Why it’s time to delete Facebook

Let me introduce you to John He is very rich and owns one of the largest fortunes in historymdashyes larger even than Elon Muskrsquos after you adjust for inflation He became rich mainly by selling oil at cutthroat prices and driving his competitors bankrupt before buying them out He was ruthless predatory and monopolistic At his peak he owned 90 per cent of Americarsquos oil refining industryJohn was also indiscriminately generous Through a foundation bearing his name he funded research and activities in areas like public health economics and education that benefited millions However he also supported American and German research into eugenics the pseudoscientific notion that ldquohigherqualityrdquo human beings can be produced through controlled breedingThanks to Johnrsquos support the Nazis developed socalled racial hygiene programmes which led to the forced sterilisation of people deemed lsquounfitrsquo and later the mass murder of those designated as lsquoracially inferiorrsquo Although John was not a Nazi nor endorsed their philosophy the projects and research his foundation financed laid the groundwork for the Holocaust and the genocide of 6 million JewsNobody remembers or even knows all this about John His organisation the John D Rockefeller Foundation is seen as philanthropic and benign making the world a better place by supporting food production and economic advancement eliminating disease providing educational opportunities and encouraging the arts They distanced themselves from eugenics research long agoNow letrsquos meet Mark He is immensely wealthy like John but I would find it impossible to find one kind word to say about himLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsAs a horny sophomore at Harvard University Mark created a website called lsquoFacemashrsquo where his buddies could look at photos of female Harvard students and choose who was hotter He acquired their photos by hacking into Harvardrsquos security network and copying their private dormitory ID images and data Within hours Facemash had 450 visitors and 22000 photo views The university shut it down swiftly and took disciplinary action against Mark but by then he had tasted bloodFour months later in February 2004 he launched Facebook to steal private data on a global scale Twenty years later Facebook has 307 billion active monthly users or 60 per cent of the worldrsquos social media audienceIts sophisticated algorithms manipulate them relentlessly feeding them misinformation strengthening their biases and prejudices and streaming conspiracy theories and fantasiesWe are all addicted to Facebook It is difficult to imagine life without it Because it creates a false sense of community and sharing we are quite unwilling to let it go even if it means that an opportunistic ethically bankrupt American billionaire will harvest our thoughts and most personal details to enrich himselfToday I get birthday wishes from people I have no connection with friend requests from people who have nothing to say to me endless cat videos turmeric and garlic recipes to make me immortal and borderline pornographic videos I waste precious hours in the vacuous rabbit hole Zuckerberg has dug for us allBut Mark Zuckerbergrsquos moral vacancy greed and opportunism come at a price People dieIn 2013 Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan released a personality quiz app called lsquoThis Is Your Digital Lifersquo which about 300000 users installed Clicking OK they unwittingly allowed the app to collect data about their friends reaping a jackpot of up to 87 million profiles This was sold to Cambridge Analytica a consulting firm that used it to create detailed voter profiles for targeted political advertising during the 2016 US presidential election Mark Zuckerberg earned billions from those political campaignsIn Myanmar Mark looked the other way while Facebook posts promoted hate speech and incited violence during the 2017 military crackdown that left over 700000 Rohingya Muslims homeless their women brutalised A UN investigation called Facebook a ldquobeastrdquoIn 2020 internal documents showed that Facebook moderated content only where the law required it which was mostly in the US If you were not American and did not speak English Mark really could not care less what junk was fed to you or if your family perished because of it Though over 90 per cent of its users were outside North America 87 per cent of Facebookrsquos content moderation budget went to the USA and Englishspeaking Western countriesEven that became history a few days ago when Mark bent his knee to Donald Trump kissed the ring and did away with all factchecks and content moderation on his platform Everyone can have their own truths and lies now Long live George OrwellMany have used Facebook to achieve stunning good for others They awe me but people like them always find a way to do their best even without Facebook But think if Hitler started a grocery store chain in Mumbai where everything was half the price and the poor could get free meals thrice a day should you thank him and become a customerI will delete my Facebook account on March 1 My world will become smaller perhaps easier to manage with a few genuine friends rather than a thousand faceless ones and less mindnumbing nonsense Those who want to reach me will find a way They always haveIf you donrsquot purge evil you endorse it and it eventually consumes you To Mark I say Change Facebookrsquos name Call it FacepalmYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper