The main purpose of the Internet is to freely provide access to data and communication (InternetSociety, 2017). There are different “tools” which enable this, such as Wikipedia or Facebook.
We all know Facebook, a free platform that you can distribute almost everything on it. For most of its users (the users like me and you), the Facebook product is the shared information (could be a product, idea, article etc.) of your network or yourself.
Currently, the platform has over 2 billion users (Zephoria, 2017) and has the goal to offer access globally, to 7.6 billion people, (Worldometers, 2017). But the Internet users are limited (only 3.6 billion people) (Internetlivestats, 2017).
To achieve its goal, Facebook is closing partnerships with telecom firms in developing countries or launching Internet-connected drones into space (Smithson N., 2017). All this will help the company to get more users.
Furthermore, Facebook creates new ways of doing business. For instance, one user in Nigeria wants to sell several jackets but opening a brick and mortar store is too expensive. Thus, he will share the jackets on the platform where potential buyers can see and buy his items. Facebook has a big influence of how some countries run their economies. The platform helps marketers to boost sales, developers monetize applications and most important people in developing countries to take part in “the digital economy” (Fiegerman S., 2015).
What if Facebook will want a part of your business (a percentage of your revenues) or if Nigerian government will put some fees on the Facebook users within its country? Does not this change how the Internet was supposed to work?
Moreover, the Facebook’s influence on people offering their own reality – rewarding users engagements by prioritizing current hot topics- can be a good tool to organize big mass actions (Mike, 2014). For instance, the people can be exposed to some controversial content regarding their religion or country leaders, where big national movements can be planned against these seen topics. But maybe these topics were edited to appear more controversial, manipulating people in the interest of others.
The Facebook goal is to offer access to the whole world but ill-promoted information can have a major impact on all countries in the world.But is someone actually caring about the impact of Facebook on society? Yes, more and more governments try to regulate this online space and what kind of information is getting distributed and by whom (Ingram, 2017). The company tries to eliminate “fake news” as well. But how do you determine if it’s fake news or not? We see the world from different perspectives making really hard to categorize what is true or not.
Is not a paradox that Internet was supposed to give us free access to information across borders without restrictions?
Here is the actual issue with how Facebook shapes our use of the Internet. While in some countries Facebook encourages free-of-speech, in other countries the firm bans some of the subjects tackled by its users introducing us their reality. The Internet became a new reality, which companies such Google, or Facebook own it. Facebook actually operates as a central authority, which tracks what you do, and controls what you share.
Taking all the above points, whose values are we following right now? Is it ours or Facebook’s policies and algorithm values? Is not that Facebook creates markets of how the company wants to see them?
Sources:
Fiegerman S., 2015. Facebook has a big impact on the global economy, says Facebook- funded study.
http://mashable.com/2015/01/20/facebook-impact-global-economy/#N3ftyJhQ0mqz
Ingram M., 2017. Facebook and Google need to be regulated, says British news Industry.
http://fortune.com/2017/03/09/facebook-google-regulated/
Internetlivestats, 2017. Internet users in the world. http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/
InternetSociety, 2017. What is the main purpose of the Internet.
https://www.reference.com/technology/main-purpose-internet-f26f4c9227f6a8a2#
Mike, 2014. Everything you should know about Facebook’s news feed algorithm.
Everything You Need To Know About Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm
Smithson N., 2017, Facebook Inc.’s Vision Statement & Mission Statement. http://panmore.com/facebook-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement
Worldometers, 2017. The current world population.
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
Zephoria, 2017. The top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics. https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
