IN DEFENSE OF FACEBOOK, BUT IT HAS PROBLEMS

Frances Haugen, appeared on an interview in 60 minutes. She is saying that Facebook is not doing enough against hate speech. Instagram is being harmful to young girls, etc. The said interview, has been connected to the hour long outage that happened on the social network platform. Which also drop the company's stock value.

My humble opinion is, Facebook is strict as it is. If Frances Haugen is to be followed, it will be more stricter than it is now. I believe the social media platform, has its safety measures, both we see and don't see. That's why there is the report system, if someone's post has been found offensive and dangerous. Hate speech and misinformation is bad. But if we will put some measures, permanent measures, that might clamp on them. It might trickle on speeches, that are not harmful, yet not everyone agrees. Then it might encroach on our freedom of expression. Then Facebook will not be that different than Weibo.

But it has problems. Like their political leanings. They tend to hire third party fact checkers, that are with same political leanings. Like here in the Philippines, they hire Rappler, as the fact checker. And it's a common knowledge that Rappler is adversarial to the incumbent administration. What I mean is, fact checker system is good. But you should hire neutral entities.

I have my own experience too. I have post opinions on these blog and shared it on Facebook. But it was not been posted. And it's not even a controversial speech, but my views on Tyrion's plan on Westeros after Daenerys was killed. And consecutive posts are not shared. Another instance is, I had commented on post, that a certain nationality are doing dumb things. Then my account was warned. If Facebook will be more strict than it is, then it's only short of censorship.

What I'm just saying is, Facebook is a company, of course they will want money. They are not a morality police. Moralities and attitude should be formed first at home. Social platforms are just stages, that people put themselves in. I like Facebook just how it was before, just Facebook, having games, chatting and without ideological leanings. I don't approve further restrictions, that might encroach on freedom of speech. Then it will not be that different to China's social media platforms.