Dear Mark Zuckerberg:
As I write this, I'm going to post news of this blog to Facebook. But because some Faceless evildoer in my circle of 667 "friends"-I know not who-once reported a blog I wrote as containing "objectionable content," your social networking site has blocked me from posting URLs or Tiny URLs in my status updates. Clearly, this "report" constituted a malicious action. What's more, it's just plain false. I have never used True/Slant to post pornography, profanity or even purple humor.
OK, Mark, I confess. I have on occasional written a thing or two that caused uber-conservatives and defenders of Mayor Daley's corrupt parking deal to get their diapers in a bunch. But aside from that, nothing I've ever written is truly "objectionable." Unless the First Amendment is dead in this country.
Or at least on Facebook.
I salute you as a scion of the Young Digital Intelligentsia. You made a megafortune before you were old enough to buy a beer in a bar, and you have never made a secret of Facebook's intent to profit-and handsomely-off the information it gathers about me and all the users in your world. That's fine by me; if I offer it up, it's fair game.
But what also seems fair, at his point, is that you in turn dedicate significant time and resources to creating a help desk and user assistance protocols that solve sticky problems like mine quickly and easily. For as I sought to solve my problem, I was shocked to discover that Facebook has nary a human being that I can contact for help, a phone number to call, or a prominently posted email address for help.
Lord knows with all the money you've made, and all the information you now possess worth untold millions from Facebook users, ample resources exist to create the support I and other innocent Facebook users need. From what I understand, the traditional defense here is that Facebook really isn't a business, but a free service, and therefore not obligated in any way to help those who trawl about on it.
I could not disagree more. Just as your creativity and thinking outside the box that was outside the box created Facebook, you need to take another bold step here and get proactive-really proactive-about assisting the community that made Facebook what it is. If I'm facing a problem of this sort through no fault of my own, and cannot find any remediation, I can only imagine the misery experienced by thousands of people out there who have fallen into Facebook's Digital Black Hole through a server glitch, for example, and with no one to throw them a rope to climb out.
As a media person, I have resources to go straight to your PR department and get this straightened out by a real person through Fear of Bad Press-a move of questionable ethics at best, though I am highly tempted to do it. Desperate times, desperate measures and all that.
But even if my problem goes away, those innocent users your site unwittingly ties up due to the malevolent actions of others will not. If you don't act at some point to create some resource to help them-some recourse for remedial action-they will be stuck. Indefinitely.
A guy I know in Grand Rapids, Mich. started a marriage ministry and Facebook shut him down-because it mistakenly identified him as a spammer. It took him two weeks of emails every day to " info@facebook.com " to get the problem solved. He's a former computer tech and was thus able to figure this solution out through sheer stabbing in the dark. Who solved his logjam, or how, he still has no idea.
Others need not be so unfortunate, Mark. Do the right thing. Bring reliable, easy-to-find user support to Facebook. And do it now. Otherwise, all of your high-falutin' claims regarding all the wonderful things Facebook does for its "community" ring as hollow as a snake oil sales pitch.
And could even be labeled, without much of a stretch, as "objectionable content."
Since you have not provided me with a phone number, I am providing you with mine. It's below. I look forward to your call. And hell, I'll even accept your friend request.
With respect,
Lou Carlozo
Columnist/blogger, TrueSlant.com
Leave a comment