But the change is increasingly drawing criticism, as it throws up unintended consequences – fake news highlighted, ignorance spread widely, and your data to be captured en masse. In last year’s Netflix documentary
The Social Dilemma several former big tech employees laid out more dramatic charges – that users are being nudged towards certain behaviour and thoughts, they’re being monitored and tracked, our emotional buttons are being pushed without us realising it – and, if you want to control a population or country there’s never been a tool as effective as Facebook.
Then on March 31 former UK deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who’s now in charge of Facebook’s global communication, wrote a blog piece that has been described as ‘wilfully naïve’ – saying the Facebook algorithm is just reflecting back what you, the user, feed it.
Facebook likes to be seen as a forum for ordinary folk across the world to connect with each other, for free.
Nice smiley selfies on holiday to show your family, wherever you are. A place to connect with friends, with lovers past and present.
Yet today it is embroiled in a furious global row after Australia, the first country brave enough to take on this tax-avoiding titan, demanded it must pay for the news it cannibalises for free from other media outlets.
Facebook s response was a declaration of war. It banned all news-feeds Down Under, to the despair of millions of its users in that little country. So much for the ordinary folk!
Graham blasts Durbin over Garland hearing request before impeachment
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent his successor, Sen. Dick Durbin, a letter that seemed to accuse the Illinois Democrat of political gamesmanship over his hearing request for Judge Merrick Garland, President Biden s pick to be attorney general.
Durbin requested that Graham holds a Feb. 8 hearing that would allow a day’s worth of testimony before the Senate shift focus to former President Trump’s impeachment trial. Graham referred to the trial as an unprecedented act of political theater.
Graham wrote that Garland deserves a prompt hearing and went as far as to say that he is inclined to support him for the post. But he said a one-day hearing is insufficient and pointed to how the last five nominees have had two days of hearings and said it isn’t clear why Garland’s extensive record deserves any less.
Unfortunately, GDPR has been infuriatingly bureaucratic and expensive for smaller online enterprises and charities.
They have paid the price for a tool aimed at stopping the FAANGs – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google owner Alphabet – from mining personal data.
The FAANGs do so anyway, as most consumers press I agree and wouldn t dream of wading through screens of legalese.
During David Cameron s spell at Number 10 from 2010-16 there was an open door policy for big tech in Britain.
It paid off with Google, Facebook, Amazon et al establishing large campuses in the UK and leading charmed and almost tax-free lives.