The Instagram age has given rise to a new class — the “influencers”, who persuade their followers to buy and think in certain ways. But the biggest influencer of the lot is Facebook — the company that owns Instagram, WhatsApp as well as Facebook itself. With 2.7bn users — more than a third of the world’s population — Facebook is a massive, global political force, accused of everything from tipping the 2016 US presidential election to enabling genocide in Myanmar.
Instagram時代造就了一個新興階層——「網路紅人」(influencer),他們能說服自己的粉絲(follower)用特定的方式消費或思考。但是,最大的網路紅人其實是Facebook——該公司擁有Instagram,WhatsApp和Facebook本身。Facebook擁有27億用戶——超過世界人口的三分之一——它是一股強大的全球政治力量,也因此受到各種指控,從影響2016年美國大選,到爲緬甸的種族屠殺提供便利。