Letters From Facebook Jail: Day 17
Facebook is a private company and has every right to censor whatever they deem to be inappropriate or unprofitable to them. I don’t see why this is so hard for people to understand. Being a corporation, they also have the right to shadow ban your posts in order to modify your behavior by manipulating your perception of reality. Duh. It’s no different than how a newspaper is allowed to omit opinions and facts that might hurt its bottom line.
It like the old days of landlines when Bell Telephone got to choose who you could call and what you were permitted to talk about. Companies have obligations to their shareholders, you know.
Saying Facebook can’t pick and choose what is communicated on their platform is like saying Walmart isn’t allowed to say who you’re permitted to speak to in their store or in their parking lot. They own the place, for crying out loud!
I mean, you can’t honestly think you should be able to speak your mind in an apartment you are merely renting, do you? I guess if the landlord says it’s okay, then yeah. And if your house isn’t paid off, it still technically belongs to the bank, so don’t expect them to let you go run your mouth off in “your” living room.
Have you paid off that credit card that you bought your television with yet? If not, it seems perfectly permissible for the manufacturer of that TV to switch the channel if it deems you are watching something inappropriate. And it only seems logical that the volume can be turned up by them should you be saying something of which they do not approve.
If Amazon doesn’t want to sell the book you invested your time and passion into, you DO have alternatives, you know. Abe’s Books is another large online bookseller. It was bought out by Amazon in 2008, but there are surely other ways you can reach your audience. And if no viable option exists, you can start your own online bookstore/publishing house/printing press.
Honestly, what part of “It’s a fundamental right of monopolies to throttle the voice of the masses” don’t you understand?
You are still guaranteed protection from government censorship. I’m sure there are many government-owned places you can speak your truth. You just aren’t allowed to say what you want at work. Because they own you when they’re paying you and you have no right being on their premises when they are not. Also, you are representing them so you had best watch what you say outside of work, as well.
But to get back to Facebook: It is my earnest wish that Lord Zuckerberg’s holy algorithms permit you to see this post so that I can sing to you the praises of an oligarch-approved means of communication. And if you don’t like corporations being in charge of what you are allowed to say, who’s allowed to hear you, and who you make obscenely rich as you simply try to go about your day, well you can just find alternatives. Just find alternatives to giving your support to corporations that don’t give a damn about your rights or what is needed to build a more vibrant and free society. Just work to create direct relationships with your fellow human beings that don’t rely on greedy corporations acting as intermediaries profiting off us while not giving us what we want or need. Just start to envision a new way of organizing society without the need for sociopathic billionaires and the community-destroying organizations we call corporations.
All kidding aside, I sincerely hope you do.