When our society needs protection from exploitation or aggression, we use our government to apply rules, regulations & order.
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Our press used to be regulated to protect us against bias & false/misleading information, among other things. Powerful regulations were part of the Fairness Act, which was abolished in the 1980s. You've seen where that's brought us: our media is unreliable & untrustworthy.
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Business regulations prevented corporations from becoming low-power and exploitative. Now, with too few regulations, we've lost healthy, wealthy capitalism to malignant capitalism that's looting our production & eating all of us alive. Kleptocracy, not capitalism. Looting.
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Facebook isn't evil, it's a tool, and like with most tools, if you put evil in, you get evil out.
Facebook is the baby, and it's bogged down in filthy, toxic bathwater. Do we throw out the baby with the bathwater?
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Facebook is the baby, and it's bogged down in filthy, toxic bathwater. Do we throw out the baby with the bathwater?
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The solution to our Facebook problem is not to #DeleteFacebook. Are we to give up our tools of communication: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. & end up with no tools and no progress? How does that help us?
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*If* the #DeleteFacebook boycott has any effect, the problems won't go away, and the bad actors will adjust, move, and find cleverer ways to lure and manipulate the public. How's it working so far?
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No, when the problem is this big and this systemic, we use our government to regulate in order to protect and benefit the majority of the people.
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We use the power of representative democracy to assign government regulations & oversight to ensure that the Facebook environment is protected from toxic influencers, misleading ads, and fake news.
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We establish rules that prevent government officials from enriching themselves by appeasing and enabling Facebook, and putting its interests above those of the people.
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We don't have to #DeleteFacebook, although it's surely prudent to use it warily & sparingly for now. But as soon as we can re-establish a functioning Congress of officials who earnestly represent the people, we regulate.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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Account management at on Facebook & other platforms needs to include screening for & rejecting toxic accounts before they're activated, and all accounts should be regularly audited.
This should be routine, not a newsworthy exception:
This should be routine, not a newsworthy exception:
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