In that piece I noted our point of attack has been the neurochemistry of deliberately trying to addict your users. The thinking being, this is where the giants are most vulnerable and is the argument most amenable to soundbite journalism/attention - grabbing framing. Turnabout being fair play and all that.
I'm not sure bringing the Nazis into the mix is helpful—it muddies the picture and may distract from the point you're trying to make. I mean, who else now has a Mel Brooks soundtrack accompanying this story?
LEAD TENOR STORMTROOPER:
Anyone?And now it's...Springtime for Hitler and GermanyDeutschland is happy and gay!We're marching to a faster paceLook out, here comes the master race!Springtime for Hitler and Germany....
From the Daily Mail, November 10:
- Former Facebook investor warns tech giant has 'absolved itself of responsibility'
- Roger McNamee likened social network's methods to Nazi propaganda chief
- Comes as analysts expect Facebook usage to go down in teenagers this year
Facebook officials have been compared to the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels by a former investor.Roger McNamee also likened the company's methods to those of Edward Bernays, the 'father of public' relations who promoted smoking for women.
Mr McNamee, who made a fortune backing the social network in its infancy, has spoken out about his concern about the techniques the tech giants use to engage users and advertisers.
Speaking in Washington, the former investor said everyone was now 'in one degree or another addicted' to the site while he feared the platform was causing people to swap real relationships for phoney ones.And he likened the techniques of the techniques of the company to Mr Bernays and Hitler's public relations minister.
'In order to maintain your attention they have taken all the techniques of Edward Bernays and Joseph Goebbels, and all of the other people from the world of persuasion, and all the big ad agencies, and they've mapped it onto an all day product with highly personalised information in order to addict you,' Mr McNamee told The Telegraph.
Mr McNamee said Facebook was creating a culture of 'fear and anger'. 'We have lowered the civil discourse, people have become less civil to each other,' he said.
Mr McNamee said the tech giant had 'weaponised' the First Amendment to 'essentially absolve themselves of responsibility'. He added: 'I say this as somebody who was there at the beginning.'
Mr McNamee's comments come as a further blow to Facebook as just last month former employee Justin Rosenstein spoke out about his concerns.
Mr Rosenstein, the Facebook engineer who built a prototype of the network's 'like' button, called the creation the 'bright dings of pseudo-pleasure'.
He said he was forced to limit his own use of the social network because he was worried about the impact it had on him....
