This is why I don't mind social media networks which don't pester you for personal information and are what one could call free speech zones. On Reddit for example I hang out only at places where the mods are extremely lax and it's amazing how much people will actually complain about people they don't like posting there.
The Ancap sub is a perfect example of this, frequent complaints by anti-capitalists about actual white nationalists posting there and then complaints by various others including white nationalists about anti-capitalists being able to post in the Ancap sub. All conveniently ignoring the fact it's not even their sub to begin with and it's because the mods are so lax they encounter these people, zero appreciation for the lack of censorship because they're so used to their safe spaces where the mods immediately ban people with opposing opinions.
What social media has done is simply become a reflection of our actual society in the west. Here in the UK I've had a culture shock because I've realised just how bad the problem is, I'm pointing the finger particularly at the left because they're the worst offenders. They're building entire communities both online and off where they do not allow dissent or at the very least don't talk about other opinions at all beyond being snidely arrogant and dismissive about them and then wonder why everybody on the outside has voted differently from them or disagree with them.
Yes, sorry, lengthy post, this set me off but I'm not surprised somebody managed to manipulate this kind of behaviour online and use it as a way to make money. It's really interesting seeing these ex-employees come out in the open about it though.
It's censorship and bubble communities that have caused these problems, I don't think social networks by themselves are necessarily bad things, but when you combine it with the kind of social ostracising and censorship of a Communist dictatorship that's when you get serious problems.
I know a lot about this sort of behaviour because I've grown up in a left wing shit hole and people really do just virtue signal amongst themselves and have no idea how people in the real world can think so differently from them.
Lengthy post appreciated. :-P
If these people who started Facebook had these thoughts back then, we can assume the people still there do now.
But for them its business as usual.
Social media platform demographics age over time, so this is why Facebook bought Instagram, to access a younger demographic.
God only knows what they are doing with their Whatsapp data.
Well the good news is there is a lot of rebellion in the younger generations over this sort of thing, people hate shit like social justice. Which is what social media networks like facebook are peddling so these sites are all going to go the way of myspace soon enough.
Unfortunately, Facebook is so big now I doubt they're going anywhere. They'll just buy the next big social media app, rinse and repeat.
No, wait we are the next BIG social media app and we can NEVER be bought :-P
PS: You have some insightful comments I'm now following :-D