Question 2 Response

In defence of Facebook’s business practices, Mark Zuckerberg’s idea of ‘connection’ fully embodies Flichy’s ideas on the relationships between ideology, myth and utopia.

A myth essentially creates another meaning for an existing signifier; a utopia can be defined as an imagined state of thinking which strives to maintain social order; and an ideology can be defined as a system of ideas that strives to distort the realities of a society (Flichy, 2007, p. 7-9). Patrice Flichy argues that “the notion of a myth is often associated with that of a utopia” (2007, p. 8). When both a myth and utopia are combined, it is often presented like a dream of sorts, which can then also be associated with the notion of ideology (Flichy, 2007, p. 8). The relationship between myth, utopia and ideology is one that essentially leads one concept to snowball into the other. In the same sense, Zuckerberg’s business model for Facebook follows the same behaviour, by creating a myth, utopia and ideology that better suits the interests of Facebook’s business practices.

The initial myth that Zuckerberg creates is the idea of connectivity. The reality of increased surveillance on Facebook is reduced to the myth of ‘connection’ instead. The myth of ‘connection’ creates another meaning for online surveillance. This then leads to the creation of Facebook as a utopia. Facebook is promoted as “a world where everyone gets an opportunity to use their voice and an equal chance to be heard”. Simultaneously, this utopian standard of Facebook pushes that ideology that the platform is “a service people could use to connect and learn about each other” and as a platform that is “focused on helping people share and connect more … [and] stay in touch with family, friends and communities”. Similar to the snowball effects of the myth, utopia and ideology, a continuous cycle begins to present itself. The use of ideology enables Facebook to neutralize further critiques on its business practices. Zuckerberg argues that Facebook does “collect some information for ads—but that information is generally important for security”. Through the initial ideology that Facebook presents, it uses the established trust created with its users and enables Facebook to easily create other myths with unquestioned acceptance; such as signifying increased online surveillance as increased security instead. As a result, this reinforces the utopian standards of Facebook and the ideologies presented by the company. In this sense, it is clear that Facebook does not fall in the category of “Tech for Good”, but rather presents itself as a company that creates its own narrative and ideology, in order to market themselves as such.