Did God Smite Facebook?

 

                                                           Facebook Whiste-blower Frances Haugen

This has already been a miserable week for the social media platform Facebook and it couldn't happen to a more evil, shadowy monolithic empire.. Okay, that may be a bit over the top, but perhaps not.

On Sunday night a former Facebook employee spoke bluntly on the investigative program Sixty Minutes about  the platform's own research which showed it was used to foment suspicion, conpiracy theories, and hatred around the world. Poltical parties in a number of supposed democracies admit to tailoring their platforms in response to the pressures of social media platforms. 

While they claim that they are doing their best to address this, the reality is that outrage and anger draws eyes to Facebook and the ads which have pushed the company's worth to $1.2 trillion US. The founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is still in his 30's but his estimated personal wealth exceeds $120 billion. 

It's hideous that the profit motive trumps (couldn't resist) any moral or ethical principles and leads to misleading the public. I suppose that I should say "allegedly" here, although the Facebook whistleblower has reams of internal documents which she spirited away before she left to substantiate her claims. This week she has taken them to a Senate sub-committee.

It's chilling that there is also internal evidence that Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) do serious harm to children and teens, particularly girls, for a variety of reasons. Planes for a new Instagram for kids was only withdrawn after public outcry. 

What really strikes me is that so many faith groups are heavily dependent on Facebook for communication. The platform has recognized that religion is good for business, actively creating products, including one for prayer, aimed at faith groups. Of course the pandemic has made this particularly attractive as faith communities have tried to figure out how to "do church" -- or mosque or synagogue. This sure feels like a deal with the devil to me. 

When Facebook and Instragram went down for an inprecedented period yesterday I joked about God smiting them, but within hours they were up and tracking our every whim and preference. 

Perhaps faith groups need to consider divesting of Facebook the way they divest of unethical investments. 

Who knows maybe governments will demonstrate the courage...do not hold your breath!