What really grinds my gears about Facebook. No, not that.

Sure, there are multiple failures when it comes to Facebook’s amazing news feed algorithm. One of them is the oft-repeated and valid argument that what you actually see is what Facebook wants you to see. So instead of a highlight reel of what your close (or interesting / funny / hot) friends are doing or sharing, you get to see what Facebook deems interesting / funny / hot.

That’s how they sell advertisement on their site and all of these clickbaits that the guy who you met while helping your college roommate to move 4 springs ago liked in drunken Facebook-like-binge 2 autumns ago are what you will likely see on your feed.

Of course, your interesting / funny / hot friends still has some say in this, but there is always this nagging feeling that something’s not right — why can’t I just see the mundane thoughts of my best, but admittedly not very interesting / funny / hot, friend?

There is a business decision behind all of this — maybe we’ll get a paid version where we could really customise who and what we see. But for the time being, we’re at the mercy of Mark’s minions.

But I don’t mean the clickbaits or the not-so-close-friend updates on my feed. What really grinds my Peter-Griffin-gears is the geo-specific content.

I don’t know if that term exists, but I’m using it here anyway.

The problem is, I’ve had a, what you may refer to as, an international upbringing, during which I traversed many countries and continents, via my family’s various moves, my own academic travails, and work-related forced and unforced moves. Added to that, some of my friends and acquaintances have experienced similar upbringings. Which means, I have a not-very-sizable, but quite a varied geographical spread of friends and ‘friends’.

As it happens they like sharing stuff on social media (and Facebook in particular), such as videos.

See where I’m going with this?

How many of you have ever seen the friendly message saying that you happen to be living in the wrong area of this planet.

“But Joe shared this with me”, you say.

“Who’s Joe?” asks a friendly rhetorical bot.

“My ex-girlfriend’s ex-workmate who likes the same Black Crowes album as me. Oh, and he lives in Somewhere, US State”, say I, the me.

“No, you can’t watch that. That’s only for those living in the US”, proclaims the rhetobot.

“Well, he shared it on Facebook and it popped on my news feed as something I should probably click, since the only purpose of that shared item is its clickability and playability and, hence, enjoyability after the termination of the initial loop of its playability. So, why am I seeing it if it won’t serve its only purpose?”, says an exasperated flesh of me.

And that’s my issue. I have a lot of friends living in the US and, understandably, they share a lot of things they see on American TV. As good Internet Citizens, they share the official links (Hulu, NBC, Fox etc), but these videos and other content is only available in the US.

Now it’s not Facebook’s fault — I want to make that clear. This content should be available for everyone, everywhere, every time.

But legislature cannot keep up with technological disruption, as a colleague of mine recently said when I mentioned this pet peeve to her. True, we are living in a world of asinine copyright laws. And it’s not up to Facebook to sort this out.

But, in the meantime, why am I being teased by content I can’t legally access? Do you want me to go to a video hosting site and find a pirated version? Because that’s how you will make me go to a video hosting site and find a pirated version.

Hide these teasers away from my news feed, Facebook. Please.

In the meantime, write to your MP, congressman, or local dictator to change the legislature, so content such as videos are (legally) available everywhere. And by legally, I mean with proper rights reserved for those who made / distributed / hosted them.