You are reading a single comment by @bothwell and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@bothwell
People changing their Facebook profile pics to the French flag hasn't really got that much to do with the physical proximity of the country, it's more that Facebook (the company) has provided a way to do it in a couple of clicks. It didn't do that for Lebanon, so nobody has changed their profile picture to a Lebanon flag. It's basically just slacktivism writ large with the help of a big Silicon Valley company.
We are social animals who tend to empathise and sympathise with each other. Most of us are removed from having any way to provide practical support, so Facebook presenting us with an easy way to say "hey, I feel sad about this too" is pretty compelling. Solidarity is something that humans want. Questioning people's sympathy credentials on Facebook on the basis of whether they've clicked that button or not is a bit cheap and simplistic, I think.
Is it right for a corporate like Facebook (who already hold a scary amount of data about each of their users) to push any kind of political agenda at all on their customers? Social media is always trying to make everything viral, and it's worked for the Tricolore and it's worked for the Pride rainbows. Ideologically I'm fine with both of these things but I'm not wholly comfortable with the idea that some white dudes in California can just decide what everybody needs to publicly support, and to use a pretty coercive method to ensure homogeneity of public opinion.
Edit: I see that this thread and also the entire internet has already covered all of this. Hey ho.