It's no secret that Facebook has had and will continue to have an important role during the various revolutions in countries like Tunisia, Arab (2 million users) and Egypt (5 million users). Recently, Facebook groups and pages were created by protesters in Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco and Syria. What is the official position of the company on how their platform is leading the change in the Middle East? No comment.
The New York Times reports that the top executives of the company does not want to talk about the whole thing rather than highlight the historical moment of Facebook to help bring democratic change:
While it has become one of the main tools for activists to mobilize protests and share information, Facebook doesn't want to be seen as picking sides for fear that some countries — such as Syria, where he obtained a foothold — it would only impose restrictions on its use or more carefully users, according to some company executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal business.
Frankly, I think this is a smart move. Facebook really does not gain anything to defend the achievements of its platform in revolutions. The social networking giant already enough of a boost of PR is always from various media outlets, reporting on how Facebook is used as a tool for activists and all the great results that this is leading.
In general, Facebook is still widely available around the world (even though there is limited access in countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran). Doing anything but quiet estate might Tip the scales for countries that are currently on the fence about whether or not to block the service.
Facebook can be based in Palo Alto, California, United States, but what many fail to remember is that the 7-year-old is already the most global of the majority larger American companies. Facebook has already nearly 600 million users, which means that if it were a country, would the world third largest by population, only behind China and India. When Palo Alto wants to continue to grow its user base, it should remain neutral as possible in any type of war policy.
Emil is currently employed at Research in Motion. Has no investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment