[Teep]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/george-so...53289.html

I've always considered Soros public enemy #1, but his Davos speech was on point.

I think governments will start going after the big tech companies. It's too much power in the hands of too few.

[SamuelBRoberts]

Sure is nice of Soros to give us this great financial advice.

What a nice dude.

Better short facebook now, since this super-smart dude is giving us this great advice.

[8ball]

(01-25-2018 08:07 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

Sure is nice of Soros to give us this great financial advice.

What a nice dude.

Better short facebook now, since this super-smart dude is giving us this great advice.

He has being wrong more times than that half wit Krugman.

[nomadbrah]

Quote:

Soros also suggested that the social media platforms have too much control over content. “The exceptional profitability of these companies is largely a function of their avoiding responsibility for—and avoiding paying for—the content on their platforms,” Soros said. “They claim they are merely distributing information. But the fact that they are near-monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject them to more stringent regulations, aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and fair and open universal access,” he added

I think this is key.

It's something that I've seen newspaper complain about.

The truth is that the traditional newspaper business model is failing. Newspapers are important to people like Soros because they can be controlled effectively through only a few people (board and editor in chief). I figure Soros speaks in code here to force Facebook and Google to hand over money to traditional media to keep them in business.

[Thrill Jackson]

Perhaps he knows the Narrative is bound to collapse. That Memo and FBI texts might be the type of the iceberg and he's saving face.

Trump's draining the swamp!!!

I'm obviously putting on the tin foil hat but cmon, this is just too coincidental.

The FBI texts were recovered TODAY, and all of the sudden the Puppet Master of the Narrative is feeding us redpills?

[PrimeTime32]

Thank god Soro's days are numbered.

[The Beast1]

Teep, it's customary to include a copy of the article in your post so we don't have to click the link:

Quote:

Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros slammed Facebook (FB) and Google (GOOGL), two companies he’s invested in recently, noting that “the rise and monopolistic behavior” of tech platform companies has become a “global problem.”

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Soros, called out Facebook and Google for “exploiting” social environments and causing “a variety of problems.” He even suggested that the companies could be tempted to “compromise themselves” to gain access to markets such as Russia and China.

“The owners of the platform giants consider themselves the masters of the universe, but in fact they are slaves to preserving their dominant position. It is only a matter of time before the global dominance of the US IT monopolies is broken, Soros said. “Davos is a good place to announce that their days are numbered. Regulation and taxation will be their undoing, and EU Competition Commissioner Vestager will be their nemesis.”

Soros, 87, believes one of the critical problems these networks cause is their ability to influence how people think and behave, often without them even being aware of it. “This has far-reaching adverse consequences on the functioning of democracy, particularly on the integrity of elections,” he added.

Unsustainable growth
Soros warned that at its current rate, Facebook will run out of new users to join its platform, even as it continues to penetrate globally.

“The distinguishing feature of internet platform companies is that they are networks and they enjoy rising marginal returns; that accounts for their phenomenal growth. The network effect is truly unprecedented and transformative, but it is also unsustainable. It took Facebook eight and a half years to reach a billion users and half that time to reach the second billion. At this rate, Facebook will run out of people to convert in less than 3 years.”

And together, Facebook and Google have become advertising behemoths, controlling more than half of internet ad revenue, Soros said.

“To maintain their dominance, they need to expand their networks and increase their share of users’ attention. Currently, they do this by providing users with a convenient platform. The more time users spend on the platform, the more valuable they become to the companies,” he said.

Internet platforms operate like ‘casinos’
Soros also suggested that the social media platforms have too much control over content. “The exceptional profitability of these companies is largely a function of their avoiding responsibility for—and avoiding paying for—the content on their platforms,” Soros said. “They claim they are merely distributing information. But the fact that they are near-monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject them to more stringent regulations, aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and fair and open universal access,” he added

He noted that it’s a business model based largely on advertising, but a “new business model is emerging” that’s based on selling products to social media users, he noted.

“Social media companies deceive their users by manipulating their attention and directing it towards their own commercial purposes. They deliberately engineer addiction to the services they provide. This can be very harmful, particularly for adolescents. There is a similarity between internet platforms and gambling companies. Casinos have developed techniques to hook gamblers to the point where they gamble away all their money, even money they don’t have.”

‘Freedom of mind’
The impact on human attention in the digital age is “very harmful” and “may be irreversible,” Soros warned.

And he wasn’t just referring to distraction or addition. “Social media companies are inducing people to give up their autonomy. The power to shape people’s attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies,” he said. “It takes a real effort to assert and defend what John Stuart Mill called ‘the freedom of mind.’ There is a possibility that once lost, people who grow up in the digital age will have difficulty in regaining it. This may have far-reaching political consequences. People without the freedom of mind can be easily manipulated. This danger does not loom only in the future; it already played an important role in the 2016 US presidential elections,” he said.

