First facebook, then the world

Frederic B. Ouedraogo

The Economist
May 29, 2010

This article raises the problem of non control of information shared by facebook users and its consequences in the society. In Pakistan, many people protested against facebook for having published some images judged offensive by some religious leaders.
The issues related to this article can be summarized into three questions:
- Is it not a duty for facebook to control all information posted in the wall by users?
- Isn't facebook more political and ideological tool than a simple social network?
- Is it not necessary even obligatory for facebook to censure some information shared in the wall?

In my opinion, since facebook has become more and more used, some policies have to be adopted to ensure that the former goal of social networking is still respected. In many cases, facebook is about to be used by politicians to track their electors; by ideological groups to promote their point of view; and most recently by hackers and other criminal groups to con and dwindl innocent people. As far as concerning the social problem generated by facebook, I think that message susceptible to create trouble in one society or another, one religion or another should be forbidden. For that, facebook should create a group of moderators to analyze information prior to get it published.