Public, Private and Profit

Context:  Facebook is rightly coming under scrutiny for the way it regulates speech. However, the problem of freedom, civility and censorship go deeper.

Specific Complaints against Facebook: 

• Political partisanship, not being attentive enough to hate speech and fake news,

• For E.g. Recently Wall Street Journal alleged Facebook’s support to a political party.

• Opaque algorithms that direct users to particular kinds of content, 
• Inadequate privacy controls, 
• Inordinate and unaccountable power to shape public discourse.

Challenges due to Digital Platforms 

• Revolutionary Transformation: We are in the midst of a revolution akin to the printing revolution of the 14th and 15th centuries, what Benedict Anderson called print capitalism.

• Both empowered masses of people enabled new forms of knowledge and transformed the Self.
• But they also enabled new forms of hate to emerge and consolidate as political forces.

• Political Partisanship: 

• Private in form but the public in utility: For, E.g. Facebook has taken the role of a free speech regulator, traditionally carried on by the government.

• Unchallenged Political partisanship of public officials: Even in official circles, where non-partisanship was appropriate, the norm has been eroded.

• Blurring of the distinction between public and private makes identification of the function of an institution a difficult task.

• Separation of public and private roles has become difficult in an age where public and private spaces are breached every time you tweet or post.

• Issues with Censorship:

• Always invites a charge of partisanship.
• Courting of censorship to get political mileage.

• Dilemma over deciding the nature of speech and action: Whether or not speech or incitement is a function of context

• For, E.g. Freedom of Expression is good when it is safe and is awful when it leads to violence.

• Factor mandating the need for censorship

• Viral and unpredictable effects of a social media post.
• Feature of social media to de-contextualise and re-contextualise speech.

Conclusion: Resisting Facebook’s power will require a more radical withdrawal from a logic of profit that blurs the boundary between public and private, without which no freedom and civility is possible.