I'm more afraid of government than private industry.
Facebook will never have a Gitmo. It'll never send someone to a torture camp in Egypt. It'll never invade a country. It'll never confiscate property. It'll never put someone on the no-fly list. It'll never harass you at the border.
Yes, we should be openly critical of powerful corporations. But the downsides of misguided governance are much worse than even the most powerful corporations can muster.
So, I don't believe it's fair to compare what Facebook does to warrantless government spying. And I'm glad Zuck is publicly taking on this issue.
It will never lobby for laws that impose severe penalties for non-violent crimes. It will never sue and bankrupt individuals and small businesses to grow, protect and solidify its market position. It will lobby for laws that literally steal trillions of dollars of value from the public domain. It won't influence international policy. It won't fight against legal reform in a country that rivals the most horrific, repressive regimes for incarceration.
If the government is misguided, it's because powerful corporations are leading it by the nose.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."
Facebook will never have a Gitmo. It'll never send someone to a torture camp in Egypt. It'll never invade a country. It'll never confiscate property. It'll never put someone on the no-fly list. It'll never harass you at the border.
It may not do those things directly but who's to say it won't tip the government off about you? Tell them where you live and flag you for a disgruntled post or an idle threat. There's a lot Facebook could do to help the government crack down on dissidents.
Facebook will never have a Gitmo. It'll never send someone to a torture camp in Egypt. It'll never invade a country. It'll never confiscate property. It'll never put someone on the no-fly list. It'll never harass you at the border.
Yes, we should be openly critical of powerful corporations. But the downsides of misguided governance are much worse than even the most powerful corporations can muster.
So, I don't believe it's fair to compare what Facebook does to warrantless government spying. And I'm glad Zuck is publicly taking on this issue.