Greta Thunberg to quit Facebook, demands they reconsider their cyberbullying policy

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has spoken up about yet another issue she feels deeply concerned about. Ever since she emerged in the public eye, there is no doubt that she has received immense unwarranted criticism from those who disagree with her when it comes to her stance on the environment. However, sometimes the haters simply take it too far. The young teenager claims she has received numerous death threats and hate messages ever since she began her journey as an activist - through social media platform Facebook nonetheless. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently came under fire following his testimony for a special House of Representative committee due to his lack of awareness with regard to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. Now, it appears he has one more battle to fight with young Thunberg, who has suggested she will quit the platform is no swift action is taken, The Huffington Post reports.

In a post (ironically) uploaded to Facebook on Thursday, October 24, Thunberg issued her "rallying cry" against the social media platform. She stated, "I am, like many others, questioning whether I should keep using Facebook or not. Allowing hate speech, the lack of fact-checking and, of course, the issues of interfering with democracy are among many, many other things that are very upsetting. The constant lies and conspiracy theories about me and countless of others, of course, result in hate, death threats and ultimately violence. This could easily be stopped if Facebook wanted to. I find the lack of taking responsibility very disturbing. But I'm sure that if they are challenged and if enough of us demand change - then change will come." The 16-year-old posted her message when she shared a video of Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez interrogating the CEO.

There is no doubt that Facebook has made it easier to send hate messages or death threats to, well, just about anyone you please. Thunberg is not the first to receive them despite her age and will definitely not be the last. Over the years, the social media platform has attempted to tighten their policy when it comes to such messages, but continues to place the onus on the users who receive the messages rather than those sending them. Through features such as reporting and blocking, Facebook tells users that it is okay to continue nasty behavior as if the recipient didn't wish to receive such messages, they would just block you. Instead, the platform should be revoking users' rights to a profile once such actions have been reported.

The following day, Thunberg posted another message. "It has come to my attention that a few people have been trying to impersonate me or falsely claim that they "represent" me in order to communicate with political leaders, famous actors, singers, and musicians," she wrote. "I apologize to anyone who has been contacted - and maybe even misled - by this kind of behavior. I hope that those who want to sincerely reach out to me will do so using the recognized channels. The good news in all of this is that this just means we're having [an] impact. Activism works. And see you in the streets!" Hopefully, Facebook will sort out its issues soon so users can still have access to important public figures - without having to deal with vile harassment, rampant fake news, and more.