Sources:
https://www.complianceweek.com/europe/facebook-exec-echoes-calls-for-regulation/27323.article
“Just because it is difficult to regulate the internet doesn’t mean policy makers should jump to the alternative of wishing these companies away”
Facebook is not the internet. Facebook is a corporation with a monopolistic position in the social media marketplace. There is a difference.
It is my opinion that Facebook has used predatory and exclusionary conduct to attain it’s monopolistic position and that it’s monopolistic position causes harm.
Facebook exerts undue influence and causes harm by using Facebook fabricated algorithms to rank comments and delete comments from view. With the flick of one input Facebook can remove an opinion from view or bolster another that it ‘likes’.
Comments on social media are not identified by country of origin – so other countries are participating in the debate during political campaigns. For privacy reasons and because it is mostly irrelevant, country of origin should not be displayed on comments – but it is an issue during political campaigns. Comments can be easily flagged not resident without compromising privacy of users during political campaigns.
Facebook exerts undue influence and causes harm by banning people from communicating using that platform on a whim. Alerts such as severe weather warnings are now commonly given using social media – being banned from having an account causes harm.
Facebook are artificially fudging the statistics shown on social media and this has a real and undue influence on peoples perceptions.
Blacking out a candidates social media statistics (views and followers) allows people to focus on a candidates platform rather than a mostly meaningless number. Social media statistics can be so easily artificially inflated and fudged by other groups as well (another country adding a million views)
Fake accounts are used on social media to seed perceptions and behaviour.
Facebook is a badly censored platform. I like debate. I like art. Censorship is bad for society.
There is such a difference between expressing an opinion to influence and censoring others opinions to influence.
I’ve seen the censored mindset and fear that other people have when using social media – if they say the wrong thing they may be banned. Oppressive feeling that Facebook gives – do this or else mindset that platform has.
And it is a little bit worse than that – I have seen time and time again examples of what alphabet/facebook do in the real world with advance notice of what other people are doing – they actually enjoy trying to interfere with and control others. The invasive conduct of those two corps is way over every line imaginable.
Other than a few Instagram posts in the last year I have never used Facebook software for privacy reasons and am still close to childhood friends without using it.
I am incredibly uncomfortable with Facebook using my personal information for its gain – there are a bunch of people using social media that I would like to say hey to using social media and I cannot, and from conversations I know that many others feel the same way – alternatives and freedom of communication between social media platforms are required.
Currently people have no option but to sign up to communicate with people or organisations that are using Facebook which, amongst other things, means they are in effect being forced to hand over very personal data to third parties.
My opinion is that it would be beneficial to see the social media market place resemble the telecommunications sector. Consumers having the freedom to choose a provider of their preference and freely communicate with people using other platforms. This is trivial to implement.
There is a lot of information out there and concern about the conduct of Facebook.
P.S.
As one example (I personally agree with vaccinations) :
We are not sure about vaccination options and would like to discuss with other parents – (my personal opinions aside) that is such a personal choice to be freely discussed.
Perhaps the current vaccinations are safe but what about a new drug that may be harmful – people cannot discuss this freely? Such a dangerous precedent.
Last time I checked people have the right to refuse medical treatment and Facebooks privacy invading and censoring conduct is appalling.
This is about freedom of expression and what censorship does to society.
Art is the most important human made thing on the planet. It expresses truth. It opens our hearts and minds. Art elevates us all.
Science is a close second.
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