Facebook Tells Biden: ‘Facebook Is Not the Reason’ Vaccination Goal Was Missed. (Soft paywall, but you're not missing anything in this case.)

Like many, I had a FB account which included 'friends' (people who I've been to their homes or shared dinner/drinks on more than one occasion), some authors, one band, and a local community group where I live.

I 'un-friended' the local community group because it was composed mainly of grainy Ring Door bell photos, usually of pairs of people in khakis obviously selling phone service, window replacements... all the comforts of living in the suburbs. I took the 'big dive' of completely disengaging after my mother passed. About three months before that, I had broken the wrist on my dominant hand and I let people know that even though I was 'keeping up', I wouldn't be posting. One person contacted me; that's when I decided to close my account. (I did that in the most paranoid way over the course of three months. That's another story.)

That was just before the 2016 election. I saw obvious attempts to instigate in-fighting. (My wife would give me blow-by-blow descriptions.) I'm sure the divisions, paranoia, sexism, and racism existed-- just now it wasn't something you needed to be ashamed of anymore. I attribute that to the, practically unmoderated, FB feeds. I read about how FB tailored individuals feeds to get people to be more involved and thereby spend more time, rack up more ad revenue for FB, and provide that dopamine hit.

Although FB was clearly not the only company that had' blood on their hands, they were probably one of the worst offenders. Unlike Fox News, they had a broader spectrum of patients/clients/addicts. They were handing out mega-phones with both hands. For me, I don't need any statistics to show that FB saw the profit in causing a melee. In my (perhaps tiny) mind, there is no doubt that they handed out the 'super-duper megaphones to anti-vaxxers. Yesterday when I read about the President's statement about FB and the dozen people who were at the tip of the misinformation iceberg. They all have blood on their hands. I'm just sick about the fact that around where I live the number of Covid cases is increasing. I'm quite frightened about the fact that, where I live, the US Flags that went up just prior to the election are still up and that school will be starting up, parents are adamant about not wearing masks and that the schools won't make Covid vaccinations mandatory.

I'm Tenzin and this has been my Ted talk. ;) Be well.

#facebook #fb #zuckerberg #blood #covid