We (meaning people who understand the Internet and mass communications) have known this for a long time. I daresay Zuckerberg and his ilk have know it longer than anyone. There have been documented episodes of what I am now referring to as “Facebook Frenzy” (FF) getting people killed all over the world for years. Now we have some terrorist moron murderer in Christchurch NZ live streaming his mass shooting. Despite my doubts about Elizabeth Warren as a presidential candidate, she might be on to something with her recent idea about breaking up the tech giants. I think her position is probably too broad-brush at first blush. But the social media part is definitely something to consider.
Operations like Facebook have existed for only one purpose from their very beginning: To profit from people’s private information. Trading marketing intel, ad revenue and the burgeoning membership driving it all has created a society where truth becomes questionable and every individual with an Internet connection holds the potential to become a viral sensation, up to and including a mass murder broadcast.
There is nothing FB does that cannot be accomplished with the more commonly recognized tech tools preceding it (email, SMS, html, etc.) FB just made it easy for anybody to broadcast – with one glaring side-effect: FF. It’s just another in the ongoing string of unintended consequences created by dumb-asses who either didn’t know what they were doing, or continued doing it for sheer greed anyway, well aware of the risk. Sell that mutherfucker.
Don’t believe for a second this SOB has one single fuck to give about his customers.