Have we really progressed past racism?
It s been discovered that Facebook ad tools have been abke to target racists and Semites from the same information users self report. According to Facebook, it was never predicted gay the functionality would be used in this manner. Many users were ask totargett ads based in their anti- Semitic views and affinity for Hitler. COO of Facebook, Sandy Sandberg says this was particularly disgusting for her to realize. Facebook specifically designed this tool to do exactly as it’s happening. Thus, the embarrassments isn’t that it’s not working, it’s that it’s doing exactly as it was designed to.
According to Parisier, this controversy provided the public insight on how Facebook’s operating system works.
Racism is still there. That much is true. As true as the day Eric Garner was brutally assaulted, there are still racist views prevalent everywhere around us. Technology and social media have created tools and inventions to spread such hate and ignorance to more areas of cyberspace. The good thing about technology and social media is that it’s very powerful in America today, it contains the power to make change. These tools must be used to cease racism and find a way to cut off ways for racists to spread their message. It is important we do this not only for the lives that have died due to such ignorance but for the future of America as well.