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The beast is always there in people if you look on a large enough scale. People managed to spread hate even before Facebook, but Facebook and other new communi

The beast is always there in people if you look on a large enough scale. People managed to spread hate even before Facebook, but Facebook and other new communication platforms have made it dramatically easy. The same way guns were a dramatic improvement over swords and arrows. Guns are regulated one way or the other all over the world. We shouldn't single out Facebook here, as the same could have been achieved using any alternative like WhatsApp or Telegram. The problem is, these platforms with their tremendous benefits have presented society with a new problem which society should acknowledge and fix somehow.

viraptor 9y ago
> We shouldn't single out Facebook here, as the same could have been achieved using any alternative like WhatsApp or Telegram. Not sure how telegram works, but WA and FB (the social network) are very different. The effort required to spread a link/message further is much lower in FB. It's literally one click away to reach all your contacts. (Or group members) That's not what you do with WA.
- enitihas 9y ago
  I will argue that WhatsApp has a higher potential of spreading rumours than facebook. 1. You can easily broadcast a WhatsApp message to multiple groups. Most people I know are members of 3-4 groups. 2. WhatsApp messages are transmitted instantaneously, and you will surely receive them, unlike facebook where what you see in your timeline is not deterministic. Morever, even if a friend of your sent you some link even without reading, it is nonetheless treated as a personal message from someone trusted. Also, WhatsApp is always on, always checked by people, and atleast where I am, people use WhatsApp a lot more than facebook. It has truly replaced SMS.
  - viraptor 9y ago
    I guess it depends on the style of usage. Nobody I know sends a "this is an interesting link I don't really expect anyone to read" type message on WA. But everybody on FB and Twitter does it.
- jogjayr 9y ago
  Heck no. Seeing how some of my family use Whatsapp - blind forwarding of literally any message to everyone on their contact list - I'd say it's a couple of orders of magnitude worse. On FB you can report a post and have it taken down. No such thing on WA.
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viraptor 9y ago

> We shouldn't single out Facebook here, as the same could have been achieved using any alternative like WhatsApp or Telegram. Not sure how telegram works, but WA and FB (the social network) are very different. The effort required to spread a link/message further is much lower in FB. It's literally one click away to reach all your contacts. (Or group members) That's not what you do with WA.

enitihas 9y ago
I will argue that WhatsApp has a higher potential of spreading rumours than facebook. 1. You can easily broadcast a WhatsApp message to multiple groups. Most people I know are members of 3-4 groups. 2. WhatsApp messages are transmitted instantaneously, and you will surely receive them, unlike facebook where what you see in your timeline is not deterministic. Morever, even if a friend of your sent you some link even without reading, it is nonetheless treated as a personal message from someone trusted. Also, WhatsApp is always on, always checked by people, and atleast where I am, people use WhatsApp a lot more than facebook. It has truly replaced SMS.
- viraptor 9y ago
  I guess it depends on the style of usage. Nobody I know sends a "this is an interesting link I don't really expect anyone to read" type message on WA. But everybody on FB and Twitter does it.
jogjayr 9y ago
Heck no. Seeing how some of my family use Whatsapp - blind forwarding of literally any message to everyone on their contact list - I'd say it's a couple of orders of magnitude worse. On FB you can report a post and have it taken down. No such thing on WA.

deleted 9y ago

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