For all the outrageous and funny Facebook outage memes that flourished briefly on Monday, Quraishi pointed out, there are real consequences for some. “There are whole communities where people seek refuge, get comfort and find support for all manner of deeply personal concerns that take place in various Facebook groups — and that tragic things can happen when those groups disappear in an instant, and without warning.”
For religious leaders who connect with their flocks on the internet, the outage was a reminder to own their information. Rabbi Sandra Lawson, who uses music to offer her thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok wisdom from the Torah, had some practical advice: “It’s important for content creators to back up their content on something they own, like a website, a blog and of course, one’s computer or a cloud,” she said. “Content creators should also have an email list to keep in touch with their followers.
“The outage yesterday showed that relying on Facebook for messaging, entertainment and creating content can be shaky.”
There is much to criticize and reform in our tech companies. The internet is still young and Facebook in particular often operates like the selfish and headstrong teenager it is. I pray that those who build the technology that connects us will focus on bringing people together to find lasting connections, as they claim to do, and not only for profit. A big part of that means serving religious community, interfaith understanding, personal well-being and collective peace.
This article originally appeared here.
