Talking more about censorship, Facebook is currently creating a tool that would allow governments to prevent certain posts to appear. They are doing so in hopes of getting China to allow their company to do business in China. Though the software is in development it may not ever see the light of day as Facebook has a history of announcing new features that never see the light of day. The reason I find this particular software to be so interesting is the potential it has to be abused. The very nature of the software is anti free speech and goes against what we as American believe. Though the software is intended to be used by China, there is no guarantee it would not be used here in the US as well. I personally feel that the software’s potential to be misused makes it dangerous. On the other hand however, Facebook is a company and they are entitled to try to expand their business. What I feel this all boils down to is that people need to get their news from other sources besides what pops up on their Facebook feed. Having too much faith in any one source is problematic and it is always best to fact check information for yourself.
Isaac, Mike. "Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back Into China." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Nov. 2016. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
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4/24/2017 11:51:27 am
The idea that Facebook could be getting in on the whole 'helping governments police and control their citizens' thing is honestly terrifying to me. As I showed with Sesame Credit in my first presentation, social media is an incredibly powerful influence on people's social experiences all over the world. Though, like you said, it may never reach the light of day, it's still a concerning thought that a company as large and powerful and, most importantly, influential as Facebook could be developing a tool that lets government actively curate the news and information one receives through social media is a dark thought - one that calls to mind images of Orwellian dictatorship and the willful burning of books - and citizens blindly following along because of the level of control government has over the things they see.
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Anita Garcia
5/3/2017 07:38:27 pm
I can see how the thought of this software being imposed on the US can potentially happen. I want to believe that Mark Zuckerberg would never allow for such a thing to happen or be demanded from in America. I though, think that since Facebook develops a lot of open source code, that this software would also be open course and fall in the hands of an other company that would in fact give our government such an administrative privilege.The issue that is more concerning wouldn't then be a technical problem, but more of a political concern. Would the US come that point? If so, then any company can develop their code to give any entity such privileges, which is concerning. Hopefully the United States doesn't come to that stage.
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AuthorIan Kindall a CD major emphasizing in Game Design Archives
May 2017
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