Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Everything Goes on Facebook

I was upset to learn that Facebook decided this week not to remove the page “Third Intifada” (http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/adl-slams-facebook-for-refusing-to-remove-third-intifada-fan-page-1.351881) despite great grassroots volume, as well as numerous high level appeals to do so. It seems that Facebook is more concerned about supposed freedom of speech despite the fact that it’s a private company, not a public institution, despite standards it sets itself opposing hate speech and incitement. Either that, or Facebook is concerned for a Muslim boycott of the web site. It tells me that Facebook is all about making money over morals, so I have decided to find ways I can use Facebook’s expansive reach to make some money from their social network, just as they make money from me via the same means. I am thinking about setting up my own “fan pages” looking for partners, both on the supply and end user side, using Facebook’s international reach to start up and develop businesses in the following areas. I welcome partners and those interested to send me a message via Facebook to this end. Drugs – illegal drugs are crossing international borders all the time anyway. In some countries, the cash crop of choice is the source of these, and to deny the hard working farmers a means to make a living seems wrong. Crops don’t hurt people, people hurt people. Facebook provides the ideal way to connect the farmer and manufacturer with the smuggler, dealer and end user. In fact, using a direct marketing model, we may be able to cut out the middleman and offer drugs at a lower price. Weapons – countries and major multi-national companies deal in arms all the time. I want to ride the wave of this reality and am looking for partners who can supply an array of weapons from light personal arms to tanks and missiles. In light of the nuclear disaster in Japan I’ll stay away from nuclear weapons, unless there’s a proven market and supply line of course. Human trafficking – look, people do it all the time, and for many of those being trafficked, it’s clear that their lives as sex slaves and the like are far better than they were in the hovels from which they come. Opportunity knocks in many ways and as long as there are people willing to be trafficked, and there’s a market for such a product, I can think of lots of places where women are lining up for these opportunities, and other places where men are lining up for the product. Some men are even willing to pay handsomely to marry such women so I look at this as much as a business as a match making opportunity, enabling people to find the love of their life through the magic of Facebook. Slavery – some may say that human trafficking is a form of slavery so this is redundant. But there are people out there looking to own a good, hard worker as much, or even more than those looking for a good time. The problem is that many of these are rural farmers who are not blessed with the dynamic power of Facebook, so I am hitting a dead end as how to market the product to the end user. I’d especially welcome entrepreneurs who have ideas on this because for a little more than a song, there are good people in developing nations who’d be happy to sell off a child or two to give their child better opportunities than they could be given at home, and make a little extra cash on the side to help sustain those not sold off. Pedophilia – this is the one that I am having the hardest time with because as the father of six children I’d hate to have my kids caught up in it, but there’s a supply and there’s a demand and Facebook is a great vehicle to bring together people who share this same interest. I am sure that there are other areas that one can go into and I’d welcome invitations by entrepreneurial people who want to make some money in a way that is either devoid of ethics, or at least pushes the envelope, via Facebook, using Facebook’s devoid-of-morals model of making money from other such ideas, like promoting a third intifada. Of course this is not for real, but what’s most upsetting is that it probably could go on Facebook because they are devoid of morals. Allowing any person to set up a fan page to incite others to violence is unacceptable. Having authority means exercising responsibility and if Facebook cannot do the later, that means they do not have the former. If Facebook is concerned over a Moslem boycott, I’d tell Facebook to say good riddance. I am not a big “fan” of boycotts. But I will be glad to share with the many companies whose ads Facebook bombards me with that by advertising on Facebook, they are guilty of moral transgressions just as Facebook is itself. Yes, we can click through to all the nice ads and rather than buying anything, we can register our complaint. Not everyone needs to agree with everyone all the time, and I am all for free speech even when I disagree. But calls for a third intifada, to use the free speech parallel, are exactly like yelling fire in a crowded theater. Let’s remember what the first two intifadas brought us: thousands killed and tens of thousands injured. It’s time to call Facebook on the carpet and challenge their morality. And if we can’t beat them, anyone want to join me in joining them?