🙈 What does it mean for us that Facebook is removing fact checking?

I published fake news on Facebook, back in the day. When I was in college, my friend and I had each started dating other guys, but our Facebook profiles still said Single. Awkward.

We couldn't just remove Single as a relationship status because it would post an update to our friends and family, and people would assume we were in relationships. That would be even more awkward. Why? Because we were 19 and hadn't dated anyone before. This was not a conversation we wanted to have.

So, my friend came up with a genius, devious plan. We “got engaged” to each other on the app. That post went out to everyone. People who knew us understood we were not engaged or even dating in real life. Then, a week later, once we “were tired of the joke,” we removed the relationship status, leaving it blank, the desired result.

Facebook back then felt way more casual. You would see jokes from friends, local events, updates about people's actual lives. “The algorithm” to make us addicted to social media, depressed, and buy things hadn't kicked in yet.

But even back then, I got pushback. An adult reached out to me to let me know a joke like that fake engagement could affect my future job prospects. “People are going to think you're gay!”

And, you know, she had a point, at that time there was less acceptance of being out and gay in the workplace even in liberal parts of the US.

I remember feeling like I didn't understand what Facebook was supposed to be, how it could be this platform to help keep in touch with your friends and also be spied on by future employers. How could one possibly split the difference between those two things?

Fifteen years later, Facebook continues to be many things to many people, but not particularly a good space for friends to engage with each other. It's a business platform. It's a crucial communication channel (Messenger and WhatsApp). It's a channel for fake news and bigotry (and always has been).

While my joke engagement fake news didn’t hurt anyone, most of the fake news posted on Facebook is harmful, bigoted, and reduces peoples’ understanding of the world.

It's always been okay, more or less, to share homophobic or transphobic content on Facebook. And it's always been questionable whether it's safe to come out as gay or trans in Facebook. Sort of like real life, I suppose.

So when Zuckerberg said that censorship has gone too far in his announcement that he's removing fact checking at Facebook, and when “gender” was one of the two example content areas he cited, I was disappointed but not shocked.

I don’t know whether the content is likely to change drastically or not. I expect Facebook will become more like X, perhaps because Zuck wishes to be more like Elon in terms of power and influence.

But the problem is that Facebook (and Meta) is so many things that Twitter never was. Businesses around the world depend on Facebook: WhatsApp and Messenger, Marketplace, ads for their business, business Pages instead of websites. Some friends and family are only connected through Meta products. Individually moderated and organized Facebook Groups are great ways to find online community.

I’m in favor of leaving the social media side of Facebook. I consider social media toxic and unhealthy in general. But it’s hard for me to leave a platform which has gained me several clients, helped me make connections within the writing community, helped me pitch articles, and helped advertise my business, services, and classes. Maybe all that is in the past, though.

This isn’t the first time I’ve taken a step back from but not entirely left social media. I feel like I’m trying to thread the needle of making myself and my work visible while trying to avoid looking at the trash fire that is the social media feed. Which is hard, because the content is targeted to be addictive and damaging.

I think, as small business owners, we need to step towards personal outreach, referrals, personal emails, and creating content for search rather than for social media. And to have the social energy for this outreach, we need to stop scrolling on social media which drains that mental battery. I, for one, am taking steps in that direction.

Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.

Take care,

Rey

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