Facebook must admit it’s media and take responsibility

Suddenly, data finds itself in undignified, dirty territory with social media giant Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in the middle of a maelstrom. Should we press ‘delete’ as some experts have recommended? Not yet. But what we are witnessing is an unfair portrayal of numerics as numbers online narrate a woeful tale on the fall from grace of the emotional human race. We refuse to treat data right for development and progress, and it has returned to spook us. But it’s not a perfect world. People and organisations do different things, often with a nefarious agenda, with a range of data that are freely available online and in real life. It’s a science, we are told, which gives the profession of getting these numbers, otherwise known as data mining, a veneer of respectability. In fact, our virtual selves are treated as data online, and we let it happen by becoming figures that see and do things and post them on social media. It’s an ego trip that we don’t seem to have enough of despite the myriad warnings that demand a common sense approach to the way we govern ourselves online. Hence we become slaves to the data maniacs with our eyes open.

The trouble with big data online is when they are used by shady characters for purposes that leave us in the dark. Tales are spun to besmirch reputations, bring down governments and change the course of democracy where people decide who their leaders will be. And it appears from the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal that users’ privacy was breached, money changed hands, and someone played foul. Nothing has been proven yet, but the facts trump data in this case. What Cambridge Analytica did cannot be termed illegal, but it fell into the wrong hands. Facebook was a medium waiting to be tapped and exploited. Marketers, criminals and politicians used data dug up by groups like Cambridge Analytica to promote their wares, ideas and ideology. The social media giant which earnestly believes that it is a force for good should look in the mirror and admit it is part of the real media, and take responsibility for what is going on. Hiding behind the legality of its actions will only make its choices worse.