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Mark Zuckerberg Is Dictator Of Facebook Nation; There's No Democracy Online: The Pirate Bay Founder (cnbc.com)
Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is the "dictator" of "the biggest nation in the world," says Peter Sunde, co-founder of the controversial website The Pirate Bay. Sunde, who appeared at The Next Web conference on Friday, added that there is "no democracy" online. From a CNBC report: "People in the tech industry have a lot of responsibilities but they never really discuss these things... Facebook is the biggest nation in the world and we have a dictator, if you look at it from a democracy standpoint, Mark Zuckerberg is a dictator. I did not elect him. He sets the rules," Sunde said. "And really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications."
I'm not obliged to use Facebook. If people want to sell their brains to Mark Zuckerberg, that's their right, but it's hardly a dictatorship in any meaningful use of the word. When we're all forced at gunpoint to use Facebook, then the article may have a point.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
And really you can't opt out of Facebook. I'm not on Facebook but there are a lot of drawbacks in my offline world. No party invitations, no updates from my friends, people stop talking to you, because you're not on Facebook. So it has real life implications.
So start your OWN free-to-users social media platform. Figure out how to pay for that mammoth infrastructure and operations overhead while making it perfect for users like you who want nothing to do with any system that involves advertising or user profiles - and you'll have a millions of users instantly. It will be fascinating to see how you solve the problem that people at Google, Microsoft, and other fly-by-night operations haven't been able to solve (specifically, making people like you happy while not having the platform run at a financial loss).
If you actually care about social event invitations, etc., just set up a FB account, tell it to drop notifications to a burner mailbox, and never sign in using your normal every day browser sessions. Need to look at it? Fire up an incognito sessions, socially interact for 10 minutes so you don't miss that party you're whining about, then kill the session an go back to focusing on running that content piracy web site you're trying to keep alive.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I understand that with the exception of major-life events (e.g. weddings), good-old-fashioned written invitations have largely gone the way of the dodo, but most parties I've gone to have been word-of-mouth invitations. Either Sunde is overestimating his sans-Facebook popularity or he needs to reassess the (and possibly revert to the pre-Facebook-era) definition of "friend." Last I checked, it means something other than "acquaintance."
Let me know the next time Facebook:
Takes your property without your consent.
Prohibits you from leaving.
Stops you from saying what you wish to say.
Threatens your livelihood or your life.
Throws you in jail without a trial.
Forces you to interact with it against your will.
Executes your entire family for a political view.
Love sees no species.
I know lots of people who don't use Facebook, and we all get along just fine. However, we are of an age where we still remember how to make phone calls, send invitations via mail (e-mail or USPS), and make plans in advance for what we are going to do.
Are friends really friends if they neglect you in their social life just because you don't use a particular on-line social media platform? I'm truly wondering on this question, because I don't hang around in social circles where this is required. What do those who do think?
So start your OWN free-to-users social media platform. Figure out how to pay for that mammoth infrastructure and operations overhead while making it perfect for users like you who want nothing to do with any system that involves advertising or user profiles - and you'll have a millions of users instantly.
It doesn't work that way. Unfortunately, Facebook is a natural monopoly--the network effects are massive and capture the market, and while the infrastructure cost of entering the market is relatively low, the user acquisition cost when competing against them becomes massive. No effective competitor has emerged in a decade. They are practically a utility and real consideration should be given to at least a certain level of regulation for such reasons as consumer privacy, accountability, and limiting the potential for abuse of market power. The current generation of regulators will not see that, but give it ten or fifteen years.
Real lawyers write in C++
Perhaps you should try to find some real friends then.
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
People tell me that I am the last human on earth who is not signed up. I tell them I have enough things wasting my time without it. Sure, I don't know where my high school classmates are shitting this afternoon, or which starbucks beverage is the favorite amongst my cousin's colleageus, but I am fully certain that I can live without that information. In the outside chance that anything of any value is posted there, plenty of people I know in the real world can tell me about it.
I have a real world to experience, thank you.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Facebook is a big data corporation aimed at monetizing your personal information.. Of course it's going to be a dictatorship. Since when are corporations not dictatorships? They want to tell people how to think, feel, and believe.