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Even cigarette companies eventually stopped targeting children for harmful products. Social media will get there some day, with enough legislation.
Exactly, it’s the legislation, not the companies that being change. Even FB can be hammered if the legislation had balls.
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Facebook might be a factor in the division we see today in America but don't kid yourself: we were pretty f*in' divided during the Bush years—the Supreme Court had to decide that election, and the 9/11 unity lasted about a day and a half—and the GOP stopped at nothing to go after Clinton. This has been going on since the 1980s. Facebook may be an accelerant, but it didn't start this fire—not by a long shot.
Facebook is more than a factor. It is central to the problem as the largest social media corporation. Its amplification of psychopathic content to maximize the sickest forms of engagement for profit has people effectively living in a destructive cult. Remember when first came the tea party with their death panels talk, then birtherism, then Trump, QAnon and coup attempts?
If you want to save society, the mental health of our children, and preserve a sane and functional democracy, etc, etc. Stop working for Facebook. Quit working for that leadership. Let their talent erode and their technical debt lead to atrophy. Don't expend your finite life living and slaving for this empire of evil. The next best step is to pledge to not hire ex-Facebookers.
I don't think refusing to take their money will harm them much. Boycotting them is not likely to do something. Media scandals don't stick either Maybe make a bot that goes to Facebook and click on all ads costing them money?
Facebook is a public company whose purpose is serve advertisers. Online ads is the only way they can generate revenue. It is not some woo-woo about connecting the world, giving people a voice, or whatever. That's what the internet enables, not a single website controlled by someone else. Facebook tries to take credit for what is good about the internet.
Facebook is a barrel of fish, the website is the barrel, users are the fish (ad targets) and advertisers are the shooters. For advertisers and FB investors,^1 things are going great. Except for the bad publicity.
1. Attempts to oust Zuckerberg, the root of the problem, will always fail. https://www.forbes.com/sites/betsyatkins/2019/06/07/facebook...
There is nothing to fix. As other commenters point out, the "solution", for users, is to stop using Facebook and use other means to communicate over the internet that do not require middlemen, third party intermediaries and interlopers that seek to sell online ad services and are determined to conduct ever-increasing levels surveillance and personal data mining.
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Naw, just burn it down and start anew, that's fine too. It's really not all that special, and people should become comfortable with rebuilding things at the moment. Don't burn everything, just some things.
Show me one company that places its profits/shareholder below the best interest of people. We just restart the cycle starting new.
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Show me one company that places its profits/shareholder below the best interest of people. We just restart the cycle starting new.
Even cigarette companies eventually stopped targeting children for harmful products. Social media will get there some day, with enough legislation.
No, they didn't, really. They just have made it less overt when direct, and do the rest of it through the non-cigarette tobacco product firms they invest in. The whack-a-mole on that industry and its marketing of nicotine addiction to children is ongoing.
We have seen this story before. Person joins Facebook thinking they can "help". Then quits. Facebook is a public company whose purpose is serve advertisers. Online ads is the only way they can generate revenue. It is not some woo-woo about connecting the world, giving people a voice, or whatever. That's what the internet enables, not a single website controlled by someone else. Facebook tries to take credit for what…
The internet is a middleman.
I'm completely uninterested in a ragtag group of curly haired shirtless weirdos who stormed congress. I am concerned about large corporations, rich interest groups and large multi media conglomerates that have actual power to affect political dialogue without any consequence.
Why does every single article about Facebook manipulating data talk about the Jan 6 riot instead of the years long onslaught of fake news?