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7.4.18

WHY I LEFT FACEBOOK AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO (Published here but still in production)


Carole Cadwallader
Last year I read an amazing piece of investigative journalism in 'The Observer' written and researched by Carole Cadwallader  (https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla)  The extensive article detailed the ways in which the billionaire Peter Thiel had funded the Brexit movement in using Cambridge Analytica to harvest millions of facebook users data to micro-target mailshots during the American Presidential election and the brexit referendum in the UK as well as possibly interfering in the Kenyan Presidential and subsequent possible interference in the election of the monstrous Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philipines.
Charmath Palihapitiya
I have long been concerned about the relationship between Facebook and it's users where the user IS the product and while recognising the social glue it allows between 'friends', I am also disturbed by its apparently cynical manipulation and  its business model.

Yet another former Facebook executive has come out and expressed his guilt and concern over the role he had in developing the hugely popular social media giant, Facebook.
Chamath Palihapitiya, the vice-president for user growth at Facebook prior to leaving the company in 2011, said, “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we created are destroying how society works. . . . No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.”
These remarks were made at a Stanford Business School event in November, but were recently published by tech website The Verge earlier this week.
“This is not about Russian ads, this is a global problem. It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”
Interestingly, Palihapitiya is not the first former Facebook president to come out and expose the truth behind this corporation. Sean Parker also said in a press conference that he was “something of a conscientious objector” to using social media. These words were echoed by Palihapitiya, who says he is now hoping to use the money he made during his time at Facebook to do good in the world.
When a former president of such a massive corporation has such strong words to say about their employer, I would say it’s certainly worth considering. He is passionate about not using Facebook himself or even letting his kids use it, so there must be a good reason.  

He called on his audience to “soul-search” in regards to their own relationship to social media, saying, “Your behaviors, you don’t realize it, but you are being programmed. It was unintentional, but now you gotta decide how much you’re willing to give up, how much of your intellectual independence.”
What a powerful statement. I think many of us are aware by now of how addictive Facebook can be, but the idea that, with its pernicious algorithms it can influence our voting behaviour and thoughts and actions and harvest our data for the ends of shadowy billionaires and alt right think tanks is like dark science fiction turned into reality.


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