The Times published the article Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebook users to make ‘dark profiles’ on others by Jacqui Goddard, February 15, 2020. Around 2006 the Facebook’s owner mulled the idea of letting third persons create profiles of those who have not opened a Facebook account yet. Here are my comments.
Creating ‘dark profiles’ on others? That’s what Wikipedia is for. I was fired from my job at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, in Autumn 2015. I received the letter of dismissal on October 29. One day earlier someone unknown to me sent me an email with information that a Wikipedia page about me is being created. I objected to it but the profile has been created anyway.
In order to mask the fact that I was the targeted person, Wikipedia profiles for all faculty members of the Department of Physics of the University were created at the same time.
I neither deserve a Wikipedia page nor do I want one.
Three points:
1. Wikipedia belongs to social media.
2. Wikipedia is just as evil as Facebook.
3. The anonymity of its editors make it more akin to the Communist secret police.
@LechSBorkowski
Someone wrote “Because anyone can edit a wiki page and there are rules about living people.”
My response:
I know this mantra very well. I wrote a blog post about it. You can navigate to it via my Twitter page.
Poland is a country of an evolved Communist dictatorship. Wikipedia is a political and social tool. It is essentially a social medium and yet another tool for the exercise of power. Whoever has got the power/social power will dictate and force the narrative.
Manipulation, lies, and falsification are not seen and are not understood by people unfamiliar with the language.
The date on my dismissal letter is 23 October 2015. The Wikipedia page was created on October 28. The letter of dismissal was delivered on October 29.
At the same time my wife Małgorzata Głuchowska, who is a pianist, was fired from her job in the State School of Music for political reasons. The state-run Occupational Health Service issued a false document stating that due to some unspecified delusions my wife cannot work as a piano teacher.
We were fired for political reasons after decades of harassment and bullying. We wrote many letters to the top officials and distributed our statements critical of the authorities. You can find them on our website. Some of them are also available on Researchgate.
It is an extreme naivete to claim that Wikipedia is self-regulating.
@LechSBorkowski
On May 22 2013, Mark Zuckerberg met with Michał Boni, Polish Minister of Administrative Affairs and Digitisation. The headline in the computer news service zdnet.com announced “Facebook’s Zuckerberg arranges one-day holiday to discuss privacy in Poland”
On November 24 2018 The Times reported that “Zuckerberg refuses to talk to MPs about fake news”.
I find it very telling that Zuckerberg went out of his way to meet Boni in Warsaw, but declined to meet British MPs.
@LechSBorkowski
Creating profiles of other people may be called ‘identity management’. Identity management and control is at the heart of every oppressive regime, typically a task of secret police.
@LechSBorkowski