Editorial: Facebook drug losing its potency

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook, is under pressure to protect users' privacy. Photo / File

It has been a bad couple of weeks for Facebook. After years of fending off concerns about its poor privacy controls, the $500 billion social media giant was rocked last month by reports that it had allowed a UK data firm Cambridge Analytica to harvest personal details from 50 million Facebook users to feed to the Trump campaign in the 2016 US presidential election.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie has since claimed similar information was used to influence the Brexit vote and elections in Kenya and Nigeria. A British parliamentary committee has called for Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain and the UK's information commissioner has launched her own investigation.

Facebook's share price has since plunged by 18 per cent and Zuckerberg, after days of silence, eventually made a public statement apologising and promising to limit the information given to apps in future.

It remains to be seen how much this difference this will make. As several journalists have illustrated, it is startling to discover how much detailed information Facebook already has for advertisers to target its users and all their friends.

Meanwhile in New Zealand privacy commissioner John Edwards has taken Facebook to task for refusing to comply with this country's privacy laws. The company initially argued that because its New Zealand service was provided by Facebook Ireland, it was therefore subject only to Irish law.

Edwards very reasonably replied that if Facebook wanted to serve more than 2 million customers in New Zealand it should comply with this country's data protection laws. Facebook's tactics were also an unpleasant reminder of the way it and other huge corporations - including Google and Apple - have avoided paying tax with the same offshore jurisdiction defence.

Whether Facebook's troubles represent a blip or a turning point will depend on how its 2 billion global users react to these developments. So far most have willingly given up their privacy for the convenience of a social network which allows us to communicate constantly with friends, family, colleagues and customers anywhere in the world.

The #DeleteFacebook hashtag devised in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal has attracted worldwide attention but has so far failed to make a dent in sign-ups in the US and UK. The main reason is probably that too many people now rely on Facebook, even if they don't particularly like it.

Friends issue party invitations, schools communicate with students and businesses sell their products on it, making it difficult to leave. But the social appeal of Facebook seems to have waned for many younger users, who increasingly prefer the less invasive Instagram (now owned by Facebook) and Snapchat.

This trend may well be what decides the future of Facebook. The theatrical revival of George Orwell's classic 1984 has prompted comparisons with an omnipotent Big Brother but the pacifying drug soma from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World may be a closer fit. Most of us have chosen to be addicted to social media. Facebook currently reigns supreme but if it doesn't satisfy our needs it will not remain our drug of choice indefinitely.