General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMark Zuckerberg is representative of all that is wrong in this world
His outright unwillingness to stop mis/disinformation on his platform is directly responsible for people opting to NOT get vaccinated and help their friends, families, coworkers, neighbors and loved ones remain healthy, as well as the reality that the delta variant is fueling a surge in Covid in 80 percent of the US, and still FB allows disinformation to spread in the unspoken name of profit.
The cognitive dissonance that is readily apparent in people's embrace of FB while in the same breath espousing shock at the spread of the virus is mind boggling.
Scrivener7
(51,083 posts)ChrisF1961
(457 posts)Anyone still using facebook is enabling their evil.
sinkingfeeling
(51,493 posts)jrthin
(4,842 posts)luv2fly
(2,475 posts)So we agree.
miyazaki
(2,257 posts)Some people.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)Its ridiculous to scold FB users, because you and I and everyone we know, plus everyone that they know, could stop using FB right now, and Zuck wouldnt even notice a suggestion of a blip on his earning sheet. There is no point in calling for a boycott unless you can get enough people on board to be more than a statistical footnote. Therefore scolding those users is a pointless waste of time.
But if the organization or Fuckerberg himself can be held accountable, then that would be a much more effective and hard-hitting way to effect change. Otherwise its just a bunch of finger-wagging.
Scrivener7
(51,083 posts)as you being scolded or me "calling for a boycott" that's on you.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)The fault is Zuckerbergs, full stop. None of the 2.85BN users are in any position to change his behavior or rein him in; having no ability to bring change, they also bear no responsibility for it.
And calling for a boycott is most assuredly not on me. That silly sentiment can be seen routinely on DU and even in this thread. Ridiculous.
Its a meaningless look-at-me gesture that has no impact beyond giving one the smug satisfaction of pretending to have had an impact. Like signing an online petition that, upon 100,000 signatures, will send a letter(!) to Congress that few will read and none will likely act upon.
Sorry, but I have no interest in ceremonial gestures.
Scrivener7
(51,083 posts)Do YOU think there should be a boycott? Because it seems to be on your mind.
Not mine.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)In nearly every discussion about facebook, several high-minded individuals step forth to urge users to abandon that evil platform. Thats a call for a boycott, and that call has been made in this thread. Often, but not always, that exhortation carries no small amount of condescension, as though only someone of low birth would stoop to patronizing such a medium.
You may also be shocked to learn that yours is not the only reply in this discussion, nor are replies to you or me forbidden to address points not explicitly raised in the antecedent post.
I posted a few months back about being tossed in Zuck-jail for hurting the feelings of a fuckheaded Trump cultist, and I was told repeatedly to get rid of FB. And a few months before that, the same. I guess none of those calls for boycott count as calls for boycott, though.
Scrivener7
(51,083 posts)Have a lovely day.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)Generic Brad
(14,276 posts)Allegedly.
Botany
(70,639 posts)Without Facebook, we wouldnt have won. I mean Facebook really and truly put us over the edge. Facebook was the medium that proved most successful for this campaign. -Theresa Hong, Trump Campaign's Digital Director
Link to tweet
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)"I like it because I can stay in touch with family and friends".
Write a letter. Send an email. Call them on the telephone. Don't contribute to the death of society by using Zuckerberg's money machine.
50% of all Americans get their news primarily from Facebook. That's far too many people relying on an unregulated platform for their news, both domestic and foreign. You never know who's manufacturing that news, and what their agenda might be.
I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it. FUCK FACEBOOK!
Botany
(70,639 posts)I asked my then teenage son if I could drop somebody as a friend from my facebook page and he
said sure but then the guy looked @ my facebook page and asked me why I dropped him. BTW the
guy was creepy. After that I stopped using it.
An old friend gotten taken in by the "Hillary and her emails" crap in 2016 and still refuses to believe he
was reading Russian propaganda.
Elessar Zappa
(14,131 posts)if you want. I wont, its an invaluable resource for me.
Orrex
(63,263 posts)Write a letter. Thats hilarious. I havent written nor had reason to write a personal letter in over 30 years, nor have I received or wanted one.
That silly admonition is like telling someone to ride a mule when they note that traffic on the turnpike is heavy.
