An Open Letter to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

It is my sincere pleasure, for this opportunity to reach out to you, by way of this open letter. I also sincerely hope and wish, that you will be able to devote some quality time from your busy schedule to read this letter.

With the launch of Facebook in the year 2006 and your acquisition of WhatsApp in the year 2014, the world in which we live, has seen an unprecedented social revolution. The impact of this is more far reaching than heralded by the start of Industrial revolution in late 1800’s. It is certain, that this period, will find a special mention in the history books of our future generations. You and your talented team deserves to be applauded for this wonderful accomplishment.

With close to 3 billion Facebook subscribers and 2 billion WhatsApp subscribers, the flow of information is instant with massive global outreach. These platforms hold the power to transform the social landscape and they continue to do so as you read this.

As the saying goes, that with Great Power Comes Great Responsibility as well. The purpose of this letter is to kindly remind you of this responsibility.

I felt the need to approach you with my concerns because of what I see happening, every day, in my wonderful country. I observe, that these platforms, while ably serving the purpose of giving voice and ability of expression to citizens, has unintentionally, gone onto become an instrument for spreading fake news and hatred. The kind of venom and bigotry, which is poured and disseminated through these mediums is unparalleled and is causing irreparable divide in our otherwise wonderful social fabric. Mark Tully always used to write, that democracy in India thrives in our villages. Even our rural social fabric is under threat now.

Your powerful and respected brand image, makes even the most educated people, believe in the posts, which reach their inbox, even if they are fake. The generally used term “WhatsApp University” owes its creation to this very phenomenon.

I fully agree and comprehend that it is beyond your control to filter out the hateful content. But since you own the platform, you certainly have responsibility to find ways and means to prevent any misuse of these technologies. I do not see, government of the day acting on this because, they have been the largest beneficiary of this phenomenon.

Hatred and bigotry propagate across large WhatsApp groups. Based on my analysis of the dynamics behind this tendency to make hatred viral, I would like to suggest and recommend two specific changes in WhatsApp in particular:

• Disable the means to post and share any kind of media files and forwards in WhatsApp groups. This feature can continue to be available for communication between two individual subscribers.
• Even when a media file is being shared between two individuals, let there be a default caption that “WhatsApp cannot guarantee the authenticity of the contents of the post and all recipients are encouraged to check and verify the contents before sharing with any other subscriber”.

What this will accomplish:

• Spread of hate through massive propagation of hateful content will no longer be possible.
• All posts in groups would now have to be original creations, which will require the individual to at least read something on the subject, which in turn will perhaps lead to healthy debates.
• It is a normal human tendency to be watchful and careful while writing something which can be attributed to them. Besides, people generally do not want to express hate. Forwarding a media file is easy and many times, people do not even realise that whether it is fake or the harmful impact of sharing hateful content.
• People will be encouraged to reach out directly to friends for sharing any specific files or information. There will be more real conversation and meetings, rather than virtual meet up’s.

At this point of time, I do not have any suggestions to share for Facebook platform. I am sure that your talented team can certainly find suitable solutions. However, the proposed WhatsApp interventions are something easy and will not take away freedom of expression of individuals in any way.

I would request you to kindly take note of and remember each life, which has been lost due to spread of fake message and a wedge of hatred being driven across various religious and ethnic group. We, the people, are directly responsible for our actions and I am most certainly not implying, that your organisation has any responsibility or culpability in this. However, you do have a moral responsibility to ensure, that the technologies, created by your team, with a positive intent, do not become a pliant tool in hands of the forces, which are instrumental in spreading fake news and hate.

I hope and pray that you will relate with the common concerns shared by me and also find merit in my observations and suggestions. I am also confident that your team can perhaps expand on my inputs and can come up with more solutions. With these interventions, your platforms can go back to serving the original objectives, which were envisaged at the time of creating these technologies.

I respectfully, urge you to kindly act on this before it is too late. Actions which you will take now, will determine what kind of mention you will find in future history books. Surely, you will not expect to be remembered for what is happening now.

Awaiting your positive response and looking forward to see some much needed changes as shared above.

Best Regards

Jeetinder Chopra

(A very concerned Individual)