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Are We Dating the Same Guy Memphis
Memphis on the internet.
That Guy?
A private Facebook group created in May is titled with an intriguing question: “Are we dating the same guy?”
The group says it “is a place for women to protect and empower other women while warning each other of men who might be liars, cheaters, abusers, or exhibit any type of toxic or dangerous behavior.”
Snowplowed
Posted to State of Tennessee website
Voting is open until November 30th for the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) contest to name snowplows for four regions across the state. Names from Memphis Reddit users will be tough to beat:
“Snowmane,” by u/kindarcan; “Whoop that Slick,” by u/jgeebaby; “Justin Timberflake,” by u/sik_dik; “Wanda Plowbert — because they’re slow and inefficient,” by u/snyetha; and “Snowjunt,” by u/Cornballin_POS for starters.
COGIC anxiety
Memphis Redditors were also bracing for the return of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) convocation next week.
“Praying for Outback Union right now,” wrote u/maladybess.
“And they still won’t tip or worse, leave a fake $20 prayer tract,” wrote u/waspinatorrulez.
“Gotta find out the cool new things God said over the last year/s,” wrote u/MartyrMcFly.
Kevin Lewis founded the Memphis Mushroom Foragers Facebook Group. (Credit: Toby Sells)
I’m a pro lurker and a professional lurker; I’m good at it and I get paid to do it.
You won’t see me on Reddit leading discussions about Memphis’ insane drivers or keyboard-bombing the mayor’s Facebook page. But I’m there, probably.
The Memphis Flyer started MEMernet in 2019. It replaced the iconic “Fly On the Wall” column that could not exist without the inimitable Chris Davis. He retired. I scrambled to fill the news hole and MEMernet was born (named by our own Shara Clark).
The column captures the best of Memphians living their lives online. I love the funny stuff, the weird stuff, the intriguing stuff, the sad stuff, and everything in between.
But what I really love is when MEMphians find each other online and do stuff IRL. Love and/or sex, maybe. But definitely hooking up on their interests. There’s no better/easier place for this (imho) than Facebook Groups. Search “Memphis” in Groups and you’ll find real estate agents, gear heads, foodies, fishing folks, film fans, and entrepreneurs.
MEMernet IRL will be an occasional series of meeting up with some of the city’s finest, funniest, and most-interesting digital citizens. — Toby Sells
I’d been lurking on the Memphis Mushroom Foragers Facebook Group (1,900+ members) for a while. In the group, there’s a lot of mushroom identification going on. Basically, people head out into the woods, see a mushroom, photograph it, post it to the group, and (usually) ask, “What is this mushroom?”
Memphis Mushrooms Foragers/Facebook
For a long time, I wondered how cool it would be to hit the woods with these folks. Last week, I acted. One comment in the group and two texts later, I was standing in a parking lot at Shelby Forest shaking hands with the group’s founder, Kevin Lewis.
He told me he’d be hard to miss and he was right. A long, brown-and-gray beard spilled down to his chest under clear gray eyes and a black cowboy hat. A keyring jangled from his blue Levi’s that ended over a pair of black, square-toed cowboy boots, scuffed from miles of mushroom hunting, apparently.
Kevin Lewis, founder of the Memphis Mushroom Foragers Facebook Group, in his natural habitat. (Credit: Toby Sells)
I suggested looking around Overton Park, but Lewis was adamant about Shelby Forest and for good reason. A place can be over-foraged, he said, and that’s not good for people or for mushrooms. My mushroom education had begun even before I shut my car door.
He grabbed a large wicker basket — what looked like an Easter basket — from his car and laid several small brown bags at the bottom of it. The first fall chill cooled the air and I zipped my hoodie all the way up for the first time since April. As we walked, Lewis said he started the Facebook page a couple of years ago.
“I couldn’t find anybody to help me when I got started [mushroom foraging],” he said. “So, I started the page so I could help others, a place they could find some resources to get them started.”
