-
4 years ago (edited)
Verified
Facebook’s Next Target: The Religious Experience
In our early discussions about building Kingdom Life Christian Center, we talked about how we (as the church) need to be the ones to create this platform instead of relying on a social media giant like Facebook. Though we know Facebook can be used for good, to build community, and to spread the gospel, we also know that Facebook is primarily committed to bringing in more customers and move revenue to drive profits for its shareholders (like any other publicly traded company). Even more than that, Facebook determines their own privacy policy that says how they will handle the data they collect about their users and what those users say and do on their platform. I remember several months ago we were talking about this in a fellowship meeting and @becca-r said, at a certain point Facebook can begin to censor data however they want. Though it’s okay to talk about Jesus on Facebook now, who knows… things may change. And any local churches or global ministries that have invested time and money into building on that platform, will essentially be held captive to whatever policies Facebook dictates.
To be clear, I’m not trying to hate on Facebook nor do I want to rant on and on about this… but I read this NYT article about how Facebook is targeting churches to see how Facebook can become the “virtual home” for religious experiences, I got annoyed. And the article just briefly mentioned that Facebook required a Hillsong pastor to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so that he couldn’t disclose exactly what Facebook was doing with the data about their church members, which I think is ridiculous. If they can get away with that for a megachurch, I can only imagine the types of agreements that much smaller, less tech-savvy churches would find themselves bound to in the future.I just want to say that I think what we are doing here on this platform is remarkable, not just because of all of the amazing content and features here, but because it’s a homegrown space. User data is not being sold anywhere, there’s no advertisements, no trolling. This is a safe space because we took the time to build it from nothing and not many churches or ministries have that.Over time I know we will continue with grow and have opportunities to serve the body of Christ by introducing them to our way doing of digital ministry.@phil4krist @michael
Willy Y. Jefferson3 Comments-
Trusted
So true! It’s incredible how far we have come in just one year in building this platform. And you are right, as Christian communities open up to the new normal, we will help those interested to deploy this type of ministry.
-
Verified
Quite instructive @purposefaith.Thank you. The bible says that the devil will use seductions to deceive many in these times, but they that know their God will do exploits. We are here for such a time as this, to fulfill divine purpose. We may start small but we know it is God that surely gives us great increase. We win always!
-
Verified
Insightful Nia,
Facebook is growing bigger everyday and as you said they’ve their own policies which any of the users needs to follow if not you’ll be banned or restricted 🚫. Facebook is already like a prison, driving people’s mind to where they (Facebook) want them to go. This technology of persuasion applied is causing trouble all around… depression, sucide, all kinds of things. Thanks God we do have this ads-free zone… this community ♥️
-