Are we helping Facebook ruin the world?
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) has gained a lot of power and is increasingly becoming a toxic actor. And we help them daily by filling their tank of poison. Let’s talk about the Meta elephant in the room.
Written by Pardis Molavi, Chief Marketing Officer
TIME FOR GAME OVER ON META´S POWER TRIP?
As a company, we pay millions to Meta for advertising every year. We hate it, and our plan is to stop. But the reality is that, like many others, we are still dependent on them – not only to reach the masses with advertising but also to maintain channels for dialogue, communication, and community with our customers. Dropping Meta means giving up a reach of between half a million and one million people per month, missing dialogue with tens of thousands of followers, and losing a large majority of the traffic to our website. It’s easy to imagine the consequences this will have on the revenue, growth, and survival of a small clothing brand with relatively low awareness and limited resources.
Meta has gained enormous power, and we’ve long felt it has gone too far. For many years, there has been talk about Meta’s algorithms and their control over the content we are exposed to. If it’s true that they censor information about Palestine (as reported on NRK’s Oppdatert on November 11), this is the last straw for us. Regardless of which side you are on, no one should have the power to control information the way they do – especially when truthful content is being targeted while fake news and dangerous propaganda are left untouched. Deleting posts just because someone dislikes them is a frightening power move – and knowing that we are indirectly supporting it feels deeply painful and very shameful. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: Meta pays hardly any taxes to Norway or other countries. Meta (and others) work tirelessly to make us and our children dependent on their platforms – and much more. Enough should be enough.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
But at the same time, we are afraid. We don’t dare to cut ties completely. We have a long list of alternative channels and activities we’ve wanted to try, but the fact is that Meta has a brilliant platform – it’s simple and intuitive to use, requires little time to create and adapt content, is easy to communicate and create engagement within, and allows us to reach most people in the country with relatively little time and money invested. The alternatives to Meta are far more time-consuming and resource-intensive, have less reach, and are significantly more expensive. Boycotting Meta is therefore far too risky for a small player like us. We also know that most who have tried have slowly returned to the platform.
The big question is why should a technology company, that is supposed to make collaboration and community-building easier for people and businesses, be allowed to meddle in politics, play power games, and put itself above laws and market regulations?
What can we, as users of the platform, do to challenge this power? What can we demand from our politicians to hold large corporations like Meta accountable for exploiting their power? How can we and other businesses contribute to creating real change without being crushed by the consequences? How can we get our messages out and sell our products without sending money to some of the world’s richest and most powerful people?
SPEAK UP!
Enough is enough – we need more voices to speak up. What are your thoughts and answers to the questions above? Share your thoughts in the comments on the posts on LinkedIn , Facebook or Instagram .
Once in a while, one of the Northern Playground employees sends out a letter giving you an honest look behind the scenes of the company. We believe that transparency is an essential part of being a socially responsible company. This is the 32nd letter. Read the other ones here.
