Perhaps a more appropriate title would be ‘Lack of action and communication taken by Facebook in response of controversy as well as better alternative social media platform recommendations’ but it could be too wordy.
Facebook has once again found itself under scrutiny. As it has faced countless times before. The years of scandal were made easily navigable to me by this timeline conducted by creative future. And that one doesn’t even mention the current situation the social media giant is fielding at the moment thanks to former employee, Frances Haugen.
Facebook has been under fire for years. The question of how to regulate it has been brought up by lawmakers constantly. I think it is a platform that has no respect or regard for it’s billions of users. This time, Haugen brought it’s implicit disregard for users to light. Haugen shared the fact that the company targets young users and caters advertisements to them, which of course it not new knowledge, but raises even more concerns over the health and safety of children who have easy access to Facebook and Instagram. NPR shared the statistic that about 32% teen girls feel worse about their bodies after using their social media accounts. The Wall Street Journal highlighted the fact that Facebook knows that using Instagram is harmful for young teens. And after this news was broken, Facebook claimed to stop working on their Instagram product meant to target users under 13.
The continued disregard for safety measures and practices despite them being the subject of concern every year shows the company does not care for its users. It perpetuates the fact that they value profit and growth rather than the comfort of their loyal users. This is made especially true when their knowledge of how their platforms are harmful to young users and rather than fixing the issue of privacy concerns, they continue to barely uphold their promise to user security. Despite all the heat they are facing in the media, I was unable to find a statement from the media company regarding the controversy. They have no communication with their users and continue to leak and sell data as well as target their influential young users and willingly perpetuate the harmful habits that thousands of users suffer with.
I have a few suggestions for your next social media apps! I have had the fortune of never really using Facebook, my main reason usually being that I could never figure out how to use it. But that did not stop me from opening up an account in my freshman year of high school (it sits idle now). Consider zoom for connecting online with your friends! It is a platform that has certainly gained popularity these past few years with an easy to use interface and friendly social media pages. Slack or Discord are great apps for chatting to replace Messenger and Facebook. They allow you to create large groups and connect with your friends. I have forever been a fan of Goodreads! A social media app that allows you to share your favorite books with your friends. There are hundreds of alternatives out there. Ones that are infinitely more trustworthy. Consider them!
PR & Social Media 