LOL - understatement of the year (and it's been a long year). You might as well say kangaroos are ill-equipped to stop the spread of marsupials. Awp, got a dow

LOL - understatement of the year (and it's been a long year). You might as well say kangaroos are ill-equipped to stop the spread of marsupials. Awp, got a downvote from someone who doesn't believe Facebook is authoritarian. Its merely being a corporation places it among the most authoritarian social structures in history, hate to tell ya, but let's look at the characteristics of authoritarianism (paraphrased from britannica.com): 1) Blind submission to authority is prized over individual freedom of thought and action. The very first act demanded of you, upon first contact with Facebook, is to fill out a form and submit (the word choice is coincidental, yet apt) your personal details/data. By clicking, you're declaring you trust their authoritah. If you refuse and go your own way, Facebook users whom you know will make no bones about their disapproval. Oh you won't go to any gulag or anything. I'm not saying it's a government. 2) Power is concentrated in the hands of a leader (a.k.a. autocracy) or small elite (a.k.a. oligarchy) that isn't responsible to the people. This one is so obviously true of Facebook that I'm starting to feel foolish for starting this list. "In other news, the sky is blue." But I'll continue. For starters you can just ask yourself whether you were consulted about any of the endless string of privacy-policy changes. (Or where to hide and obfuscate all the opt-outs in the UI.) Or whether you approved any "sharings" of your data with some person or company about whom you had no idea. You didn't, because Facebook controls your data. And they control what you see. 3) Power is exercised arbitrarily and without regard to existing bodies of law. https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/congressional-record-index/115th-congress/2nd-session/zuckerberg-mark/327461 https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/congressional-... 4) Leaders cannot be replaced by citizens in fair elections. If we take "citizens" to mean "users" or "customers" this is true. That's a characteristic of every corporation. If we take "citizens" to mean "shareholders," those people get a bit more democracy. Although at Facebook as I understand it, Mark Zuckerberg is the largest single shareholder, so I'm not sure how that all plays out, and am rapidly getting bored of this. Wish I knew more, or gave more of a shit, about Facebook... but I don't know what's inside a giant stinky turd either and I think I'm OK with that. Can anyone take over? I'm sorry this comment sucks. 5) Opposition parties or groups are limited or nonexistent. On this criterion, Facebook fails the "Is it authoritarian?" test. These groups are all over Facebook. (Generating data for Facebook and profits for Facebook.)