Facebook: The Old Is Newish Again
September 14, 2018
Social media giant, Facebook, has been making a very public effort to clean up its act and establish a greater sense of security for users. As this campaign is underway more troubling news recently came out regarding the platform. We learned all the disturbing information from a recent article in The Verge, “How Autocratic Governments Use Facebook Against Their Own Citizens.”
According to the story:
“Armed groups use Facebook to find opponents and critics, some of whom have later been detained, killed or forced into exile, according to human rights groups and Libyan activists…Swaggering commanders boast of their battlefield exploits and fancy vacations, or rally supporters by sowing division and ethnic hatred. Forged documents circulate widely, often with the goal of undermining Libya’s few surviving national institutions.”
While this is indeed interesting news, we’d say that it is not just limited to autocratic regimes. Take, for example, the news that the US government would like to start wiretapping Facebook’s messenger app. Clearly, some governments are using social media for more overt evil, however, we can’t imagine a nation in the world that would overlook this powerful tool and consider ways they can use it for their own good.
Patrick Roland, September 14, 2018
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