Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quits Facebook, calls social media a 'public health risk'

[Zorro]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose mastery of social media has helped drive the national conversation and shed light on the inner workings of congressional power, has given up on the most popular social network in the world.

In an interview Sunday with the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery,” the New York Democrat said she stopped using her Facebook account and was scaling back on all social media, which she described as a “public health risk” because it can lead to “increased isolation, depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism.”

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, who burst onto the national stage after defeating a high-ranking incumbent, said her departure from Facebook was a “big deal” because the platform had been crucial to her campaign. She still has accounts on the site, she said, and according to the company’s ad library, her official Facebook account has dozens of active advertisements sponsored by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress. Among the ads are calls to support her signature Green New Deal, and fundraising pleas to support progressive legislation and to counteract a super PAC aligned against her.

“The congresswoman’s words speak for themselves,” said Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/15/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-quits-facebook-calls-social-media-public-health-risk/

[msongs]

1. surprised she even has time for that sort of thing these days nt

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Maybe she doesn't. Could be the real reason for leaving.

[TheBlackAdder]

15. Time, what time? It's easier than speaking to the press.

[nini]

3. Is she still on twitter?

Isn't that social media too?

[highplainsdem]

5. Yep, and tweeting and retweeting today:

https://twitter.com/AOC

[nini]

6. Interesting

thanks.. I like twitter but holy mother of pearl it can get overwhelming.

[Snake Plissken]

4. She's right, for the most part social media is a festering sewer

Can't even comment on local news stories on facebook anymore without right wing trolls spreading their douchebaggery, and they all have the same generic profile pictures typically something patriotic with a generic sounding name. It's like they'er all posting from the same room of some right wing PAC.

Facebook does nothing about it because their revenue is based on traffic.

[AlexSFCA]

7. After 2016 I never post anything political on fb

and never comment on anything political on fb.We should not be getting news from fb except family and friends updates. AOC posts a lot on insta aka the new fb and owned by fb.

[womanofthehills]

23. I don't believe in shoulds..... and I always comment on political posts on Facebook

[applegrove]

8. In Alberta female politicians and reporters get harassed online. It is

a coordinated right wing series of targeted attacks to shut up women. I am sorry Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has given up facebook. It is part of the public square. Maybe if the number of politicians using Facebook falls then Facebook will do something.

[Takket]

9. that's a bad move for her.........

she just cut herself off from the means her core young progressive voters use to obtain information. Most young people don't watch the news, they read facebook posts.

[tblue37]

11. Their parents are on Facebook. The young people are on Instagram and

Snap Chat.

[TheBlackAdder]

14. Facebook is the new MySpace.

[tblue37]

16. Not exactly, since FB has so many parents and grandparents on it. nt

[TheBlackAdder]

17. My point is that SnapChat, Instagram, and Pinterest are becoming the younger user's preference.

They use Facebook for contact with family and friends, mostly older relatives.

Facebook really isn't their preferred social media platform. That's for older folks.

[tblue37]

18. True. nt

[randr]

10. My respect of her just went up

[Blue Owl]

12. Now I'm really diggin' AOC...

[defacto7]

13. Good for her. Excellent.

[ooky]

19. I agree with her. Thought about getting rid of mine too

So much BS on it, most of it in fact. I hardly ever go on it anyway.

[murielm99]

20. I agree with her on this.

[Lucid Dreamer]

21. I think quitting is good, but...

I'll bet it doesn't last.

I think it is too addictive for most to go cold turkey.

I'd like to be wrong.

[Beringia]

22. Isn't DU social media?

And Twitter seems much more facile than Facebook to me.

[DeminPennswoods]

24. Don't have a facebook account, but

what I've found is that whenever I go to a facebook link, I can only view it for a minute until a big pop-up window appears asking me to login or sign up. There's a "no thanks" option, but the pop-up stays and takes up half the screen. That makes facebook too annoying to use. Twitter is much cleaner, unless the account owner makes their account private, you can read any tweet without having your own account.