Environmental and advocacy organizations: Stop using unethical Facebook/Meta

“evidence of Facebook's negative impact on the mental health of college students”1

“Facebook is a harmful presence in our lives.”2

“...Facebook is having a negative impact on society around the world”3

“64% of Americans say social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the U.S. today”4

“Facebook Says Social Media Can Be Negative For Democracy”5

“The artificial intelligence algorithms in social media platforms are designed to attract and keep people on to expose them to more advertising”6

These are just a handful of headlines that scream about the negative impacts of Facebook. Research7reviewing over 200 studies has demonstrated that problematic Facebook use is linked to major psychological disorders including perceived anxiety, depression, loneliness, eating disorders, self-esteem, insomnia and stress. Other research has suggested that Facebook users consumed more fake news relating to the US presidential election than Twitter and other social media users.8 This could have implications for our democracy. And, for our fight against climate change. A study9 found that fossil fuel-linked entities spend millions of dollars on Facebook advertising to spread climate disinformation, deny climate change and for greenwashing actions of fossil fuel companies. Furthermore, privacy concerns relating to Facebook have been highlighted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal1 0when consulting firms used millions of Facebook user’ profile for political advertising

Given all these concerns it is imperative for us to move away from Facebook. And, progressive advocacy, environmental and humanitarian organizations such as Leadnow, CARE Canada, Oxfam, David Suzuki Foundation, Nature Conservancy, Nature Canada, etc. should lead the charge. They can do this by exploring ethical alternatives to Facebook and increasing their presence on these platforms. This could slowly draw people to more ethical platforms.

Today, several alternatives such as Mastodon, MeWe, Diaspora,11 etc.

Please sign the petition urging these organizations to explore and increase their presence on an ethical Facebook alternative.

1https://mitsloan.mit.edu/press/academic-study-reveals-new-evidence-facebooks-negative-impact-mental-health-college-students
2https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/06/facebook-scandals-social-media
3https://www.vox.com/2018/4/12/17215142/facebook-negative-impact-society-mark-zuckerberg-poll
4https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/10/15/64-of-americans-say-social-media-have-a-mostly-negative-effect-on-the-way-things-are-going-in-the-u-s-today/
5https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/22/579732762/facebook-says-social-media-can-be-negative-for-democracy
6https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/smartphone-brain-nov14-1.7029406#:~:text=Health-,Social%20media%20gets%20teens%20hooked%20while%20feeding%20aggression%20and%20impulsivity,experiment%2C%20psychiatrists%20and%20scientists%20say.
7https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10435997/
8https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/facebook-users-consume-more-fake-news-than-users-of-twitter-other-social-media-sites-study-1.6336884
9https://caad.info/analysis/reports/deny-deceive-delay-vol-2/
10 https://ethical.net/guide/facebook-alternatives-guide-how-and-why-to-avoid-facebook/
11 https://ethical.net/guide/facebook-alternatives-guide-how-and-why-to-avoid-facebook/