Ghosting Abusive Social Media

Amalia Renteria - SV De-Bug - March 26, 2018 - 5 minute read

Editor's Note:

In one week during Women's History Month, no less, we saw social media mocking domestic violence result in major losses for Snapchat. This author links protecting online privacy to healthier relationships and asks if we will see thousands break it off with Facebook too?

There are various reasons why you would play the game, Would You Rather?

You are on a date and ran out of conversation topics.

You are having game night with friends and playing Would You Rather? is a fun way to get to know one another.

Would You Rather? is not a game to make light of issues such as domestic violence.

During Women’s Herstory Month, Snapchat approved and ran a mobile game ad created by a third party to promote a Would You Rather? ad. The ad asked its estimated 187 million Snapchatters if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown.

In 2009, Chris Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting his then girlfriend, Rihanna, during a dispute. The singer, Rihanna, turned to the social networking platform, Instagram, to address Snapchat for mocking and promoting domestic violence, “Now SNAPCHAT I know you already know you ain't my fav app out there! But I'm just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess!” she wrote. "I'd love to call it ignorance but I know you ain't that dumb. You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it!!! This isn’t about my personal feelings, cause I don’t have much of them…but all the women, children and men that have been victims of DV in the past and especially the ones who haven’t made it out yet…you let us down! Shame on you.”

Rihanna’s fans read her statement as a call-out to delete Snapchat from their phones. The outrage caused Snapchat to lose $800 million and according to The Wall Street Journal, plunged their stock market by 4 percent.

Within the same week, an article published in the New York Times and The Guardian Observer exposed the data mining company, Cambridge Analytica, of obtaining private Facebook data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles to develop strategic digital ads and messaging for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign.

People were upset that their online life was violated and the hashtag #DeleteFacebook was created to push users to quit Facebook, however, it didn’t become as trendy as Rihanna’s call to action did.

Why were social media users reluctant to delete Facebook - also connected to Instagram, Pinterest, and Spotify? Aside from handing over our private data to data mining companies that assisted in electing a sexual predator into the White House, Facebook has targeted activists from all over the world by censoring their posts and deactivating their accounts.

In 2016 I deactivated my Facebook account for one year to be present in my life and step away from the constant bombardment of rapid status updates and news — I needed a break.

Being Facebook free allowed me to enjoy my time with friends and hearing about their life updates — for the first time. However, it was a challenge to stay connected with people I didn’t communicate with on a daily basis and know about upcoming events as Facebook dominates the field of event and entertainment calendars. (Shout out to my friends who kept me in the know of events!)

I’ve also been Snapchat free for over a year, but I’m back on Facebook. Every day I question whether the few reasons why I use the social networking platform is worth giving up my privacy and being constantly tracked for companies that support issues I am against.

While the internet is ingrained in our everyday communication and interaction with one another, a question we must ask ourselves is what are some of the ramifications of blindly agreeing to terms and conditions to applications and social networking sites that sells our online life to data companies such as Cambridge Analytica and Palantir?

Not only did thousands of Snapchatters support their favorite artist, but they made a statement that domestic violence is not an issues to mock and, unknowingly, took a step forward to protecting their privacy.

We should stand for transparency and user control of our apps and social networking platforms as much as we strive for healthier relationships with our loved ones.

In Rihanna we trust.

Resources:
Domestic & Sexual Violence
Online Data Privacy & Safety
Phone Privacy

Tags: delete facebook , domestic violence , privacy , rihanna , snapchat , social media , women's history month