The fact that his mushroom group has so many members “blows me away” and he said those members are from all over the country and the world. The page has earned him invitations to speak at events, including the recent Memphis Mushroom Festival.
Credit: Toby Sells
Past the trailhead sign, Lewis and I walk and talk down the comfortable trail. He’s behind me. So, I can’t see his eyes darting to both sides, expertly tracking spots for Memphis-area mushrooms to hide. I tell him I’m a willing-but-unseasoned outdoorsman and asked if it’s okay to eat mushrooms you see in the woods. Lesson No. 1: “Before you eat any mushroom, the very first thing you need to do is to identify it 100 percent,” Lewis said. “You don’t want to be eating something that you don’t know what it is, which is the same with any plant, also.”
But mushroom foraging, to Lewis, is more about the finding, the discovery. While you can eat some mushrooms, the art is really in the challenge of finding new species and cataloging them — almost like birdwatching — and just being out in nature.
I start to ask another question and he pauses, silencing the crunch of autumn leaves under his boots.
“We got some turkey tail [mushrooms] right here,” he said, pointing at the end of log. “Nope. My bad.”
Lewis shows the difference between a turkey tail mushroom and something I can’t pronounce. (Credit: Toby Sells)
Then, he said, “This is …” and rattled off the Latin name of what he’d actually found. I swore to myself then that I’d look up the term later. Despite my 7th-grade biology education, I could not find the name.
Maybe that’s the thing I loved about Lewis, what made him so Memphis. He looks like a mushroom forager — the beard, hat, and boots, maybe — and his casual conversation style makes him sound like one, too. (He imparts knowledge to me on our hike in little anecdotes, doing all the different voices and sound effects.) But he can rattle off a mushroom’s binomial nomenclature (thanks 7th grade) like his favorite song lyrics. Memphians, like Lewis, let folks know you care before you show them how much you know, and do it with style.
Down a bank, I spy some yellow, mushroom-looking … things at the base of downed tree. Lewis skids down to them, calls them “butter mushrooms,” flicks open his grandpa’s old knife, and harvests five or six golden stems and caps. (Lewis explained to me earlier in the day that what most call “mushrooms” are really just the sex organs of mushrooms, which live inside trees or under ground.)
Credit: Toby Sells I Lewis shows off some “butter mushrooms.”Lewis shows off a haul of “butter mushrooms” at Shelby Forest. (Credit: Toby Sells)
After 30 minutes in, I knew I had too much information for this story, too much mushroom information to pack in for sure. We turn for the parking lot. On the way out, we pass the couple of ladies and their dog which we passed on the way in. (One of them pressed Lewis for mushroom IDs from pictures on her phone for a full five minutes.) Lewis shows them our haul in his basket and tells them to join the Facebook Group and to post their mushroom pictures there.
For all of it — mushrooms or anything else — humans are sometimes at their best, Lewis said, when they’re sharing information with each other, helping each other out with experience and knowledge. For him, that’s what the Memphis Mushroom Forager’s Facebook Group is all about.
Welp, here I am, back on page 3, writing the Letter From the Editor. It’s weird, sure, but I’ve only done this 837 times in the last 20 years, so I think I can handle it. The Flyer staff is rotating this column until we hire a new full-time editor, and this week, the honor is mine.
As most publications do, the Flyer keeps close track of its internet traffic. Editorial staffers get a read-out each week of which web posts drew the most readers. Food stories get a lot of action. So do breaking news posts and oddball stories, like, say, a wallaby escaping from the zoo. My “At Large” column typically makes it somewhere into the top 10, though not every week. I don’t say this to brag, but to help illustrate the following point: Facebook literally shapes what you read. Here’s a real-world example:
On Wednesday morning, when the weekly Flyer issue goes online, I post my column on my Facebook page. Within two hours, I know whether or not Facebook approves of the content. Most weeks, by noon, I have 75 to 100 “likes.” Over the course of the rest of the week, I usually hit 120-140 likes and 40 or 50 comments. Several people usually “share” my post, which also helps get it out into the world. Facebook is a big driver of readers to the Memphis Flyer site, and not just for my column.
