Anything online, left alone long enough, will be abused.

Mark Zuckerberg is not the devil. I don't believe he has a malicious bone in his body. That is his problem.

If he had even the slightest inclination to abuse people with his creation,  he wouldn't have his current problem, and we wouldn't have ours. The same goes for Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and most of the other apps and platforms. All were convinced in the blissful ignorance that a grand idea empowering people would allow the best in society to prevail. They didn't see that the deck was stacked against them from the start.

There was internet before Facebook. It was all founded on the same boundless optimism. That electronic Garden of Eden started growing weeds on day one.  In 1995, when the commercial internet was launched, we got Amazon, eBay and Craigslist. It also brought us websites from the Klu Klux Klan and Stormfront (the grand daddy of all hate websites), followed soon after by the National Socialist Movement, white supremacist and violent extremist groups. Hate websites also emerged appealing to white women with recipes and family tips as well as targeting their children with printable racist coloring books. All before Facebook, Twitter and even Google.

 By 2005-2006 when web 2.0, user generated content, Facebook, Twitter and others emerged, it was already too late. The roots of hate had already grown deep in the internet. With each new development; email, mobile technology, interactive gaming, instant messaging, video chat, podcasts and blogging, optimism sprung anew.  We resisted looking at these wonderful advancements through the darkest lenses of possible abuse. However, malice waded in with glee.

History has shown us that every major advance has been subject to abuse - the printing press, the radio, television, phone and fax machine.  The internet is no different. All their inventors felt they were making a wonderful contribution. I envy and respect those who retain their boundless optimism and blissful ignorance. We need them. And they need those of us who credibly and professionally work to see it all... realistically.

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