The time has come for IV Words to leave the platform of disinformation.
PLEASE FOLLOW IV WORDS ON TWITTER (@IV_Words), INSTAGRAM (@ivwords), and TIKTOK (@ivwords) INSTEAD. BETTER YET, OR IN ADDITION, PLEASE USE THE SIGN-UP WIDGET HERE ON THE BLOG TO RECEIVE NEW POSTS IN YOUR INBOX.
Why am I leaving?
Facebook’s support, sometimes active and sometimes passive, of political misinformation should have been enough to get me to leave. Its financial support for Trump’s events should have been enough. Its enabling of Trump’s disinformation campaigns should have been enough. Its use as a vote suppresser should have been enough. Its weak actions to label misinformation should have been enough.
Hell, Zuckerberg’s face and entitled demeanor alone should have been enough.
The man has no honor.
Today, the final straw – A story on HEATED entitled “Facebook’s climate of denial” regarding its pathetic acts to “offset” disinformation regarding the climate crisis on the platform, and mostly its inaction on climate crisis disinformation being spread on the platform. This is the most crucial challenge facing humankind. Our tolerance for misinformation about the climate crisis needs to be ZERO.
All of this goes against what IV Words stands for – social justice, equal treatment under the law, fact- and science-based information, environmental protection, honesty, integrity.
Therefore, I can no longer in good conscience support the platform by maintaining a presence there.
My plan is to leave the IV Words Facebook account open for 30 days. On Oct. 21, 2020, I’ll be deleting it. In addition to following the blog on Twitter and Instagram, and signing up to receive new posts in your inbox, please consider signing up for the weekly e-blast here.
There’s one obvious flaw to what I’m doing:
Instagram is owned by Facebook. However, at least for now, I don’t believe Instagram is as politicized as Facebook is, and I haven’t read or heard any reports of the platform allowing the type of misinformation that is disbursed regularly on Facebook. I plan to watch this closely and re-evaluate regularly.
In the meantime, I encourage all of you to stop using the platform of disinformation, too.
.
Thank you for reading!
.
.
.
.
.
6 Comments
bz · September 21, 2020 at 3:51 pm
I salute you!
Sometimes one has to just walk away; there’s only so much one can accept that is plain wrong.
I turned my back on FaceBook over a year ago and can say i don’t miss it at all.
Here’s the thing: it’s a false interaction. No real ‘interaction’ is taking place and, worse, it allows people to not actually reach out to those who are important, or we want to be important, in our lives.
Martin C. Fredricks IV · September 21, 2020 at 4:51 pm
“a false interaction” – I couldn’t agree more.
naturelover55 · September 21, 2020 at 11:32 am
I agree wholeheartedly. I don’t want to lose the precious family photos and memories that I have on Facebook, so I will be deactivating my account (again) instead of deleting it. This allows me to reactivate it later if I want to retrieve those memories. I may end up removing my account permanently down the road. I’m not a big fan of Twitter or Instagram either, so maybe unplugging from all of it for a bit. I think it will be good for my mental health. In the meantime, thank you for your blog. It’s great!
Martin C. Fredricks IV · September 21, 2020 at 11:35 am
Thanks so much, April. Have a great day!
Dammit. - IV Words - The Progressive Perspective · November 15, 2021 at 1:56 pm
[…] lasted one week longer this time than I did the first time (9/21/20 – 10/12/20). And then I realized I needed to at least keep my Facebook and Instagram accounts […]
Dumping Facebook Again. For the Last Time. - IV Words - The Progressive Perspective · October 13, 2021 at 10:19 am
[…] write this, on Oct. 12, 2021, it’s a year to the day that I returned to Facebook following a brief departure on Sept. 21, 2020. Reading that return post now, I’m shamed. It sounds like exactly what it was – a guy […]