![]() ![]() ![]() More, such internet platforms “pollute the public square by empowering negative voices at the expense of positive ones," turning the free-speech mandate of the internet’s pioneers into a forum for bullying and bullhorns. Even given this, and even given Facebook’s “monopoly power,” few users seem quick to shed the service or to acknowledge their addiction to it. All of this led McNamee to the conclusion that social media is a more effective tool for spreading messages of discord, hatred, and fear than harmony-or, as he writes, “Facebook has managed to connect 2.2 billion people and drive them apart at the same time.” His warnings to Facebook’s executives, including the fellow he calls Zuck, have gone largely ignored, while Facebook has promoted algorithms favoring big-money advertisers that rely on exploiting the private data of its users. ![]() He saw “a surge…of disturbing images, shared by friends, that originated on Facebook Groups ostensibly associated with the Bernie Sanders campaign,” all of them containing “deeply misogynistic depictions of Hillary Clinton.” This flew in the face of Sanders’ conduct, as did Facebook’s allowing a slew of “inorganic” propaganda promoting such things as Brexit. Not long before the 2016 election, writes the author, he got the sense that something wasn’t quite right with Facebook’s general run of posts. Venture capitalist and technology consultant McNamee ( The New Normal: Great Opportunities in a Time of Great Risk, 2014, etc.) turns a hard eye on Facebook, a company in which he invested early. ![]()
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