I’ve asked myself how alarmed I am that any company, but in particular Facebook, can hold, handle and perhaps mishandle (intentionally or not) the data of millions of people – including mine – and the answer is, honestly, not very.
Certainly not enough to #DeleteFacebook.
I see people’s anger and I want to be outraged with them (I love a bandwagon) but no matter how hard I try I just can’t get past the fact that it’s only as dangerous as you let it be.
In the case of Cambridge Analytica there certainly appears to have been major violations, beyond just having a made-up word in their company name, and for that they deserve a fate worse than Cameron Bancroft…
Guy has had a rough month
They dishonestly gathered huge amounts of data sourced from Facebook to hone ultra-targeted political messages to help clients like the Trump Campaign, Brexit, and more.
Whistleblowers say it included planting ‘fake news’ articles in Facebook news feeds
They used data to map behavioural patterns and forecast what would best resonate with people, politically, in essence ‘tricking’ them into voting a certain way.
You feel like they would have loved being around in the Cold War.
Pictured: The CEO of Cambridge Analytica in action
Ignoring how not-shocked I am that any politician would be involved in something questionable that’d help them get elected…
Let’s get one thing very clear, Cambridge Analytica did not vote Donald Trump into office; nor did Facebook, the Russians, Martians or any other group ending in ‘ians.’
Blaming any of them is to blame your car for speeding just because it can go fast.
It’s the morons who read the fake news stories and absorbed it as fact who are the ultimate problem.
Let’s take some individual responsibility here, people; the search bar is right there at the top of every web browser and every story is verifiable if you want to check it out.
The creation and dissemination of ‘fake news’ is a legitimate issue, Facebook agrees, but it’s those who mindlessly peddle the read-be outraged-share-repeat culture we need to blame more than its authors.
Legitimate news outlets must accept some fault here as well, because in their quest to meet or boost click numbers often extreme and outrageous stories are pushed blurring the line between what’s important, what’s right and what’s engaging.
But it is doable.
There are multiple examples of stories that became points of widespread international social outrage that would have been avoided if the original reader checked it out a little deeper rather than racing for the ‘share’ button.
It’s not.
If – as a voter – you looked at Trump, read all you could across multiple news agencies, assessed the character of the man and still sent your vote his way, you’re a fool.
BUT, if you only read whatever stories popped up on your Facebook feed, based your opinions information on that and then went and voted for him, you’re an even bigger one.
I’m not #DeleteFacebook level furious is because I don’t rely solely on my Facebook news feed for my life’s information.
About the only thing I totally rely on Facebook for is to tell me who’s birthday it is.
After all, there’s plenty of other sites available for all your stalking needs.
It’s ironic that ‘Fake news’ was a phrase coined by Donald Trump to describe actual stories being run by legitimate news organisations that criticised his campaign…
And it’s now the name given to counterfeit stories, run by no particular organisation, which aided in his election.
But it only aided him because too many people are happy absorbing only what an algorithm puts in front of them, regardless of the veracity of the story.
That’s why I can’t rally the anger towards these ‘shady’ giant corporations; at its core it’s the individuals who are giving them the power, and it’s very easy to take that power back.