I loathe the man and hope he enjoys an eternity in hell, but his speech is interesting. I see what he's getting at.

I get the impression that he's hinting that we're going to reach the maximum limit of our global economy at least for technology. There simply won't be anymore users to bring in. They grow so fast by how quickly the connect people and services, but we're reaching the end of that limit now.

[TigOlBitties]

I deactivated my Facebook profile a few years ago, and recently realized you need to take further steps to permanently delete it. I reactivated it to do this, and holy shit it made me realize how happy I am to not have that shit anymore. So much useless information and attention whoring.

I've heard that our info will never be permanently deleted, and it bugs me that I even made an account in the first place. Cuckerberg is a smarmy weasel.

[Kurgan]

I deactivated too 2 years ago in Dec 2015 and I'll probably delete it soon. I'm glad to have avoided BS for too long.

[Adonis]

Relevant?

Seems like the social media platforms have outlived their usefulness to the elite. Either that or the signal is just too powerful to keep a lid on.

ZH:Collusion" Conspiracy Crumbles: Facebook Finds "Insignificant Overlap" Between Russian Ads, Trump

Quote:

In a second shocking blow to the Russia-collusion-conspiracy-believers, after Twitter found no evidence of meddling in the UK's Brexit vote, Bloomberg reports that Facebook found there was "insignificant overlap" between Russia-based targeting of ads and those of Trump's campaign.

[Sidney Crosby]

The world will be such a better place when this old fuck dies.

Blood transfusions with children's blood can only keep you going for so long.

[C-Note]

I assumed he was hectoring Facebook and Google because they won't allow his people as much influence in their operations as he would like, and as nomadbrah said, they're killing corporate mainstream media which is reducing Soros' control of the narrative.

[Enoch]

Gut says Soros goes long on facebook after it bottoms out from Davos bashing and makes a nice profit on the rebound.

[Bill Brasky]

(01-25-2018 08:41 PM)8ball Wrote:  

(01-25-2018 08:07 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

Sure is nice of Soros to give us this great financial advice.

What a nice dude.

Better short facebook now, since this super-smart dude is giving us this great advice.

He has being wrong more times than that half wit Krugman.

The best traders in the world are wrong the vast majority of the time but when they are right, they are right in a very big and profitable way.

I hate Soros, but he is an absolute beast when it comes to financial markets and trading. There is no denying this.

[loremipsum]

(01-25-2018 10:09 PM)Sidney Crosby Wrote:  

The world will be such a better place when this old fuck dies.

Blood transfusions with children's blood can only keep you going for so long.

I'm afraid the damage Soros can do has already been done compared to the evil that is rising.



Not to mention https://www.instagram.com/p/BQLKvJ8j3Wi/...=alexsoros ...

[Bill Brasky]

(01-26-2018 10:00 AM)loremipsum Wrote:  

(01-25-2018 10:09 PM)Sidney Crosby Wrote:  

The world will be such a better place when this old fuck dies.

Blood transfusions with children's blood can only keep you going for so long.

I'm afraid the damage Soros can do has already been done compared to the evil that is rising.



Not to mention https://www.instagram.com/p/BQLKvJ8j3Wi/...=alexsoros ...

Soros Jr. is a typical gamma only raised to Beta status via massive wealth. There is truth that the children of tyrants are far worse. The gamma/betas of very powerful people feel extremely insecure about their position and go to very nefarious lengths in order to prove something.

Here he is with "anti-establishment" "punk" lesbian band Pussy Riot. Global oligarchs use anti-establishment branding and icons as a proxy for their dreams of power.




Fuckers like this are very bad news.

[heavy]

I don't think so.

Africa's population is booming, and I would guess they'll be jumping on social media. Especially for less free societies, it's crack.

Who knows though.

[TigOlBitties]

That picture says a lot. They should change their name to Soyos

[Rossi]

When is this dude gonna die? Isn't he 90 or something?

[Sidney Crosby]

(01-26-2018 04:05 PM)Rossi Wrote:  

When is this dude gonna die? Isn't he 90 or something?

87, I'd guess he lives to around 95.

[Hell_Is_Like_Newark]

Unfortunately his son will be taking his place.

[Volk]

(01-26-2018 06:58 PM)Hell_Is_Like_Newark Wrote:  

Unfortunately his son will be taking his place.

There is a certain old saying in Spain and parts of southamerica that goes like this: "Padre comerciante, hijo caballero, nieto pordiosero". It roughly translates to "Grandfather was a businessman, dad was a gentleman living from rent, yet the grandson became a broke beggar"

It means that the means that made a generation successful, and not just in money and power but also in capability, rarely ever pass successfully between generations because the success of the previous generation ensures that the factors that taught them to succeed do not totally exist for the next one.

aka, Silver Spoon Syndrome. Let's pray Alexander Schwartz is not even half the dangerous person as his daddy György Schwartz.