Turning off Facebook
In the very first Messaging Matters post, nearly nine years ago, we wrote: “Republicans have placed a ‘matrix’ over this country” with the help of “news media [that] are largely controlled by giant corporations,” as well as an organized Republican “messaging machine.” Based on recent revelations, it turns out that Facebook is part of this Republican machine too. As a result, we’re unplugging from the Facebook matrix.
Facebook has always had a pernicious business model. Essentially, Facebook gathers users’ growing file of information gathered from postings, likes, contacts and other interactions, and sells it to companies for marketing purposes. It’s not unlike volunteering to have spyware placed on your computer. Facebook also sells ads, and charges for the service of “boosting” posts.
Additionally, Facebook has a history of getting into trouble based on the fact that it earns more money by not being careful with its users’ privacy, or with the truth of the ads and messages that it carries on its platform. For example, Facebook has numerous user privacy breaches, including cases of deliberately harvesting user information such as their email passwords, without users’ consent, in order to sell it.
Moreover, Facebook’s practices consistently benefit the Republicans and the right wing. For instance, Facebook allowed its platform to be used to spread lies about Hillary Clinton, some of them coming from the Russian government, in the 2016 elections in order to help Donald Trump‘s campaign. Likewise, Facebook reportedly “has accepted millions of dollars in advertising fees from hate groups and hate figures despite its anti-hate speech policy.” This includes right wing anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-LBGTQ groups and individuals, and others. This comes at a time when there is a growing recognition that such hate rhetoric has led to violence, including mass shootings. However, Facebook washes its hands of its involvement in hosting such communications, because doing so maximizes Facebook’s profits.
Last month, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met one-on-one with Donald Trump. Days later, Zuckerberg was caught on tape saying that U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is an “existential” threat to Facebook. Warren advocates “breaking up” tech platform companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google, especially by prohibiting platform owners from participating on the platform, where they could use their monopoly over the platform to drive out competition. Warren also advocates unwinding anti-competitive mergers by these companies, which in Facebook’s case includes its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.
And just this past week, Facebook refused to take down a false, slanderous Trump reelection campaign ad that lies about Joe Biden and Ukraine. While this is par for the course for Donald Trump to lie about his opponents in order to distract from his own wrongdoing (in this case an impeachment inquiry launched after Trump illegally pressured Ukraine to manufacture disparaging information on Joe Biden in return for U.S. military aid), it’s beyond wrong for Facebook to carry the false ad on its platform, collect the money, then step back and say it’s not going to police its own service. That’s no different than a chicken company buying and selling diseased chickens, and saying that it has no duty to inspect or check the source of the products it distributes. In response, Warren brilliantly took out a deliberately false ad on Facebook, which said that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump for the 2020 election (of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if that happens).
We also learned that Facebook’s Associate Manager for Policy, Katie Harbath, whose job it is to “help[] government officials and candidates for office maximize the potential of the site,” was previously “directing the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s digital strategy during the 2010 election cycle.” Before that, she was Deputy eCampaign Director for the Rudy Giuliani for President Campaign, and Associate Director of eCommunications for the Republican National Committee. Giuliani is now an attorney for Donald Trump, and is under federal criminal investigation for his involvement in illegal activities with Ukraine on behalf of Trump.
At this point, we must conclude that, on top of being harmful to consumers, Facebook is a Republican-oriented company, far from the neutral platform that its executives claim it to be. Accordingly, Messaging Matters is no longer posting on or using Facebook, and there are no plans to return to the site. Likewise, our Facebook phone app has been deleted. We encourage others who are concerned (or disgusted) with Facebook’s long history of lousy, even dangerous, business practices to follow suit.
Anecdotally, we’re aware of many people who have also left Facebook, or who never subscribed in the first place. Likewise, young people seem to avoid Facebook, saying that it’s full of older folks and thus uncool. While Twitter is not a perfect corporation, Messaging Matters has a strong presence there (@MessagingMatt), and we find it very useful both for interactions and for getting breaking news and analysis from trustworthy media sources. Other sites that folks are using instead of Facebook include: Sociall.io, Mewe, Vero, Diaspora and Mastodon, in addition to blogs and websites such as the Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, etc.
As always, choosing which ad-supported website pages you want to click on is a form of voting.
Photo by Book Catalog, used under Creative Commons. https://is.gd/mQAmV2
