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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.
Literally only two things you listed are things they don't already do:
Throws you in jail without a trial. (unless you count an account suspension as jail)
Executes your entire family for a political view.
Sunde's point probably is that Facebook has grown too large and have tentacles into everything, either directly or by buying up startups. Facebook's "gift of internet" to the poor in India that ended up locking in everyone in their walled garden is one example.
Within that walled garden (which is getting bigger and bigger) they do censor posts and people. They also prohibits you from leaving (as in erasing every information they have about you). As their tentacles dig deeper (or Facebook gets more successful, pick your view) being on their damned platform seems to be more and more important for certain jobs/roles.
And finally, they certainly DO force me to interact with them. Their fucking scripts and like-buttons are everywhere. I get that it is the businesses that chose to include that near-malware shit in their apps/on their web pages is responsible for being dumb, but that shit would not be there hadn't Facebook grown so large.
While I get that Facebook does whatever is good for Facebook, just like an amoeba does what is good for an amoeba, it does not mean it is good for the Internet/host of the amoeba. Competition and choice is awesome. Open standards are even better. Gardens without walls are great. Fuck Facebook (and Google).
Now, where are the barricades? I have a pitchfork to lift over my head while yelling something incomprehensible.
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.