Anna-Klara Bratt, editor-in-chief and responsible publisher for Feminist perspective.

Farewell, Mr Zuckerberg

2021-02-02 | Anna-Klara Bratt padlock

INTERNATIONAL

”For quite some time now, we have noticed a decrease in Facebook traffic. From eighty to twenty procent in a period of two years. Why? I think you know why.” Anna-Klara Bratt, editor-in-chief of Feminist perspective, offers a solution.

A letter from up north to Mr Zuckerberg,

I’m writing to you from a small country up north, Sweden. I am the editor of an online feminist news magazine, Feministiskt perspektiv (Feminist perspective is our international version), whom you recently stopped from display on Facebook. Why? Because of an article, a portrait of a kurdish woman that was murdered in Paris in 2013.

(Yes, our group still exists, but we are no longer up in peoples feeds.)

The article was not pro or against any organization, it was a journalistic portrait. As a news magazine we need to be able to report on acts of terror as well as murders and terrorist acts almost every day, unfortunately.

In fact, our magazine as it happens, is full of buzz words. We write about pornography, terror, violence against women and lgbtq-persons, racist killings, war, sexism, racism, nationalism... We try to keep an eye on all the things going on in the world, and how it affects women and feminists in particular.

For quite some time now, we have noticed a decrease in Facebook traffic. From eighty to twenty procent in a period of two years. Why? I think you know why. Domestic politics and problems with the same guys that every day threatens us and all other feminist on social media.

What you are doing right now is not going to stop these guys. You are stopping regular news media covering the very same problem you now try to handle.

In Sweden we have the world’s oldest law on freedom of speech and press; tryckfrihetslagen. It has served us quite well for over 250 years. It has been working because of news magazines like Feministiskt perspektiv, reporting on malfunctions in society.

In order for the system to work, the entire news industry appoints responsible persons for each and every publication. If somebody needs to be assured anonymity – that can be done within in the system of press ethics.

I have the solution for all your problems: Make each and every user on Facebook identify themselves. In that way, if they are missusing your community, they will face the law, not Facebook. In fact, the law needs to take care of these characters, whether they are presidents or plain terrorist.

Yes, you will lose some million fake accounts, but at the same time you will spare the rest of us corrupt elections, hate speech and terrorism.

Posting this text will probably give Feministiskt perspektiv a second warning from your automatic servers that can not answer, and soon this democratic news magazine in Sweden has been closed on Facebook by your nervous and imprecise algoritms.

At the same time you will also lose a costumer who has used your tools and advertisments for over ten years, although the services have been getting smaller and smaller.

The traffic you already lost seems to go to other platforms, some of which are also yours. We still have content, readers and platforms. Simply not the one where most of our readers used to find us.

Farewell, Mr Zuckerberg – or put us and other democratic forces back on display!