Facebook’s Apology Needs Some Serious Rewriting

We have known for quite a while that the enormous power of large tech companies was a serious risk, but only now that we’ve seen how this power can manifest itself do we truly feel it. The fact that the American elections have been manipulated on such a scale, with the result that Trump is now the most powerful man in the world, is something that appeals to everyone’s imagination. This particular incident could well have been where a tipping point started. When former Facebook employees spoke out about the tech company’s real motives and even launched a campaign to fight tech addiction, notably few people were receptive to their message. It takes time to kick an addiction, and there’s actually five phases of behavioural change: denial, acknowledgment, exploration, action, and perseverance. Most people are still in phase one, as shown by the fierce responses focusing on everything except the recognition of the problem. Some people are already in phase two or three, and some, like the whistle-blowers are in phase four. Logically, Facebook tries to stop this from developing, and wants to keep the toxic reason behind the success of the platform (getting people addicted) covered up. When you view the campaign video through a critical lens, you will see that the story is incorrect or incomplete at the very least. The video starts by reminding us of the good old days when everything was still fun and games, and then swiftly jumps to our current time of fake news and clickbait. How we got there, or how Facebook got us there, is never touched upon. Because then you’d first have to explain how you got us addicted. Pay attention to the style of communication as well: Facebook chooses to speak in ‘we’ form, but communicates as the audience. They also decided not to allow comments on Youtube. The platform who turned consumers into ‘content creators’ chooses to fully determine the public’s opinion in their own campaigns. That is why I was so kind to rewrite the video’s voiceover. What the story would really sound like if it came from a user.