Magazine Reporter Tessa Pang writes that the notion that Facebook needs to be regulated by decisive legislation is uncontested. She argues that discourse blaming Facebook for everything that’s gone wrong – from the rise of right-wing extremism to disinformation – only obfuscates responsibility from those actually at fault, allowing them to remain faceless in the shadows.
We’ve spent a fair share of the last few years hating Facebook, and for good reason. Facebook’s most recent whistleblower confirmed our worst fears – that everything evil we speculated Facebook might be doing in the background is true.
They’ve provided neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremist groups with a breeding ground to grow their hateful ideologies, allowing them to use their platforms to recruit members across the globe.
They’ve intentionally concealed information that showed their platforms exacerbated eating disorders in young girls – and instead of taking action against it, they have continually promoted pages glorifying eating disorders to those same young girls.
When it came to coronavirus misinformation, they told us not to worry – that they were taking it seriously and removing the related posts. However, leaked documents show that they were deliberately hiding crucial data that suggested this wasn’t the case at all.
The list goes on…
It’s incontestable that Facebook’s actions are in desperate need of immediate global regulation – every human being with a pulse agrees with that. As policymakers from across the political spectrum attempt to tame the beast that is Facebook, it’s important to question whether this legislation is going to fix the root cause of these problems.
The truth is, Facebook didn’t start neo-Nazi groups, nor did it invent coronavirus disinformation. Facebook merely holds a mirror up to society – and the reflection we see is ugly. It unearths and amplifies the dark and depraved thoughts we have, and it highlights just how easily humans can be manipulated.