> The author seems to be mistaking the benefit of selection effects with competence. [...] The big platforms actually are radically more competent at anti-fraud / anti-spam / etc, but the scope of their operations make them such juicy targets that there is a lot of it anyways.
The author addresses this point in one of the appendices:
>> A standard extension of this idea that I frequently hear is that big companies actually do have the best anti-spam and anti-fraud, but they're also subject to the most sophisticated attacks. I've seen this used as a justification for why big companies seem to have worst anti-spam and anti-fraud than a forum like HN. While it's likely true that big companies are subject to the most sophisticated attacks, if this whole idea held and it were the case that their systems were really good, it would be harder, in absolute terms, to spam or scam people on reddit and Facebook than on HN, but that's not the case at all.
This response makes intuitive sense. If the big companies are indeed more effectively competent at anti-abuse/anti-fraud measures, then the fraud that does slip through should be more subtle and less obvious, particularly over a prolonged period.
The author addresses this point in one of the appendices:
>> A standard extension of this idea that I frequently hear is that big companies actually do have the best anti-spam and anti-fraud, but they're also subject to the most sophisticated attacks. I've seen this used as a justification for why big companies seem to have worst anti-spam and anti-fraud than a forum like HN. While it's likely true that big companies are subject to the most sophisticated attacks, if this whole idea held and it were the case that their systems were really good, it would be harder, in absolute terms, to spam or scam people on reddit and Facebook than on HN, but that's not the case at all.
This response makes intuitive sense. If the big companies are indeed more effectively competent at anti-abuse/anti-fraud measures, then the fraud that does slip through should be more subtle and less obvious, particularly over a prolonged period.