But then there are those weeks when Facebook apparently decides that nobody needs to see “At Large.” Two hours after I post it, the column will have two or three likes. At the end of the week, maybe 20 people will have seen the story link on Facebook. My friends say they don’t see it in their feed, even though they “follow” me. I can’t figure out what negative algorithms are being triggered on these off-weeks, but it’s frustrating as hell, knowing Facebook is “curating” my audience. And, sadly, it’s about to get worse.
In late July, Meta, er, Facebook announced it was moving entirely to algorithmic, “recommendation-based” content rather than that of a true social media platform based primarily on friend/acquaintance-based content. Instagram, owned by Meta, has already made the switch, which is why you’re seeing tons of “reels” from strangers on IG, instead of pictures of your friend’s vacation. Instagram’s algorithms are prioritizing content based on your browsing habits and geo-fenced locations, not your social media contacts.
All this is helping further de-platform and destroy local news-media operations. Facebook has since its founding used content from news operations without paying for it. News is just another piece of “content,” along with cat videos and comely “influencers” dancing on TikTok.
There is a bipartisan bill called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) that’s been floating around Congress for months. It would provide a temporary, limited-antitrust, safe harbor for local news publishers to collectively negotiate with Facebook and Google for fair compensation for the use of their content. The act is tailored to ensure that coordination by news publishers protects trustworthy, quality journalism and rewards publishers who invest in journalists, giving them a higher portion of the funds that result from the negotiations.
If you value trustworthy local news produced by legitimate journalists, I urge you to learn more about the JCPA and bring it to the attention of your congressperson.
And on that note, if you’re reading this online, I urge you to scroll down below this column, read the text in that big yellow box, and then click the black bar that reads “donate.” You’ll learn how to support the Flyer’s work by chipping in any amount you’d like. You’ll also see a list of the hundreds of folks who already support us as part of our Frequent Flyer program.
If you’re reading this in print, we thank you, as well! We take pride in being one of the very few progressive voices in the Mid-South, and we’d appreciate your help in keeping that voice alive and free to the public. Facebook sure isn’t going to provide original local news or content. … And they’re probably going to make it really difficult for you to read this column.
The Memphis Flyer is now seeking candidates for its editor position. Send your resume to hr@contemporary-media.com.
My Facebook account was hacked last week. Not in some high-stakes, sexy cyber-spy way, as seen in the 1992 film Sneakers. My screen didn’t freeze as green text cascaded down in a digital waterfall. My cursor didn’t suddenly move with a mind of its own.
No, everything went on more or less as normal, except “I” sent a message — “Look who died” — with a link to a nonexistent website out to all 1,389 of my contacts.
I was none the wiser until I started getting Facebook messages, texts, and Slack and Twitter DMs to the effect of “Hey, man, I think you’ve been hacked.”
The Commercial Appeal’s Micaela Watts took a screenshot and posted it on my wall with a cheery note: “You done been hacked.” Another friend messaged me to say that getting one’s account hacked is bound to happen these days, “Just like Omicron, I guess.” That’s bleak.
My dear friend Olivia got thrown in Facebook “jail” for a few days because her (perfectly inoffensive) comment didn’t meet with the site’s Community Standards. The people in charge of flagging these things are, I imagine, bored nearly to death, so I’m not sure they make for the most reliable safety net.
I spent the next half hour or so in a flurry of online activity. I posted about the hack, warning my contacts not to click the bogus link. I notified Facebook’s security and privacy team. I haven’t heard back from them yet. I changed my password to something complicated and hard to remember, and I turned on two-factor authentication, so I have to input a code texted to my phone if I log in from an unfamiliar device. I spent the next two days responding to messages about the fishy message “I” had sent out to people. It was embarrassing and time-consuming, and I don’t recommend it as a pastime.
