Facebook Is Dead: Social Media Glitch Tells Users They Have Died
Facebook is telling everyone that they are dead. Is this a social media glitch or an attempt to comfort their users during this time of political turmoil? When users logged onto Facebook, they saw a memorial banner that urged family and friends to remember you.
“We hope people who love Casey will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life.”
The Verge is reporting that many users have logged onto their Facebook accounts, including Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, and were shocked to find that the social media site thought that they had died.
According to Gizmodo, a lot of users are comparing the glitch to how “dead inside” they feel after this week’s Presidential Election.
Many users joked that Trump being elected as President of the United States has caused them to feel “dead.”
The Facebook glitch did suspiciously arise just days after Trump’s presidency was announced. Was the social media site secretly trying to comfort their users after a week of political upset?
Facebook was also in the news today after the social media site announced that they would no longer allow advertisers to exclude specific racial and ethnic groups when placing ads related to housing, credit, or employment according to USA Today.
Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy gave a statement today.
“We are going to turn off, actually prohibit, the use of ethnic affinity marketing for ads that we identify as offering housing, employment and credit.”
Facebook will no longer require advertisers to place discriminatory ads on Facebook. The social media site will also be offering educational materials to help advertisers understand the guidelines.
These changes in policy were sparked by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois) and the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
These policy makers and civil rights leaders were concerned that Facebook was allowing marketers to use ethnic affinity marketing to run ads that discriminate against minorities in certain areas that have historically faced discrimination.
Today we announced our plan to reduce clickbait in News Feed. To learn more about how we’re going to do this, visit: https://t.co/GPPpJ8Lkik
— Meta (@Meta) August 4, 2016
Excluding a person based on race, gender, or other sensitive criteria is not allowed by federal law in housing and employment.
Up until this point, Facebook has been under the microscope from federal lawmakers for allowing their advertisers to exclude ethnic and racial groups for advertisements, specifically housing ads such as when an apartment or house is for rent or for sale.
Facebook has also been scrutinized for allegedly spreading fake news about political candidates, according to The Verge. CEO Mark Zuckerberg completely denied these allegations and totally rejected the idea that the Facebook News Feed had an effect on the election because it favored Donald Trump..
“Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way — I think is a pretty crazy idea. Voters make decisions based on their lived experience.”
Zuckerberg told spoke at the Technonomy conference where he was asked about Facebook’s growing power as a news distributor.
“I do think there is a certain profound lack of empathy in asserting that the only reason someone could have voted the way they did is they saw some fake news.
“If you believe that, then I don’t think you have internalized the message the Trump supporters are trying to send in this election.”
The Facebook CEO said that the fake news could not have influenced the election however, earlier this year a Buzzfeed investigation revealed that Facebook news outlets published fake or misleading stories 38 percent of the time when published by top right-wing news outlets, compared to 20 percent for the top left-wing outlets.
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[Featured Image by Associated Press/ AP Images]
