Thanks for that URL, @info_alex! Too funny: Mudita appears under “Smartphones” at https://ethical.net/resources/.
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I’d say rather than creating one ministry of truth, they enable multiple parallel ministries of contradictory truths to exist within segregated bubbles. Which is ostensibly to facilitate targetted advertising for any groups that identify according to philosophy, political ideology, etc.
It damages humans’ discourse because it entrenched you in a community where disagreement becomes difficult because of the risk of isolation. It means people have difficulties encountering alternative opinions. More dangerously, it promotes alternative facts and often the conflation of opinion with fact.
I recently tried to create a FB Messenger account, as my class uses Messenger for communication. I had an unsuccessful attempt of trying to make them switch to Signal during the Whatsapp drama - sadly, many of them just went back to Messenger. At least we have a Discord server that was used frequently during online learning, but now, only some people use it, which makes it hard for me to ask them for information needed for school.
What surprised me was that when I wanted to create just a Messenger account, I had to make an FB account first and then disable Facebook. So I created a fake e-mail address, an autogenerated name and ran the FB website through a containerized browser. I succesfully made an account and joined the class group. Then I started tweaking all the privacy settings I could find buried inside the mess that Facebook calls Settings. After I switched off enough trackers, ad personalization, facial recognition and other nasty stuff, the account suddenly got blocked for “suspicious behaviour”.
And of course, if I wanted to gain access to this account again, I would have to add my phone number, scan my credit card or ID. Of course I didn’t do that and I just quit and never used FB since.
Now I communicate only using Signal or Discord with classmates that stayed on these services (and I know Discord is not a great company either, it’s just a bit less evil than FB). What’s great though, when I communicate directly with a person and not through a chat group, I get the response quicker + there is no spam from other classmates.
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Facebook allowing hate speech isn’t surprising the slightest.
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No surprise there, right? 
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Unfortunately, that won’t fool the gait recognition software. https://recfaces.com/articles/what-is-gait-recognition
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Why I refuse to be photographed if I know it’s being uploaded to FB. It’s not much, but at least its a form of protest that makes others think about what I’m doing and, hopefully, why.
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Makes you wonder how much they already know with your shadow profile. The only way to verify would be by creating an account (thus defeating the purpose) but I expect it to be eerily complete.
Hopefully data protection legislation catches up someday (unlikely).
Interestingly, gait recognition can be useful. Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian, says he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease by a doctor who passed him on a street and observed telltale signs of the disease just by his gait.
In some places though they just use gait recognition for genocide and incarceration of political enemies.
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This is beyond obnoxious, but I got to hand it to Zukcy- he’s got his eye on the prize.
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@jameshjacksonjr OMG! this is hilarious, but at the same time, it’s pretty scary because it’s true. Thanks for sharing.
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Sometimes I do. I loved the customization and personalization!
And thinking about it now, being able to edit or write the HTML codes - I didn’t become an expert, but that’s how I learned about it and learned very quickly.
Does anyone else remember kiddonet? I think it was called.
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It seems like a Black Mirror episode. 
I’m glad that I’ve deleted my Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/WhatsApp accounts. Yes, I’m still guilty with a business Instagram account (only), but I’m using it wisely.
As I wrote before, I believe in balance as a matrix for the healthy survival of the living beings in an ecosystem. Not too much, nor too little. Just the necessary. I don’t need social media for personal purposes, but I still need it for business contacts. I said, “still.” 
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BTW, if I’m allowed, I just read this article. Please, don’t see it as a kind of nonsense “denialism” label as a society taught us. I’m an animal scientist, and I must ask questions as the (real) science has to. Science and moralism are parallel fields. Therefore, it may be an interesting “fact” for the future.
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Here’s an interesting video I just ran across of a conversation with a former FACEBOOK EXECUTIVE. His claim really hits home:
“I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. You are being programmed”
Check it out for yourself:
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My choice for the most thought-provoking phrase in that video:
- Fake, brittle popularity
Thank you for sharing the video!
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File this under “I did not know that!”:
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