Running head: SURVEILLANCE MACHINE Surveillance Machine Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation 1 SURVEILLANCE MACHINE 2 Surveillance Machine Nowadays, millions of people use Facebook for sharing their information, communicating with friends, and expressing their ideas. This social network became the vital element of people’s everyday life. Apart from connecting people, it holds the serious threat. Facebook collects private information that can be used by this social network, governments, and others for pressing individuals. Siva Viadhyanathan in his book considered this issue in detail and defined the chief concern of Facebook’s commercial surveillance system as the concentration power based on the access to enormous massive of personal data and ability to use this power for humiliating others. Facebook’s Commercial Surveillance System Siva Vaishyanatha (2018) in the chapter The surveillance machine, in antisocial media: How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy discussed the surveillance machine of this social media with the focus on threats and dangers to users. The author stated the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, created the social network, where each incident of “peer surveillance becomes a part of a massive corporate surveillance system” when the photo was uploaded to Instagram or Facebook with tags, which identify concrete time, location, people’s names, their presence and movements to others (Vaishyanatha, 2018, p. 53). Similar to cameras on mobile phones, Facebook acts as the tool for constant corporate surveillance that tracks people’s location with focus on the correlation of tags with what was gathered. Additionally, this system monitor’s people’s connections, posts, interests, and other activities, which reflect human behavior (such as, real-life purchasing). In such a manner, Facebook has the possibility to collect information about people’s private life, relationships, relative income and habits. This information can be used by this social network, other individuals, and governments to harm SURVEILLANCE MACHINE 3 targeted individual’s though posting and spreading revenge porn, exercising different forms of harassment, unwanted exposure, and humiliation without punishment or even discovery. This becomes possible because Facebook appreciates gathering and sharing of information needed for effective sorting and sending. Facebook holds the rich collection of different information about people and organizations; and practices colleting, using, and sharing private data. This forms the strong background for Facebook’s massive system of surveillance. This power can be used by Facebook, peers, and states for reaching some benefits through creating the environment, when each person can be harassed and pressed through using of private data. The society functioning in such environment can’t perform as informed, responsible and engaged unity of citizens, because the significant part of the members of this society silenced, harassed and threatened at every attempt to participate in public debate. Additionally. Facebook users may suffer from the inability of this social media to collect the full set of data about personal life and creation of inaccurate image and harmful reactions about a person. As per author’s opinion, people can not adequately withstand to these threats they can not know the ways in which he was being watched, profiled, manipulated and threatened. Thus, Facebook users often does not care about surveillance and freely provide private information in this social network. In such a manner, the chief concern of Facebook’s surveillance machine is the concentration of enormous power over private life due to access to individual’s contacts, posts, photos, actions, and connections. Conclusion To summarize, the author is partly correct. On the one hand Facebook surveillance system allows collection too much personal data and use this information; use this information in the way that abuse others; and even predicting others’ behaviors. However, on the other hand, SURVEILLANCE MACHINE this system increases people’s connectivity with other; allows them to get latest news, conduct online social and political activities; and show relevant advertisings that correspond to users’ interests and hobbies. Consequently, Facebook surveillance system assures comfort of communication with others and the world, but can be used for pressing on an individual. 4 SURVEILLANCE MACHINE 5 References Vaidhyanathan, S. (2018). Chapter 2: The Surveillance Machine, in Antisocial Media in Antisocial media: How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. New York, USA: Oxford University Press
