FACEBOOK BOYCOTT: PRINCIPLES OR POLITICS?

The recent actions by marketers against Facebook were in large part set off by a Facebook post by President Trump in which he said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

The ensuing boycott by hundreds of advertisers has been interpreted by some as evidence of pro-liberal, pro-Democrat, anti-conservative, anti-Republican, and anti-Trump sentiment. They assert that the boycott of Facebook is little more than a partisan political movement.

If the revulsion many feel toward Facebook is to be credible, the perception that it is  a partisan issue needs to be redressed. Regardless of your political beliefs, Facebook is a menace because…

   - They massively violate the privacy rights of all individuals. They have collected, and continue to collect, unconscionable amounts of data about individuals without consent. They collect information about people who are not Facebook users, and people who believe they have opted out of tracking. Further, they have been shown to be utterly unreliable and irresponsible with the data they collect.

   - Their editorial policies are reckless and misguided. They refuse to admit they are a publisher and consequently feel free to ignore commonly established editorial standards of responsibility.

   - They freely admit that they run paid political messages that they know to be lies.

   - Their claim that they are merely defending free speech is completely without merit. Everyone has the right to speak freely. No one has the obligation to publish it.

   - They have allowed themselves to become a vector for criminals, pedophiles and racists. Facebook doesn’t just publish their words, they actively seek to connect these people through their "groups" algorithms.

   - Although they are enormously profitable, they have refused to invest in adequate moderation personnel to review the nature of what they are publishing. Instead they rely on inadequate and unreliable AI algorithms to do their job. (Facebook’s AI is like communism. It’s never very good right now, but it’s always going to be great someday.)

   - Their first response to every crisis is to lie.

The result of FB’s irresponsibility is that...
    …they have blood on their hands. Violence and politically motivated murders     have taken place in response to lies and misinformation that has been spread on their platform.
    …public confidence in democratic institutions (including elections) has been eroded because of Facebook's unwillingness or inability to attenuate the enormous amount of misinformation and intentionally disruptive content placed on their platform, often by foreign actors.

Facebook is the most dangerous company on the planet. Marketers should not be supporting them until they have clearly demonstrated that they can act responsibly.

Facebook is ruled by an individual who is miles over his head and has no sense of the damage he is doing to society.

The boycott of Facebook should not be allowed to devolve into another tiresome quarrel between right and left. They are a menace to us all.

(BTW, town hall meetings aren't bad enough? Now we need virtual town hall meetings?)

The Drum reports that the poll in question revealed...
   - Over 40% of people surveyed said that Facebook leaves them unhappy or upset.
   - Of these, 48% said that this unhappiness has increased in the past year.
   - 31% of the respondents say they are using Facebook less than they did last year.
   - 26% say they expect to decrease their use of Facebook even further.

(BTW, the real question I would have asked is, "What the hell am I doing here?")

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