Monday, April 23, 2018

Facebook: A mass media micro-surveillance monopoly

The social media giant, Facebook, is in the public spotlight, called to account for its cavalier handling of the life details of two billion users.

Facebook captures our data to profile us and our friends, even if they have no Facebook account.

With Facebook's millions of lucrative, captive Canadian eyeballs, it is good that lawmakers and regulators are joining their U.S. and U.K. counterparts in obliging Facebook officials to testify.

The challenges Facebook and social media pose go well beyond privacy.

The biggest challenge to retaining the best that social media offers, while avoiding the increasingly evident pitfalls, is Facebook's monopoly power.

So many people rely on Facebook to keep in touch with each other that it should be considered a communications utility, like telephone and broadcast media.

Given its business model, Facebook on its own cannot meet the objectives of Canadian media regulations - advancing Canada's identity and sovereignty, its social and economic fabric, universal accessibility, neutrality, affordability, openness, public accountability and rights protection.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-facebook-a-mass-media-micro-surveillance-monopoly/ 

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