WendyMcElroy.com | |
Sunday 07 February 2016 I see via Claire Wolfe that Facebook has now removed the pages of legal marijuana dispensaries. Just a few days earlier, Facebook banned private gun sales on its service...even if those sales are fully legal. This is why I despise the "walled garden" model so beloved by Facebook (and others). They promise you a delightful experience, if you stay within their nice garden with the carefully pruned shrubbery. The problem is, they then control what you see. Content -- even legal content -- that ruffles their feathers gets blocked, often so insidiously that you don't realize your viewing has been limited. Of course, they also limit what you can say on your Facebook page. Step over the line, and you are banned and your content deleted. (Good luck recovering it, if you didn't keep backups.) And this leads to self-censorship -- the most subtle kind -- as you police your own words to avoid the Facebook overlords. And you may not be aware, but they also limit who can read your words. Those -- like me -- who are not Facebook subscribers frequently find that posts on Facebook are not visible. Unless, of course, we sign up with Facebook. (Which, incidentally, makes Facebook the stupidest place on the 'net to post political content. Are you trying to reach out, or just convince your friends?) To all this I say, not just no, but hell no, a thousand times! Quoting from the marijuana dispensaries article: "It makes me question whether any of us should continue to use FaceBook. Maybe it is time for people to migrate to new ways of communicating," Rosenfeld added. That's half right. It's definitely time to dump Facebook. But the migration should be to the old way of the Internet -- the open Internet, where you can post whatever you like, and anyone anywhere can read it. Say "no" to walled gardens. | |
This site uses an open-source Content Management System. |