Facebook is a harmful presence in our lives. It’s not too late to pull the plug on it | Jathan Sadowski

Undaunted by scandals, the social media giant plans to tighten its grip on our everyday activities. We don't have to just submit

Facebook is in perpetual crisis mode. For years now, the company has confronted waves of critical scrutiny on issues caused or exacerbated by the platform. Recent revelations have lengthened the charge sheet.

That list includes the mass data collection and privacy invasion by Cambridge Analytica; the accusations of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election; unrestrained hate speech, inciting, among other things, genocide in Myanmar; the viral spread of disinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, with Joe Biden proclaiming about Facebook and other social media platforms: They're killing people". Add to that Facebook Marketplace: with a billion users buying and selling goods, ProPublica found a growing pool of scammers and fraudsters exploiting the site, with Facebook failing to safeguard users".

Jathan Sadowski is a research fellow in the emerging technologies research lab at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia