As Facebook grows, so will its ownership of the social graph and our digital selves. Systemic risk is highest in centralized systems. Extrapolating trends, I consider it possible, if not probable, that Facebook will become a systemic risk center for free society.
The argument goes:
- Facebook engages in comprehensive and growing data collection on its billions of users
- This data allows for exponentially greater manipulation of human beings and their realities than ever seen before
- Facebook is building towards human simulation and ownership
- Extrapolating trends, Facebook will create unprecedented centralization of power and influence in the hands of an individual
- Without a change of course, we are enabling a structural threat to free society, and potentially worse
Read the well-detailed analysis here:
http://www.truthhawk.com/is-facebook-a-structural-threat-to-free-society/
The author might be going a little overboard but with such a powerful platform it's not unreasonable to be worried about it being used to control the masses. It's already well on its way to doing so.
Facebook will be the most powerful tool for political power and manipulation in history. Someone, somehow, will take control of it.
What do you think?