#quitfacebook

Elizabeth Warren wants tech monopolies to be held accountable. Most of the other candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have similar views. So Mark Zuckerberg is effectively throwing in his lot with Trump so he can continue his monopoly unhindered. 

#quitfacebook

Sen. Elizabeth Warren commented on Twitter about a speech Mark Zuckerberg gave at Georgetown University.

Zuck babbled that he was actually a defender of “free speech” because his platform accepts and publishes knowingly false political ads. Never mind that Facebook rejects knowingly false ads for all other products and services.

Zuck knows that Democrats are more likely to enforce antitrust laws than Republicans. So he empowers the Trump campaign by giving a green light to blatant lies which would help re-elect the current decrepit administration. And along the way, Zuck stands to make (at least) tens of millions of dollars from those deceptive Trump campaign ads.

In his Georgetown speech, Zuck referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to justify his mass spreading of Trump lies. Bernice A. King, daughter of Dr. King, would have none of it. She quickly responded on Twitter.

There’s nothing to prevent Facebook from banning ALL political ads. That would have the benefit of reducing somewhat the amount of money drowning US politics. But that would also mean that Zuck’s fortune of +$50 billion would grow a little more slowly.

I've been thinking hard about it for a while, but especially in light of recent events, and I've determined that the only ethically consistent thing to do for me is to delete my Facebook account.

I have been unhappy with the way Facebook makes me feel for ages but never had the strength to stay away for very long. That feeling has gotten worse over the last few years as advertising has taken over Facebook and now we have confirmation that it is mining our data for use in all sorts of god-knows-what deals and operations.

I'm all for technology. I'm all for a greater connection of global consciousness. But while certain things, like Wikipedia, make me feel smarter and more informed, Facebook often makes me feel dumber, like it's the biggest television sitcom ever invented. It's made me lazy. I rarely finish reading articles. I browse headlines. I seek out drama. I get a guilty pleasure out of seeing people argue over extremist points of view. Facebook is bad candy, and I need to go on a permanent diet.

I intend to go back to reading blogs and articles and actually researching items that i'm interested in learning more about, rather than relying on how many "likes" an article got to tell me how good it is. I want to get back to using my brain to engage with the world, while at the same time putting a damper on the constant flow of information that leads me to stress out from information overload.