The internet has been widely shaped by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online services from liability for third-party content. This has led to issues with online services owning their content, while at the same time not taking responsibility for it.
The negative portrayal of Facebook in recent media, including the whistleblower and the documentary Social Dilemma, has raised concerns about the deep flaws in human nature and the portrayal of efforts being made at Facebook to combat issues such as hate and bullying.
Users tend to coalesce around a set of standards they want to see happen on social media platforms. Thus, social media networks do not have a monopoly, but are rather just application layers.
The speaker shares how he built a successful Facebook group with sub-interests to collect emails for his blog, ultimately leading to a community of 400,000 engaged members.
As Facebook incentivized websites to pivot towards video, many media companies, including MTV News and Vice, fired writers and editors to hire video teams. However, this pivot ultimately created a bubble that burst when Facebook abandoned their video strategy, leaving many companies with a lack of revenue and resources.
Learn about the potential to create a successful fan page about any topic quickly and at a low cost, without giving up ownership like some Silicon Valley startups.