Facebook Wants To Kill Your Apps (and the Free Internet)

Recently Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s first website was discovered in a cache somewhere. It was from the late 90’s and little Mark was in 9th grade and learned how to make a HTML page and post to some defunct blogging service. My first page went up about 1996 so I found this fascinating.

Little Zuck was advertising for his first version of a social network. Even back then he was pushing something that confused the market and relied on an air of inclusion. He actually called his idea “The Web” (no, not the real www-web, but hey who cares about confusing people).

To get into “The Web” you needed to be invited by someone else in “The Web”, or you had to email little Mark with references and reasons why you belong in his exclusive club. Benefits of being in “The Web”? Basically, you are better than those not in “The Web”. What else could a capitalistic little 9th grader possibly offer for free?

Now it’s 15 years later and little Mark has grown up to be one of the most powerful people on the entire internet. His current company is built on a similar model — you should get on Facebook because your friends are on it, and it’s free to use. You know, just for fun and conveniece! Pay no attention to how they do this. They offer a myriad of conveniences and services to their users, all for free, what a bargain! How do they do this? Just a few ads inserted? That’s how they want you to think they make money. Where are they leading with this?

Also, by keeping it a moving target (Facebook updates it’s software daily) if you find something bothersome or illegal when using it, you couldn’t track it down or replicate it. No support department to report to anyway, how convenient.

This Mark Zuckerberg is a guy who’s entire view of the internet is skewed in bad way. He does not believe in freedom. He does not believe in privacy. He does not believe in empowering people through information. These are things that he believes he believes in, as long as the data is flowing through his FOR-PROFIT company. But it’s a front and I’ve been calling him on it for years. I argued with guys like this in the 90’s, and clearly he’s winning this argument right now. But I’m still here and I’m not alone in my disdain for his business model. You won’t find me on facebook, ever.

So now Facebook has released it’s android phone. They aren’t building the phone – now that would take talent, risk & investment. They are just putting in a facebook shell on top of Android. It’s basically an app that takes over your Launch and Homescreen and gives you all facebook all the time. How nice, right! I guess.

What does FB get for this convenience? You guessed it — all of you private phone data, including your SMS’s, locations, your other apps, your contacts, your everything mobile.

Zuck likes to hide his company’s exploitative attack on the free internet behind the word “people” – saying things like ‘We don’t lead App-centric lives, we lead people-centric lives’.

To him “people” = “facebook users”, and that’s very dangerous. People are people, free to browse or comment anonymously if they choose. In Zuck’s world, you are only a person to be exploited for profit, and he will do everything he can to shield you from this reality.

This dude has hijacked the information age and is attempting to get us all to sign into his “Web”, for his profit. Resist Resist Resist. The internet is ours and no single company should ever be allowed to threaten that.