Facebook Shows Its True Colors

Facebook has been problematic for a long time. There were major issues leading up to the 2016 presidential election, when there were numerous hateful, misleading, and completely false posts and ads, in order to sway the election. Much of that came from fake accounts and from Russia’s disinformation campaigns. Facebook leadership claimed it was all protected under free speech, so they let it go. And why wouldn’t they? The money was flowing in.

Then in 2018 there was the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, when millions of Facebook users’ personal data, including mine, was harvested without consent by Cambridge Analytica to be used primarily for political advertising. Most of the data went to campaigns for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

It doesn’t make me feel any better about the company that now it is finally changing some of its policies about hate speech and misinformation only after many brands are suspending advertising. This shows that it doesn’t do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is losing money. It also sets a dangerous precedent. This is a good policy change, but what if brands threaten to withhold money for reasons that are not as admirable? This shows that Facebook is in the pocket of its advertisers.

Of course there are good things about Facebook, such as connecting with people, but I can’t support this platform anymore, and that includes the companies it owns, like Instagram and WhatsApp. For right now I’ll keep my profiles open, but will not be checking them often.