It seems to be a pandemic since it is going on with Twitter and Youtube. Leftard content? Perfectly fine....anything that defies leftard talking points? Well, that just can't be permitted because it's "hate speech" and might cause the snowflakes to melt and seek safe spaces. What happened to the liberals of yester-year that believed in individualism and freedom of expression where the rights of of one could not be usurped by mob mentality?
Allow me to answer....they were kicked to the curb and replaced by the fabian socialists that are all about collectivism and all speech is fine as long as it is speech that they approve of. I am blessed to have a rather large platform in the blogisphere and speak on radio and podcasts. What totally disgusts me is that opposing voices that are against the totalitarian, feudalistic, technocratic commie agenda being pushed and financed by THE very puppet-masters leftards claim to be fighting are being drowned out. You work for the very enemy that you claim to be fighting.......that makes you a useful idiot.
Hope this helps!