Hello Facebook, or is it goodbye?

Of late, however, politics has become very polarized. As a result, I have taken to avoiding political posts on my timeline. If I want to share or respond to something political, generally I do it in one of the groups to which I belong that has been set up for that purpose. In fact, there is one group of which I am a member and the group’s administrator. 

During this recent campaign season, you have made being the administrator overly burdensome. You have required all posts to the group’s page to be first approved by me. Your excuse for creating this burden is ostensibly because, during the last three months, you have had “to remove several posts” for violating your “Community Standards.” This condition is to remain in effect until Jan. 4, 2021. 

It is unclear what punishment will be meted out if I, as administrator, allow a post to be seen which, once again, goes against your “Community Standards.” Very likely this will happen because, unlike you, I do not care to be gatekeeper of all that people post or comment. Of course, if a complaint is lodged against a post or comment for being blatantly inappropriate or rude, then I would review it and consider taking it down.

Two questions for you Mr. Zuckerberg: 1). What made you think you should take on the role of arbiter of all information posted to the Facebook site; and 2). Do you really want to assume full responsibility by taking on such a role?

Relative to the first question, allow me to share a story to make a point. One of the Facebook groups of which I am a member was once a real group. It was started by people who actually met at an establishment on the Peninsula. The owner of the establishment did not require a fee for using their room. Instead, they simply requested that we come early and use their bar to order food and beverages before our meeting. As compensation, that sufficed. It was an arrangement not too dissimilar to what Facebook offers, i.e., a free venue in exchange for viewing ads. 

Here’s the point: never once did the owner of the establishment barge into one of our meetings and declare that what was said was in violation of their “Community Standards.” Never once did the owner announce that something shared was false or misleading. Never once did they assume the role of arbiter over anything stated at any of our meetings. Now we are on Facebook, you do. Why?

Here is a second point to be made. In my work, I sometimes go to a job site to answer a question or work out a detail that is unclear to the builder. When I do, I take on an ominous responsibility because if something goes wrong with the building, then I can be included in the liability for what went wrong. For example, if the wrong size beam is put in place and it later fails, even though I wasn’t on site to review a beam, it can be argued that, because I was there, I should have seen the beam and known it was the wrong size. The only way around this liability is to never step foot on site during construction. 

So it is with you Mr. Zuckerberg. Once you and your Facebook team decide to become arbiters for some of the information on your platform, you become arbiters for all of it. Therefore, you take on liability for all of it as well. Do you have enough independent fact checkers to comb through everything? Is that truly a role you want to play? Or might you and your customers be better served by allowing freedom of speech on the venue you provide?

Keep doing what you are doing and the mass exodus of customers to other sites like Gab, Parler and MeWe will continue unabated. I’ll be one of them.

A former member of the San Carlos City Council and mayor, Matt Grocott has been involved in political policy on the Peninsula for 17 years. He can be reached by email at mattgrocott@comcast.net.