Table 4.3: The Facebook pages with the largest number of likes (data source: http:// www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/, accessed on 16 December 2015).
4.5.7. Twitter’s and Facebook’s Repressive Tolerance
Is Twitter really a tolerant, free and pluralist medium that allows you ‘to connect with people, express yourself and discover what’s happening’ and gives ‘everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly’15? How many followers do you have on Twitter? A few hundred? Or if you are really very active, maybe you have 2,000 followers? 2,000? Not bad, that’s just 84 411 368 fewer followers than Katy Perry!16 So who has the largest number of followers? Celebrities and online platforms operated by the world’s largest advertising and online companies Google and Facebook (table 4.2).
Do you have a Facebook page that users can like? How many likes does it have? Maybe 5,000 if it your page is really doing well? That’s just 511,028,965 fewer ‘likes’ than the page ‘Facebook for Every Phone’ has. What are the most ‘liked’ pages on Facebook (see table 4.3)? Apps and Internet technologies operated by the world’s largest Internet and advertising companies Google and Facebook, sports, celebrities, and a soft drink company.
Does Facebook really give you the ‘the power to share and to make the world more open and connected’?17 The reality is that these are empty promises and that hierarchies of ownership and reputation create asymmetries of voice and visibility. As a consequence, some are more connected, visible, read and heard, re-tweeted, re-posted than others, which in turn cement and advances status hierarchies. The tolerance, freedom and plurality that social media promise in capitalism turn out to form an ideology. Tolerance, freedom and plurality are repressive in a social media world that operates within a capitalist society.
Herbert Marcuse and Social Media
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