Facebook is the Height of Social Irresponsibility
I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. Please “follow” me to never miss an article.
The fact that the Uvalde shooter could post on Facebook the shooting of his grandmother and then declare his intent to kill children is once again further evidence of its total lack of Social Responsibility, not that it’s had much from the very beginning. The fact that Facebook justified its onerous behavior by saying that the shooter’s declaration was a “private text” only makes matters worse. Facebook’s claim that there are “private texts” when it’s one of major factors responsible for the erosion of Privacy would be laughable if it weren’t so disingenuous.
The whole situation only adds to my already low regard for Technologists. Even though I have a PhD in Engineering from UC Berkeley, one of the world’s great bastions of Technology, I’ve always been critical of the mindset of Technologists. The prevailing belief that few if any restraints need to be placed on Technology because it’s benefits far outweigh its disbenefits is shoddy thinking of the worst kind, and thereby nothing less than a cheap Ethical principle.
My low regard for Technologists goes back to my undergraduate days at Berkeley when it was made perfectly clear by my Engineering professors and fellow students that the Humanities didn’t count for much because they were based on shoddy opinions, not hard, verifiable facts. Even though I still pursued Engineering because it offered a good job after 4 years, and I liked Math and Science, I never agreed with its underlying attitudes towards other fields of knowledge. Indeed, I deliberately took a 31/2-year course of study in the Philosophy of Science for my minor field for my PhD in Industrial Engineering. I could no longer put off my intense desire to study something other than Engineering. To say the least, it changed the whole course of my life. Without it, I would not have been able to fulfill my passion for writing for a wide audience.
The burning question is: What would a responsible Social Media company look like, assuming that it’s possible? For one, it would not only set, but enforce strict policies that are in align with its primary values. Because of the First Amendment, the Government is not allowed to censor speech, unless of course it presents a direct threat to the health and well-being of its citizens. But private companies are a very different matter. They’re not obligated in the slightest to give all points of view a hearing as Facebook’s CEO so wrongly believes. To give everything a voice is to stand for nothing but the worst.
Social Media is nothing less than a Social Monster.
Ian I. Mitroff is credited as being one of the principal founders of the modern field of Crisis Management. He has a BS, MS, and a PhD in Engineering and the Philosophy of Social Systems Science from UC Berkeley. He Is Professor Emeritus from the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Currently, he is a Senior Research Affiliate in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He has published 41 books. His latest is: The Socially Responsible Organization: Lessons from Covid, Springer, New York, 2022.
Photo credit: grace rodriguez/Flickr.com