Before long, I noticed that I was logged in on two devices — and that one of them seemed to have an IP address from somewhere in Kentucky. I kicked the device off (you can do that from the Security and Login page, for future reference) before I remembered that Facebook had asked me earlier that day if I had “liked” a photo from Michael Donahue. I don’t remember seeing anything about a Kentucky-based IP address in that message, and since I do “like” many of Donahue’s photos, I didn’t think much of it. Whoever hacked my account must have looked at my recent activity to make sure their first move was one that wouldn’t arouse my suspicions. What a clever cyber criminal!
After the initial alarm, I realized that the fishy message I’d broadcast to everyone I know online was eerily similar to a message I had received a few days ago.
That’s right. I blundered into this cyber scam. Like the best Greek tragedies, it was all down to my hubris. You see, while I prefer email for work communications, I get messages every way you can imagine — snail mail, Twitter, Facebook. So when I received a message from, well, someone rather older than I am, I assumed a local celebrity had died and someone was sending me a tip. Yes, the method of delivery was tactless, and the grammar wasn’t going to make anyone’s high school English teacher proud, but that’s on par with at least half of the messages I’m sent. Besides, I spent six years as a copy editor, which means that I’m primed to expect most people to write poorly. And as a Millennial, I expect anyone older than Gen X to have trouble with PDFs and digital etiquette, just as I expect anyone in Gen Z to be baffled when expected to use a phone to actually call someone.
You see? Hubris.
In all likelihood, the message was garbled because it was written by either a bot or someone in a troll farm in Russia or North Korea. I wonder if some up-and-coming hacker graduated from digital training wheels to more rewarding, high-stakes cyber crime after they successfully duped me.
So yes, this was my fault, but consider how easy it was for me to fall prey to this scam. All it takes is divided attention. We need to treat cyber malfeasance as a threat to national security. Yes, even on social media. Because, while the democratic premise that everyone is entitled to an opinion is a beautiful thing, it also presents an easy-to-hit target. Our ability to reach a consensus is our most fragile point, and I can’t help but feel that everything from vaccination efforts to political discourse would have been less fraught without the influence of social media. It’s here to stay, though, so we’d best get better about navigating it safely.
In the meantime, though, take it from me and don’t be too proud to ask, “Did someone actually die or is this a spam link?”
Tatine hangs with Al Yankovic. (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)
Facebook is a daily presence in my life and has been since 2010 when I joined the social medium to post pictures of a trip my wife and I took to the Grammys in Los Angeles. I remember I created an “album” of photos, each carefully captioned: the beach at Malibu; the HOLLYWOOD sign; Tatine meeting Weird Al Yankovic. So exciting!
It was around this time, I suppose, that most of us basically stopped shooting pictures with a camera. You remember that tedious process: You’d take your film to Walgreens, then wait a few days to go pick up your developed pictures (along with the negatives, in case you wanted to go crazy and print another copy). Then you’d sit out in the parking lot, looking through your vacation shots or whatever. No filters, no enhancements. What Walgreens gave you is what you got. How crude.
Now, our phones take care of all of that. Instant sharing! Filters! Video! No more dusty sleeves of old photos stuck in drawers. And Facebook has all our shots organized by date and subject matter and helpfully suggests reposting them as “memories” for us, so we can amuse/bore our friends all over again.
Around the world, three billion people are using Facebook to advertise their lives, faces, interests, writing, families, gardens, pets, food, businesses, music, vacations, politics. And Facebook uses all that free information we provide to make mega-billions of dollars from companies that want to advertise to us. It is a marketing behemoth with algorithms so advanced, you’d swear they’re reading our thoughts. That’s because they are, literally — the ones we write down for them. We are Facebook’s product and they’re getting top dollar for us, but we don’t seem to much care. Check out my new shoes, y’all!
