Talks to Watch

Facebook CIA Project: The Onion News Network

761K views · Mar 19, 2011 · 3:15 · 1 HN recommender · 6 mentions · discussed 2012–2023

A short satirical Onion News Network segment presenting Facebook as a CIA project. It plays on surveillance and data-collection fears.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters post it whenever surveillance or social-media privacy stories seem to confirm the joke, noting how prescient it looks.

“I love this The Onion video”HN comment, 2019

What Hacker News said 6

RecommendsagotaOct 2019

“I love this The Onion video”

Onion news report satirizing Facebook as a CIA project

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I love this The Onion video that is a news report on the CIA's most successful project ever, Facebook: this video

in “Eat, Drink and Be Wary: Ex-CIA Officer Reveals How Eateries Are Key to Spycraft” · view on HN
Cites itender7Jan 2012

“Once again, the Onion got there first.”

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Once again, the Onion got there first. this video I will start worrying when companies are legally required to let the FBI trawl through the databases without a warrant. It's hard to make a law against scraping public information.

in “FBI to monitor Facebook, Twitter, Myspace” · view on HN
Cites itnickpsecurityJan 2017

“even The Onion saw how helpful such companies are”

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My impression is that a Never Collect Data Usable Against Minorities Pledge shouldn't be signed by people supporting exactly that to tune of billions of dollars and nearly as many users under surveillance. Unless they're full of shit. Hell, even The Onion saw how helpful such companies are: this video I remember watching it knowing it was satire but most of the benefits were still true. I bet the people against discrimination and such at those locations are still coding away at the algorithms and data stores to make it happen. Easier to put your name on something than to make real sacrifices. Do email me, though, when a story pops up that Google or Facebook got rid of all saved data that could be used to hurt unpopular groups all thanks to such people in the company.

in “Sergey Brin joins protest against immigration order at SFO” · view on HN
Cites itberkle4455Jul 2023

“The Onion called it many years ago”

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I agree, but there are hundreds if not thousands of AI startups trying to make their own relevant LLM, and they're going to be scraping Twitter. The Onion called it many years ago [1]: "400 billion tweets and not one useful bit of data was ever transmitted". [1] this video

JoketheatraineJun 2013

“The Onion's parody on Facebook's CIA ownership is now sounding eerily accurate.”

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The Onion's parody on Facebook's CIA ownership is now sounding eerily accurate. For those who haven't seen it: this video

in “Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties? (2001)” · view on HN
Jokezerostar07Jul 2018
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Plot twist: The onion becomes the CIA project that fools people on using Facebook, another CIA project: this video

in “No Joke: The Onion Faces Layoffs by Univision, Says Report” · view on HN