What Meta means for Netizens?
Everybody who lives through the capitol riot in January 2021 would still remember vividly the tragic incidence facing the strongest democratic nation in the world. In its ongoing investigation, the Senate indicates that Facebook seems to play a role in relevance to couple sociopolitical conflicts in the country. Not only in the United States, Facebook is accused to contribute to several civil wars that happened in other countries as well, such as in Myanmar and Ethiopia to name a few. Hinder its negative impacts on the company’s brand, the giant social media company changes its name from Facebook to Meta. Does it mean that Meta will be responsible for the lack of misinformation management on Facebook?
Although both political parties in the US are arguably divided in regards to the cause of January’s riot, they both agree that Facebook changes its name to Meta does not necessarily mean it has misinformation on its platforms under controlled. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, has been repeteadly called to testify before the Senate of the United States in relevance to the mass misinformation across his giant social networks. Instagram has been accused for affecting mental health problems on teenagers, while Facebook and WhatsUp have been accused for smear campaigns, and the spreading of hate speech as well as other propagandas that are targeting specific racial minorities.
What happened in Myanmar?
The growing tense between Myanmar majority population with the Rohingya muslims has a longstanding history, just the same as its political instability. Myanmar was once belief could stand strong under Aung San Suu Kyi, a minority leader that was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while still under house arrest. Despite of her phenomenal political achievements, leadership, and complicated political affiliation with the military force in Myanmar, she is still to blame for the civil war experienced by the Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
In 2017, Myanmar’s military conducted “clearance operations” targeting Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority group in Myanmar. This operation presumably caused the death toll of more than 10.000 people. Ms Suu Kyi was accused for doing nothing to prevent the tragic event from happening. The mass miss-information targeting the Rohingya Muslims that is wide spread on Myanmar’s social media network was happening in front of her eyes. However, Ms Suu Kyi is not the only one to call out. The Rohingya sued Facebook for its lack of monitoring and prevention that led to the spread of misinformation and hate speech which fueled the attack of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Although facebook acknowledged its flaws, Mark Zuckerberg has yet to pay only little price for lives lost in this under-developing country.
The crippling effects of Facebook in Ethiopia
In October 2021, Facebook Whistle Blower Frances Haugen testified before the Senate and repeatedly referred to Facebook negligence in regards of preventing inflammatory contents that triggered civil war in Ethiopia. CNN reported that Facebook is aware of those misleading propaganda posts, yet the company does little to stop them from spreading. The intense use of military forces by the government of Ethiopia under Abiy’s administration is well known from spreading disinformation on Facebook targeting Tigray’s people, an ethnic minority group that stands against the prime minister of Ethiopia.
The refusal of Tigray’s people to abide to Abiy’s governance continues the tense in Tigrey region. The elected prime minister Abiy Ahmed which was the winner of The Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 uses his military power to arm his constituents to defend his administrative regions from Tigrey’s militia group. This continue civil war is unlikely to end soon and will likely lead the Ethiopians democratic system to the brink of political crisis. Facebook is aware of this devastating story, yet the Meta Tech Company is still being questioned for its realistic efforts to help hinder the spread of smear campaigns in Ethiopia’s Facebook feed.
Should Meta be held responsible for every unfortunate tragedy in the REAL World?
Undoubtedly, we live in a digital era where social media has become an essential part of today social interaction. Social media makes communication a lot easier for people across the globe. Many social media celebrities and influencers are being born every day. Through a single viral content, someones’ life can be totally changed upsides down or vice versa. All of this instance popularity does not come without price. We can focus solely on the economic advantageous and ignore its negative impacts on children’s mental health or adult’s Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). But we cannot replace the lives lost due to black campaigns or propaganda that are endorsed by irresponsible content creators.
I believe we are all aware that everything happened in this world is happening for a reason. What comes next is very likely influenced by our previous or current actions. One thing can lead to another. It is right to start calling those biggest tech companies into questions, but rest assure that we will also make them responsible for all emotional and physical damages resulting from their digital service. Just as simple as holding every chef responsible for including an allergic ingredient in their meal, big tech companies such as Meta should also be held responsible for their mishandling of information resulting from their algorithm system or else we will continue witnessing many lives lost in other developing countries at the cost of creating profits for the privilage fews who own social media giant companies in the United States of America.