Facebook has made some huge blunders. When the company pushed for a “pivot” to video in 2015, thousands of journalists were laid off, replaced by video “content providers.” Three years later, Facebook had to tell advertisers (and newspapers and media organizations) that video was not working as they’d promised. People actually preferred reading to being spoon-fed videos. Oops, said Mr. Zuckerberg, give us some journalism again, please.
And the company seems a little touchy these days, given all the bad press it’s gotten regarding its failure to remove political disinformation and racist, white-supremacist content from its platform. I have a friend who was reprimanded by the Facebook popo last week for using the word “Chubby” in referencing the Sixties singer, Chubby Checker. Yes, it’s his name, but it breached some sort of algorithmic dog whistle. I’m guessing that typing “Porky Pig” would definitely get you 30 days in the hole.
Two weeks ago, I wrote a column about the daily emails I get from Donald Trump. The Flyer art director illustrated the column with an image of a Trump fundraising ad that had been emailed to me. Normally, when I post my column on Facebook on Wednesday morning, I start getting comments, likes, etc., within minutes, mainly because I’m followed by a few hundred people, so it shows up in their news feed. That week, however, nothing. By mid-morning, I’d had two comments, maybe three or four likes. Facebook was obviously suppressing the distribution of the column.
When I figured it out and changed the art, things got back to normal quickly, but it gave me a real sense of how much Facebook can shape what all of us read in our news feeds — for good or evil.
Here’s hoping they’re as vigilant at stopping nazi memes and hate speech as they are at keeping Donald Trump from getting a free ad — and at protecting Chubby Checker’s feelings.
On Monday, October 4th, Facebook — and, with it, Instagram and WhatsApp — went down for a little more than five hours. Though I’ve read a few articles about the crash, I can’t say I completely understand it. The social networking company issued a statement apologizing for the brief lapse in service and explaining that “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication.”
In other words, the infrastructure of the internet has been built ad hoc over time, and behemoths of the ’net, themselves used by nearly half the world’s population, rely on seemingly insignificant components to work. If those small components go down, so too do the bigger systems that rely on them. Fair enough.
The outage was short-lived, and I doubt too many users of Facebook or Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, were dramatically impacted. WhatsApp is another story, as it’s used by many Latin American customers as a way to avoid high mobile phone tariffs. But what if Facebook hadn’t booted back up?
First, let’s try a little experiment. Tab over to Google, and type “Facebook admits” in the search bar. What results do you see? I got “Facebook admits Instagram is toxic,” “Facebook admits it messed up again,” “Facebook admits to social experiment,” and “Facebook admits to selling data.” Sure, this is hardly scientific, but what is it people say? “Believe people when they show you who they are.”
Facebook is a business, of course, and not a person, but the point stands. So what would happen if the site — and those it owned — never booted back up? Admittedly, it would be a little more difficult to secure some interviews. Not everyone has their email address listed publicly. In fact, I might have missed out on a column pitch, as someone had sent me a question about a potential column on a Facebook comment thread just hours before the site went down. But let’s look beyond the immediate inconveniences that would be caused.
Vaccination rates would probably skyrocket. It seems to take a steady stream of propaganda to keep people at the requisite anger levels needed to erode critical thinking skills. Because what social networking apps sell is user engagement. They’re geared toward keeping our eyes on the screen, our thumbs continuously caressing our precious fondle slabs. That way we see more advertisements on the sites, and we give them more of our personal data, which in turn allows them to better advertise to us.
At this point I should probably say that, in general, I am a fan of any new technology that makes communication easier. I remember being younger and living 1,400 miles or so away from my dad. We used to buy long distance “minutes” cards because calling long distance on the landline was so expensive. With the advent of the internet, people can talk to each other from opposite sides of the globe, for free, as long as they have access to an internet connection. That’s amazing. Frankly, I don’t think we stop and marvel at it often enough. But we’ve given Facebook free rein to work with little oversight. It’s huge, and remember, Instagram and WhatsApp didn’t get their start as creations of Mark Zuckerberg and co.; they were bought because they threatened to take up a little slice of our attention.
