[imagesource: The Social Dilemma/Netflix]

Facebook has been stomping around, shaking its fists a lot lately.

Over the past two months, two things have set it off, and I doubt it’s going to end there.

First, Apple decided that iPhone users would no longer have to fall prey to the data mining and targeted advertising that Facebook is famous for.

This didn’t come as a surprise, especially after the company was so desperate to get info on their competitors back in 2018 that it paid teens to install spyware on their iPhones.

More recently, it’s throwing a tantrum because of Netflix’s The Social Dilemma  – a documentary that calls attention to the negative effects of social media and the industry’s business practices.

The 93-minute documentary film features interviews with former execs of Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other companies.

According to Variety, Facebook released a seven-point “rebuttal” to the film.

“We should have conversations about the impact of social media on our lives. But ‘The Social Dilemma’ buries the substance in sensationalism,” Facebook said in the document posted Friday.

“Rather than offer a nuanced look at technology, it gives a distorted view of how social media platforms work to create a convenient scapegoat for what are difficult and complex societal problems.”

Here’s a summary of the points outlined in the document, which addresses seven of the key themes in the documentary.

1. Addiction: Facebook builds its products to create value, not to be addictive.

2. You Are Not The Product: Facebook is funded by advertising so that it remains free for people.

3. Algorithms: Facebook’s algorithm is not ‘mad.’ It keeps the platform relevant and useful.

4. Data: Facebook has made improvements across the company to protect people’s privacy.

5. Polarisation: We take steps to reduce content that could drive polarization.

6. Elections: Facebook has made investments to protect the integrity of elections.

7. Misinformation: We fight fake news, misinformation, and harmful content using a global network of fact-checking partners.

All of this sounds nice, but we’ve lived through the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the interference in the 2016 US elections, and Myanmar’s genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

If I had to list everything that Facebook has done in the last two years alone we’d be here all day. Let’s just say it genuinely doesn’t care.

As for addiction, I missed a good 20 minutes of The Social Dilemma because I was messing around on my phone.

Facebook complained that the creators of the film did not include “insights from those currently working at the companies or any experts [who] take a different view to the narrative put forward by the film”.

In addition, the company said, “The Social Dilemma” does not “acknowledge — critically or otherwise — the efforts already taken by companies to address many of the issues they raise. Instead, they rely on commentary from those who haven’t been on the inside for many years.”

Here’s an insight from somebody who works at the company:

“Morale is super high,” reads the post from a self-described engineer. “We are paid a ton. Looking forward to my yearly bonus of $100k. Fuck ethics. Money is everything.”

The above was posted last year on the app Blind which is designed to allow employees of various companies to chat semi-anonymously about their jobs.

I can’t imagine much has changed.

The Social Dilemma is still streaming on Netflix.

You really should give it a watch.

[source:variety&facebook]