Facebook is not equipped to stop the spread of authoritarianism
Nor should it be.<p>The way discussions about Facebook policing content are framed rubs me the wrong way. Facebook <i>should not</i> be put in a position where it's responsible for dealing with authoritarianism, extremism, and other societal ills. The only reason it <i>seems</i> like it has to do this is that we've allowed Facebook to become a near-monopoly on a certain form of social networking.<p>The solution is not trying to compel or convince Facebook to act as an arbiter of morality for the world; it is to <i>break Facebook up</i> and restrict it's ability to monopolize the online space. Real competition in social networking would mean communities could form their own rules and norms around what's acceptable - like in the forum era - without relying on a central authority such as Facebook to do it for them. A decentralized protocol/system like Mastodon allows this kind of partitioning of the social space.<p>Would this <i>stop</i> authoritarianism? No. But it would turn censorship into a game of whack-a-mole, and limit the spread of authoritarian ideas to the social networks whose communities are already OK with that.