That’s the problem. In order to be successful, Facebook has to take up more and more of our attention. So things that make us angry are prioritized because anger boosts engagement. If psychologists and sociologists and ethicists and legislators sat down with a wide selection of potential users of a new technology and figured out guidelines for safe use, then wrote regulations based on those guidelines, we wouldn’t have a problem. Most of us never would have heard of the anti-vaxx group Global Frontline Nurses. But the automobile is always invented before the traffic light — or the seat belt or airbag or shatter-proof windshields or anti-lock brakes. And those inventions are small potatoes anyway. What about the highway and interstate systems? Or the way that vehicles changed the basic makeup of most American cities? No cars, no suburbs, for example.
Social media is more or less ubiquitous, and it’s relatively new. Maybe the time has come to, if not phase it out altogether, then at least make sure it’s promoting the best interests of the 3.5 billion people who use it.
(Credit: Facebook) A rednering shows Facebook's planned $800 million data center in Gallatin, Tennessee.
A $140 million solar farm is headed to s spot near Millington that will power, among other things, an $800 million data center for Facebook in Gallatin, Tennessee.
The solar farm is a project from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Facebook, and RWE Renewables. The solar facility will cover about 1,200-1,400 acres and generate 150 megawatts, equivalent to 399,600 solar panels. Facebook will use 110 megawatts of the plant’s power.
Facebook announced it would build the new, 1-million-square-foot data center in August. State and local officials said last year the deal was years in the making and had worked on it under the name “Project Woolhawk.” The data center will be Facebook’s 13th in the country and 17th in the world.
In April, Facebook announced that its operations are now supported by 100 percent renewable energy. For that, it signed investments for 475 megawatts of new solar infrastructure to be built in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Since 2018, Facebook has agreed to purchase a total of 852 megawatts of power generated by solar farms linked to the TVA system.
“Facebook’s mission is to connect the world, and the connections we made with TVA and RWE will ensure our operations in the Tennessee Valley are supported with new solar energy,” said Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Facebook. “This solar project, which is our third in Tennessee, will help us continue our commitment of 100 percent renewable energy for our global operations, while also bringing new investment and jobs to the local community.”
The project will generate more than $12 million in property tax revenue, create more than 150 construction jobs, and employ two to four full-time staffer for operations and maintenance. The facility is expected to come online in late 2023, pending environmental reviews.
“Bringing clean energy to Shelby County is part of our long-term community plan, and is critical to support our region’s sustainability strategy,” said Doug Perry, TVA senior vice president of commercial energy solutions. “This project is more than a solar farm, it puts people to work, revitalizes communities and makes our region an environmental leader.”
RWE will own and operate the solar power plant through a long-term power purchase agreement with TVA. The global company has around 3,500 employees, onshore and offshore wind farms, photovoltaic plants, and battery storage facilities with a combined capacity of approximately 9 gigawatts.
Millington Mayor Terry Jones said the project will create opportunities for local residents and businesses.
“I’m excited because TVA and Facebook are going to be great neighbors, and their trusted brands will benefit everyone in Shelby County,” he said. “Businesses want renewable energy, and this solar farm makes it easier for us to compete for good jobs.”
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery joined a coalition of 44 state, district, and territorial prosecutors in a Monday letter urging Facebook to abandon its plan for a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13.
In March, Buzzfeed News uncovered the Instagram plan via an internal company memo. Facebook confirmed the plan later that month.
Slatery panned the plan in the letter and in a statement Monday.
“Let’s not take their word for it that this time — and with a product specifically created for children — is going to be any different.”
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery
“Facebook has a record of failing to protect the safety and privacy of children,” Slatery said. “Let’s not take their word for it that this time — and with a product specifically created for children — is going to be any different.”
The attorneys general said they were concerned that “social media can be harmful to the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children,” that the new platform could increase cyberbullying, and online predators could use the platform to target children.
