Social responsibility must be the company's second most important focus, after revenues, not just cheap talk.
Last week Apple announced that it will build its new MacBook Air and Mac Mini computers using “100 percent recycled aluminum”. Its good BUT aluminum is just about the easiest metal to recycle, and there’s tons of it already on the market. In fact, most of the aluminum Apple uses is probably already recycled.
Facebook is detrimental to global discourse, has harmed democracies around the world, and, because of its dependence on advertising, has responded to criticism by making only minor, cosmetic changes. Mark Zuckerberg and his team will continue to allow the social network to be a haven for fake news, hoaxes, threats, and much, much worse.
Facebook has had several opportunities to show that it understands its responsibility as the world’s largest social network , a platform that now has 2.23 billion active users worldwide. China is already the second-largest ad market for the company, $5 billion in total and growing fast.Facebook make money from each of us, a lot of money. In 2017, each U.S. user was worth $20.21.
Ones you realized your life would be better without Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, until you realize, it’s harder than ever to quit, because now Facebook makes saying goodbye a long-drawn out affair. Now takes a full month to delete your Facebook account , twice as long as before. And don’t expect Facebook to put your data in the trash bin.
Socially responsible tech companies should take the dictum “Do No Harm” as a primary operating principle governing every aspect of their business. This means not only doing everything to prevent pollution and physical harm from its technologies, but also preventing harm to mental health and well-being for individuals and the society.
We cannot continue to dump the latest great creations on the world and afterwards clean up their worst aftereffects.
