When a company is a publisher and when it’s not……
Ya know, I’ve seen the Mighty Zuckerberg testify before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions about a number of things. Most often, it’s about the vast amount of misinformation, untruths and just plain lies that end up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et.al. Mr. Zuckerberg always makes the same argument in his defence. He says – and I paraphrase – “We are a tech company, not a publishing company”…..holy crap and shitstorm….that is so wrong and is, indeed, the biggest lie that these “tech” companies spread around. They are all so totally “publishing” companies – and the biggest in the history of the world – and it is so obvious they are publishing companies, that I’m wondering about the general level of intelligence of anyone who accepts the Facebook owner’s balderdash….
I spent nearly 40 years in the community newspaper business, mostly as an editor or publisher. I have a pretty good idea what constitutes a “publisher” and what doesn’t. And I’ll tell you something you should likely already know – as the editor or publisher of a community newspaper, I was totally and absolutely responsible for anything and everything we “published”. If we printed untruths and lies and didn’t check our facts thoroughly and relentlessly, we would have been sued out of business by right thinking citizens – and we would have deserved it for sure. Everything that’s submitted to these giant “tech” companies as posts is published if the platform allows it to be posted publicly. It’s sort of that simple. It’s not rocket science….
When I was a newspaper editor, I received and published many, many Letters to the Editor over the years. And they all – each and every one – had to have a real and actual signature attached to them….In the early days of Fax machines, even a faxed signature wouldn’t hold up in a libel suit or any court of law. The person who submitted the letter had to actually “sign” it. It was the law….once I published it, myself and everyone else who worked at the paper and helped to publish it, were responsible for its content. Why in the world doesn’t the same thing apply to these “tech” companies where every post they publish is really just a “Letter to the Editor” that allows the writer to express his or her opinion and shares it? Explain to me how that isn’t the case?
And the other thing is the “harvesting” of our personal data….how in the world do these big “tech” companies get away with this while our governments sit idly by and allow us to be raped and pillaged at an astonishing level? I know, I know….when I clicked the button to agree to their terms and conditions, I gave them permission…another really big monster pile of excrement. How did clicking a button on a computer screen become a legal way of agreeing to something…Christ, anybody could have clicked on my behalf. In my world, you should need an actual signature (by a human) before you can start raping and pillaging that human’s personal data. It’s just the way it should be. Of course, younger generations of folks won’t be able to actually sign anything – because they’ve stopped teaching cursive writing in our educational system. That was likely a smart thing to do, eh?
Ya know, I picked up an odd piece of information over the past week and don’t remember where – but likely on Facebook so it’s likely a lie….a group of linguists have apparently figured out the average IQ of humanity at a couple of different points in time. I don’t know how you do this, but apparently there are ways. Anyway, back in the early ‘90’s, the average IQ of humanity was about 100….which ain’t really great, but you know. However, by the year 2019, it had seemingly slipped into the low 90’s….which is sort of alarming. The main reason humanity’s IQ has slipped – according to the linguists – is that we don’t have to retain knowledge any more. Instead of remembering stuff like older generations, most people now just “google” it and then forget it. Also people use really crappy language these days when they write e-mails and tweets and Facebook posts….generally, the whole planet is in the process of dumbing itself down….and apparently the language skills go first.
Anyway, there are things that could be done to rein in these tech giants who have f##ked up our planet so badly. I’m a writer and there are certainly many advantages for me as a writer by using some of the new technology….however, there’s got to be some control exercised. It can’t just be like the wild west out there. And it’s not censorship. It has to do with decency, morality and respect. But you should have already known that….eh?