Facebook celebrates 20 years of existence. It is the world's largest social network. More than three billion people are active on the site at least once a month. That is, more than a third of the world's population.
But for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the celebration was overshadowed. Just days before the anniversary, Zuckerberg faced harsh criticism at a US Senate hearing.
"Blood is on your hands," shouted Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "You have a product that kills people."
The topic of the hearing was deficiencies in the protection of children and young people on large internet platforms. "Your design decisions, your failure to properly invest in security, your continued pursuit of profit over basic safety put our children and grandchildren at risk," said Democrat Dick Darbin, the US Senate Majority Leader.
Danger to children and youth
The dangers of social media are now widely debated. In the United States, they are considered co-responsible for the youth mental health crisis.
Vivek Marti, director of the public health service, published a special recommendation for social networks in May last year. He warns that there are "many signs that social media can seriously damage the mental health and well-being of children and young people".
German psychologist and risk researcher Gerd Gigerencer underlines this in an interview with DW. "Some studies show that uncertainty, lack of self-esteem, depression and even suicidal thoughts have increased," Gigerencer points out.
Among those signs in the US can be counted an increase in the suicide rate among people aged 10 to 25 years. In the past decade, from 2011 to 2021, it increased by 60 percent.
Hoping for a better start
However, Facebook started out pretty innocuous. As a social network where you could quickly find school friends, share vacation photos and keep up with what your circle of friends are doing right now.
"In the beginning, Facebook hoped to make the world a better place by connecting people," recalls Berlin-based media expert Martin Emer of Facebook's beginnings.
As for example with the changes in the Arab world during the Arab Spring of 2011, which were initially marked by great hopes. Because of the network's role in organizing demonstrations and resistance, they have sometimes been called Facebook-revolutions.
Facebook, in tandem with the rapid development of smartphones, provided the satisfaction of an ancient human need. "Man is a social being," explains Emer. "And so those platforms created something that no other medium had before."
Between empowerment and powerlessness
However, social networks, no matter how "free" it may seem, have a price. And users pay twice: with data and attention.
Attention is a valued commodity. Advertisers are willing to pay for it. Especially if messages can be driven to potential customers thanks to accurate personality profiles.
This is why platform operators collect as much data as possible from their users, and each "like" provides them with another piece of data. With detailed knowledge of users' interests, likes and dislikes, content is created for them that keeps them on the platform as long as possible.
What it does to society and individuals has been ignored for a long time. The growing polarization of society, increasingly harsh political debate, the spread of the craziest conspiracy theories - all of this is linked to Facebook and similar platforms.
Psychologist Gigerencer compares networks to a coffee shop where you get free coffee. "Everyone goes there, meets their friends and doesn't have to pay anything." But there are bugs in the tables for eavesdropping, and there are video cameras on the walls that record everything and then pass the information on to third parties. The cafe is also full of people who keep interrupting you and offering you goods specially tailored for you.
The real users, Gigerencer explains, are not coffee drinkers. No, these are the ones who interrupt you and pay for your coffee.
And they may also have political interests. Thus, in 2016, accusations against Russia that it used Facebook to influence the outcome of the presidential election began.
Two years later, Facebook was involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The company, mostly without the users' knowledge, analyzed data from around fifty million profiles. And during the 2020 US election, the Facebook group Stop the Steal played a key role in the legend spread by Donald Trump about the allegedly stolen election.
A year of record elections
This year 2024 is historic in terms of how many people go to vote - more than half of the world's population goes to the polls. For example, in India and Indonesia, the EU, Pakistan, Russia and the USA.
American computer scientist and social media critic Jaron Lanier is worried: "There will be more and more hard lies using artificial intelligence and other new applied technologies to manipulate people. And I think many people will not be prepared," he tells DW.
Politics seems to have come to its senses and is trying to catch up with the tech giants. Two years ago, the European Union adopted the Law on Digital Services. The goal is to remove illegal content faster, such as hate speech. At the same time, it should better protect users' basic rights – including freedom of speech.
Also, researchers should finally get access to the internet giants' data. Berlin-based social network researcher Philip Lorenz-Spren rejoices: "Something is happening in the field of transparency, that we can finally open that black box a little bit and see how that machinery works."
Be that as it may, social networks are highly profitable. Facebook's parent company, Meta, which also owns Instagram and VocEp, made so much money from advertising in the last quarter of 2023 that it decided to pay dividends to its shareholders for the first time on the occasion of its 20th anniversary. At least they will have reason to celebrate.
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