“As recently articulated by dozens of organizations and experts, ‘Instagram … exploits young people’s fear of missing out and desire for peer approval to encourage children and teens to constantly check their devices and share photos with their followers,’ and ‘the platform’s relentless focus on appearance, self-presentation, and branding presents challenges to adolescents’ privacy and well-being,’” reads the letter.
The prosecutors also said that children are not equipped to handle the “range of challenges” that come with having an Instagram account. Nor do they understand privacy, the letter said.
The group also cast doubt on Facebook’s ability to protect children on their proposed Instagram platform and comply with privacy laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). For this, they pointed to Facebook’s Messenger Kids app which contained a glitch that allowed children to circumvent restrictions and join group chats with strangers.
The letter was signed by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Nebraska, Vermont, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
On Wednesday, December 9th, Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III brought Tennessee into a bipartisan national coalition of 48 attorneys general filing a lawsuit against Facebook Inc. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook Inc. stifles competition to protect its business interests, classifying the multi-billion-dollar company as a monopoly. Specifically, the coalition argues that Facebook Inc. has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, in addition to multiple violations of Section 7 in the Clayton Act.
Throughout the lawsuit, the bipartisan coalition alleges that Facebook illegally acquired competitors in a predatory manner, while cutting services to smaller rival platforms in an attempt to deprive their competitions users of benefits. The lawsuit also alleges that the tech giant reduced privacy protection and services during its rapid rise as a way of creating barriers for newer tech companies attempting to enter the market.
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“This vast coalition of Democrats and Republicans agree — Facebook’s unlawful behavior is reducing choice, stifling innovation, and degrading privacy protections,” said General Slatery. “This lawsuit stands up for millions of Americans and small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook.”
Facebook Inc.’s business strategies have been criticized by others in the past. Though Facebook has operated as a “free” personal social networking service since 2004, they have been known to use a variety of methods to forge what their founder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and controlling shareholder Mark Zuckerberg calls a “competitive moat” around the company. Methods have included outright buying smaller rivals and tucking them under the Facebook name or the suppression of third-party developers from utilizing the Facebook platform.
One of the key problems pointed to in the lawsuit is the alleged overarching reach that the tech giant has over its competition’s advertising opportunities and its users’ personal data. The bipartisan coalition argues that, through Facebook’s rapid acquisition of smaller rivals and dominance over advertising, the site is able to make decisions about what content users see and what users don’t see while also using users’ personal data to further their business interests. They also argue that the elimination of potential rivals has created a system in which no group can compete with Facebook.
Through the lawsuit, the coalition plans to halt Facebook Inc.’s expansion by restraining the company from making further acquisitions valued at or in excess of $10 million without first notifying the states included in the lawsuit and to divestiture or restructure what the coalition of state attorney generals are calling “illegally acquired companies” and current Facebook assets or business lines.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also filed a lawsuit in coordination with the bi-partisan coalition levying their own set of charges. The full coalition lawsuit can be read here.
Nextdoor user Cindy Brandon wrote last week, “Never know what you’ll see in Binghampton. There was a wedding today, I guess, at Blessed Sacrament church in Binghampton and we live across the street. They had horses and a mariachi band. I absolutely love Midtown Memphis.”
Feud Remembered
The Historic Memphis Facebook group brought back some jokes from the ’70s-era Germantown/Midtown feud.
John O’Bryan posted, “Do you know why Germantown house wives never host orgies? Too many thank you notes to write.”
Tim Gibson wrote, “Memphis will never fall in the river because Germantown sucks.”
Tweet of the Week
@tamisawyer: “Pro Tip: Instead of bottle service, you can buy Veuve at @joeswines & sparklers online and it’ll come out cheaper and without COVID-19.”
You’re a Mean One
Dennis Ostrow called out a real-life Grinch with a security-cam photo on Nextdoor last week after the guy stole Ostrow’s Christmas lights.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash 
