The past ten years was the Google years. Now, we seem to enter the Facebook era.
Facebook gives us an easy way to keep in touch with friends and relatives. It serves us with big and small news that are supposed to be relevant for us. It provides an advertising platform that is simple to use and affordable also for small businesses.
Also, Facebook is an internet player that gives Big Media an advantage over independent, alternative media. It co-operates with big, old media corporations — pushing fringe media and blogs aside. It aims to be the main video provider, but without Youtubes revenue sharing. (Resulting in less independent content being produced.)
Facebook shares information with different intelligence and surveillance organisations, especially in the US. (Even though the European Court of Justice has invalidated the »safe harbour« agreement, in an attempt to stop European personal data to be transfered to the US.)
Facebook is the ruling classes wet dream. And we must consider the possibility that it is not only used to collect information about people — but also to control what information is distributed to the citizens.
Facebook is also a commercial operation. It must listen to users, be relevant to us and adopt to the market. What you do on Facebook today determines what Facebook will be tomorrow. This is an opportunity. (Frankly, what are the alternatives? There is no real competition. At least not for the moment.)
E.g. you can choose to link to alternative media instead of Big Media. You can put your videos on Youtube and linking to them on Facebook, instead of putting them directly on Facebook. You can push news about mass surveillance and Big Brotherism. Everything you do will be noted by Facebook. And as you are the product — what you do will be noticed and shaping the Facebook of tomorrow.
The message should be loud and clear: Facebook users want pluralism. We love alternative media and blogs. We support revenue sharing content platforms.
/ HAX
Facebook is the worlds biggest problem. I don’t use it, and it is likely that’s the reason I get so little traffic to my blog. It’s a Catch 22. Using Facebook would not just make any anonymity I have impossible, it would also be absolutely contrary to the message I want to convey, contrary to my values of the rights to freedom of speech, privacy and anonymity. Which, by the way, you obviously don’t share, given your comment policy on your other blog.
Anyway, I don’t like video ad revenue sharing. For the first, because it is based on the violation of privacy. It’s not just the fact that you look at an ad, it’s also information about you. Personal information that you may or may not know is collected, but that definitely shouldn’t be collected. For the second it promotes real world severe violence and other seriously disturbing acts, because that is unfortunately what the majority of the viewers like and laugh at. While it isn’t the ads ‘ or Youtube’s fault, but the producers’ and the viewers’, it’s still a fact. Don’t believe me? Clear your cookies and LSO:s and preferably also use a VPN service, so that Youtube doesn’t know your history, and just look at the first page. Don’t click videos or you are supporting them. Why go to a job when you can run around town cutting random women’s long hair off, trick your wife/girlfriend that you blew up your kid, pepper spray your husband’s/boyfriend’s toilet paper, or fire a car airbag in the couch your friend is sitting, with a high risk of giving him life-long back injuries or even killing him, and make tens of thousands dollars/euros in just a week from it?
That was a bit off topic, anyway, the best would of course be if Facebook (and Google for that matter) was outcompeted by other, preferably decentralized, services. The second best if they were struck down by court and simply had to quit providing their services. Unfortunately, they are way too powerful and popular to let either happen. The usual problem – I, and probably you too, and a few others, knew this stuff five years ago. Nobody else listened or cared. Now it may be too late, at least it is much harder now. How can we get the messages out in time and in volume when the mass media doesn’t want it to come out, and preferably we not use Facebook. Which isn’t working either, since I know many of you already do.