Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it's time we treated it that way.

[dalton99a]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/facebook-authoritarian-hostile-foreign-power/620168/

The Largest Autocracy on Earth
Facebook is acting like a hostile foreign power; it’s time we treated it that way.
By Adrienne LaFrance
September 27, 2021

...

Mark Zuckerberg, unlike Einstein, did not dream up Facebook out of a sense of moral duty, or a zeal for world peace. This summer, the population of Zuckerberg’s supranational regime reached 2.9 billion monthly active users, more humans than live in the world’s two most populous nations — China and India — combined.

To Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, they are citizens of Facebookland. Long ago he conspicuously started calling them “people” instead of “users,” but they are still cogs in an immense social matrix, fleshy morsels of data to satisfy the advertisers that poured $54 billion into Facebook in the first half of 2021 alone — a sum that surpasses the gross domestic products of most nations on Earth.

GDP makes for a telling comparison, not just because it gestures at Facebook’s extraordinary power, but because it helps us see Facebook for what it really is. Facebook is not merely a website, or a platform, or a publisher, or a social network, or an online directory, or a corporation, or a utility. It is all of these things. But Facebook is also, effectively, a hostile foreign power.

This is plain to see in its single-minded focus on its own expansion; its immunity to any sense of civic obligation; its record of facilitating the undermining of elections; its antipathy toward the free press; its rulers’ callousness and hubris; and its indifference to the endurance of American democracy.

[PortTack]

1. Many here still use f..kbook. Why are ppl okay with this??

[jimfields33]

4. I used to be on Facebook numerous hours a day about 10 years ago or so

But today I go about three time to see the first 10 or so posts and leave. The last time I posted was in July. It’s great to keep up with family and friends.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I don't spend more than a few minutes every day,

but I'm enormously grateful that FB allows me to connect with people I would otherwise have zero contact with.

[luv2fly]

9. The defenders are quieter these days

Post that same question just a few months ago and you would get crap back from the defenders, now as more and more comes out people seem to be scaling back their defense. I don't know if that translates into fewer people using the platform, but one can always hope.

[Pinback]

10. Wow, 16 whole hours and they still haven't swarmed this thread?

Usually by now we'd have been treated to the usual mix of spurious defenses, strawman arguments, facile quips, ageist memes, etc. Must have missed this one, or maybe there are just too many damaging reports lately for the FB zealots to keep up with them all.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. Not that facebook will notice, but I've deleted my account. nt

[dickthegrouch]

3. 1/3rd of the planet regularly uses faceplant?

Give me a break!
2/3 of those users are bots !

[Rhiannon12866]

5. 60 Minutes Video - Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen: The 60 Minutes Interview

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017685122

Frances Haugen says in her time with Facebook she saw, "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook." Scott Pelley reports. Aired on 10/03/2021.

[Mr. Evil]

7. I call it 'Crackbook.'

A lot of the people on it have to get their fix. They have to post pics of their dinner every night. They post about going to Walmart. Then you have to sift through all the religious shit and political lies about democrats are evil and republicans are perfect. I might go on now 2, maybe 3 times a year. It's about all I can stand. It's rotten beyond a festering, putrid, maggot (MAGAt) filled pile of turds.

[NJCher]

8. I checked out an old friend on fb once

It was quite a horrible experience. This is recent, like about 4 months ago. Until then I have never had anything to do with the site.

The reason I want nothing to do with the site is its premise is to talk about oneself. I think that lends itself to social pressures and indeed we learned last week of its effect on young women and their self image. Of course they are not the only group affected by the social pressures that fb creates.

The other reason is that people I know and respect tried it and rejected it, calling it a “time sink.”
They are people who have a significant career accomplishment.

[IbogaProject]

11. I only joined recently

I only joined recently to get in touch with friends from College, High School, Scouts, musicians and artists. My experience has been mostly good overall, but yes those ads and targeted content are shady. I run it in a separate browser from all my other web stuff, so it is more isolated from my web history then any other web service.