What is The Root of All (Facebook) Evil? - Comments Page 2

Bob,
I agree with your assessment. I am not on FB,T, or other social media due to vague/confusing "privacy policies." Several months ago, "Bloomberg Business Week Magazine" ran an article describing how FB monetized operations in the early days, by selling personal user information to several known foreign nationals. The article implicated Zuckerberg directly, leaving the reader to question his ethics, as well as the FB's liabilities.

Bob, you might consider practicing what you preach.
Delete the politically motivated garbage from these pages. And please don't tell me some nonsense about the freedom of this or that, because the same rules should apply to all social media sites.

Clarification of my post above: I was not referring to your article, with which I agree. I was referring to some of the messages.

Bob: Thank you so much for your very informative article. I knew Zuckerberg started FB while at Harvard, but I had no idea about the illegal shenanigans he used and his attitude and demeanor. That explains a lot. Your description "callow" is very precise: lacking adult sophistication; immature. The fake news apparently doesn't think this info is newsworthy.

If only that same enthusiasm and energy for cleaning up something like Facebook and putting it under some kind of reasonable rational control could be directed toward global warming and the rest of the problems of planet earth as a whole - so many problems, so much to do, so little time to get there... How much does everyone know about Jonas Salk, "the developer of the first effective and safe vaccine to prevent polio," and his son Jonathan, "who co-authored a new book (released in June last month, posthumously for his dad) called "A New Reality" (Human Evolution For A Sustainable Future). Google that, check it out on C-SPAN-2 Book TV -- we've got a lot of things that need fixing more and bigger than Facebook, but I don't know, maybe it could start with Facebook and build up from there. Go Get 'Em Bob, I love it! I approve this message, I'm Grand Pa Ken (aka GPK SMET) (Ken for short)

Bob, I generally love your analyses. However, I think the weak link in your article is the assumption that Zuckerberg holds almost total sway over the $550 billion company with over 25,000 employees. Yes, he's the figurehead and must take responsibility for the company's actions. But I question whether Zuckerberg controls Facebook's upper management decisions, as you surmise. Big companies are generally like large oil tankers. It takes a lot of people to steer it and it turns take a lot longer than you'd imagine.

I tried to post a link to your article on facebook but it was stopped. Suckerberg is on to you.

facebook is a joke. it always has been a joke. they are the Home Depot of the internet. and just like Home Depot, the apalling, absolutely inexcusable nature of his product is deliberate policy. the user interface is beyond unaceptable, a chaotic ratsnest with no discernable functional organization. and after 15 years they still have no search engine. they have a token page that they call a search engine that's so worthless you can't even find your own mother. what would facebook be, what COULD it be, if only that dumbass took his job seriously?

There are no free lunches in the world, yet most of our online activity doesn’t cost us anything directly. Email,social media programmes etc. are “free”. So this “cost” that Bob is I’m sorry to say whining about.

"It doesn't seem likely that any form of public protest, or mass exodus from Facebook would be effective, or likely. Too many people are apathetic, addicted, or both. That threat may have to come in the form of hefty fines, regulation, or something more drastic imposed by governmental bodies."

I think government regulation should be a "last resort". Information, like Bob has presented in this article, should be widely disseminated to better educate the public about the privacy abuses of Facebook, Google, etc. Major institutions, non-profits, and businesses should stop encouraging clients to access their Facebook pages - and expeditiously get off Facebook!

Let the marketplace - fueled by an educated public - pressure Facebook to reform their ways or face going out of business entirely. Time to "wise up" to protect our Constitutional rights. I have never joined Facebook and never will - thank you!

Your story doesn’t surprise me, knowing about how Zuckerberg started Facebook withheld me from getting an account right away. On the other hand, I’m allergic to social media, especially the hunger for information bothers me. It’s nobody’s business to know too much about me. It’s a bit of a surprise to me that several reactions on this article mention surprise at hearing about FB’s methods. I’ve known about this for more than ten years and it’s the reason why I resisted making an account when my workplace asked me to do that for easier communication. They were very put out when I explained my reasons but I’m glad I managed to have them contact me in the ‘traditional’ way to accommodate my wishes.

Removing Zuckerberg won’t make a difference though, he’s a figurehead but there’s a very large movement in the world that is gathering information from everywhere. Zuckerberg introduced a new level to the information gathering but they won’t dismantle everything when he disappears from the stage. Companies like Google are just as bad and it’s now trickling down to every level imaginable. Look at the Social Credit System that’s now being built in China. People there will be observed everywhere. A small number of transgressions like walking or driving through a red light can result in sanctions like losing your job or not getting one or even having to move out of your apartment. Talk about 1984! And I’m afraid those kind of things are in the future of Western countries as well.

It’s the nature of mankind to want to control how society functions. Religion has always been a major tool to do just that. In many parts of the world religion is declining in its influence, whether it’s because of communism like in China or because of emancipation and equality like in many Western countries. When religion no longer offers the tools to control you look for other tools.

Social media are those new tools. And just like religion they can be abused horribly.

When I realized how much personal information I might be sharing with identity thieves, I wanted off Facebook. Not easy to manage. I finally got directions from some kind person and severed the relationship.
Thank you, Bob, for educating those of us who need it.

Anyone with a fecebook account is a fool.

Great article Bob.
You also opened my eyes to a lot of the Facebook/Zuckerberg history I was unaware of.

Is LinkedIn any different from FB?

Your article mentions Mr. Trump's ban on all Muslims entering the USA. That is incorrect. The ban was for people entering the USA from designated terrorist countries. Whether they were Muslim was simply consequential.