Johnny2X2X
(19,254 posts)When I saw that Donald Trump's campaign had something like 350,000 unique ads/stories running on Facebook and Hillary had like a few hundred. That was obvious then that Trump's team had tapped into something totally different than the norm.
I honestly think Trump lucked into this, he lucked into Cambridge Analytica cracking the mind control code using Facebook.
Botany
(70,639 posts)'Cambridge Analytica planted fake news'
A former employee of London-based political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica has said the company "absolutely" planted fake news.
Christopher Wylie said Cambridge Analytica used the personal data of 50 million Facebook members to influence the US presidential election in 2016.
Facebook said Aleksandr Kogan, who created the personality app from which the data was harvested, has agreed to be audited, but Mr Wylie - who made the claims about the way the data was gathered and used - has declined.
Cambridge Analytica denies any wrongdoing.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-43472347
********
usaf-vet
(6,233 posts)Where do these idiots come from?
I hope she is shunned by any respectable PR firm that she might try and get a job with.
bucolic_frolic
(43,476 posts)Plenty of the world's elite profiting off FB. I don't see how he just decided this was going to be a big business one day. Elites were behind it. Inside and early information to manipulate people is always how big people control society. From the dawn of industrialization - coal, European exploration, slave trade, railroads, oil, armaments.
twodogsbarking
(9,913 posts)someone who doesn't understand humor. Not mine but I like it.
certainot
(9,090 posts)called covid a hoax, then politicized masks and vaccines, etc.
like fox, facebook is part of the free speech spectrum - there are alts a click away, and zuck is an asshole.
but in most parts of the us there are no free easy alts for politics on radio - rw radio is a protected monopoly that dominates 95% and reaches 50 mil/week. those universities have no excuse no to start looking for apolitical station alternatives to broadcast their sports.
those 87+ universities (there are many more and many pro teams do the some) also support global warming denial, voter suppression, racism, and trumpism and would be excellent places to protest any of those and all of those issues. and that would scare off advertisers and scare the crap out of republicans - without that radio advantage few current republicans could win reelection.
DownriverDem
(6,236 posts)I met and connected with a lot of left leaners there. We fight the good fight every day.
Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)Beastly Boy
(9,556 posts)If Zuckerberg and Facebook suddenly disappeared, would all the wrongs of the world disappear with him?
I sense a bit of scapegoating here. Call me naive, but I firmly believe that people of free will not getting vaccinated are more directly responsible for their actions than all the misinformation on all media platforms they get exposed to. And that is but a tiny fraction of what is wrong in this world.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)Certainly not the only thing, there are many things that could improve around the world.
Beastly Boy
(9,556 posts)the iconic villain solely responsible for what went wrong.
There are many scumbags who make things wrong in the world. While Zuckerberg can be considered one of them to some degree, he is one of many, and he is far from being representative, not even to the degree you give him credit for.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)I'm done.
edhopper
(33,658 posts)a let's all bash Facebook thread.
Johnny2X2X
(19,254 posts)And more than one. Know that Facebook execs and Zuckerberg himself knew their platform was being used to exterminate hoards of innocent people, but he did nothing to stop it. Just didn't want to put profits at risk, so he watched while countless families were butchered.
DURHAM D
(32,617 posts)The person I don't understand is Sheryl Sandberg. I know she is better than this
I did hear on tv yesterday that their friendship is failing now.
appmanga
(591 posts)...of the privilege of having some money and having some power: the smug belief that things are simply going to be alright. We're truly at the most dangerous place our democracy has been since the Civil War. To quote a fairly well known fellow, that's not hyperbole. Facebook and Twitter continue to be irresponsible in their failure to rein in misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and outright lies.
These private companies routinely throw off users, especially those without huge followings. No one is entitled to be on these sites, and there does happen to be objective truths in the world. Business titans of the past may have been ruthless in their capitalist pursuits, but most of them did care about our country and democracy. This new breed couldn't give a rat's ass.
Mike Nelson
(9,984 posts)... I believe the representative "All That Is Wrong in This World" title winner is Donald Trump.
Blue Owl
(50,567 posts)Why couldnt he have hit an underwater rock and been impaled by that flagpole?