The recent appearance of tech leaders before a Zoom Hearing of Congressional leaders to discuss anti-trust implications and, ultimately, influence. It is, after all, an election year. Facebook, and social media in general, opened the floodgates of torrential conversation. As has been said of the technology, “The good news is, everybody has a voice. The bad news is everybody has a voice.” For many, Facebook has been slipping into a realm of political rants separated only by friend requests from high school sweethearts and pop-up ads. That hint of decline — it seems unlikely that the founders had the current state as a start-up goal — hasn’t slowed the membership growth.
Here We Go Again, And Again
In 2016, data from over 50 million user accounts was lifted from Facebook, ostensibly for academic research, and then passed along to political operatives for the creation and dissemination of misinformation during our 2016 elections. That seems likely to repeat itself, as we lose our capacity for or interest in critical thought. Democracy is messy. The human element will always remain, and bad people will always find clever ways to use your data, ways that maybe even you hadn’t imagined.
Instead, it might be best to face the issue head-on and book some time with ICS. For the safety of your staff, your organization, and your data, let’s put some fresh eyes on your systems and practices. Unless you like chaos, mayhem, and bad publicity.
