It is sad to see the internet weaponized this way. I remember when the internet was at its embryonic stage; when most sites were universities, personal and few businesses. How sad.

My thinking on this has changed based on circumstances. My current thinking is that we need to shut down Twitter and Facebook for six months. World wide.

I know this is harsh. I know they do a lot of good. And I know this is difficult yet doable (they don’t own their domains, they are borrowed).

And yet the world existed just fine before Twitter and Facebook.

Things have gotten out of hand. More harm will come out of this kind of irresponsible unchecked mass communication. These companies don’t seem to care about the damage they enable through their flawed technology. They enable real white supremacists, terrorists, cancel culture warriors, child pornographers, human traffickers and all kinds of criminals to form massive groups and organize action like never before in history.

I’ve said it before, for all their technical prowess they sure have shitty algorithms, lousy rules of operation, nonexistent customer service and no accountability.

For example, How hard would it be to classify post subject matter and throttle comment rate to one per 60, 30, 10, 5 or 1 minutes?

Can’t classify reliably? 60 minutes between comments.

Groups on FB? Your content is deleted every 30 days so you can’t accumulate walls of hatred. Also, all group owners and moderators must use real names and submit identification, maybe even post a bond refundable after a period of time. Don’t like it? Go start a website.

I know a bunch of the above is crazy. Sorry. I am angry. I started with the Internet before most people knew it existed. Before that it was services like Compuserve.

There was great hope for the internet and the enlightenment it could bring to society. And, for the most part, it has done far more good than harm.

Yet there are a handful of companies, including “news” outlets who have managed to use the Internet to defecate and vomit all over society. And they don’t seem to care at all. Anything from lies to orchestrating mob attacks on individuals, businesses and institutions —even history— is fair game.

They have enabled the lowest of society to engage in mob rule in exchange for returning profits to their investors.

This is where Silicon Valley is to blame as well. For all their virtue signaling they seem perfectly fine with focusing their money and resources getting people to click on stuff. I have yet to see any of these virtuous individuals apply a significant amount of time, money and effort towards fixing the shit culture that produces companies who seem content with being the conduit for hatred and destruction.

Bravo!

Take Twitter and Facebook off air for six months. Force them to think about what they are doing and find solutions. Send a solid message to others (media/news) that being conduits for destruction and radicalization has consequences.

Maybe, just maybe, we come out of such an experience with the Internet we all thought we were going to enjoy. One that would enlighten, elevate and unite people. An internet that would erase inequality, bigotry and racism. One that would eventually even remove borders and unite all on this blue marble and move humanity towards an unimaginably great future.