Today is a milestone for Smartrak. Today we’ve determined that as a company, we want to be sure that the companies we choose to work with, share our core values. So today, we’re withdrawing our support for anything and everything related to Facebook and have redirected this budget to other channels.

The incident in Christchurch hit close to home and was a tipping point for Smartrak to consider its position around having Facebook as a partner. How that footage could be published and shared, unchecked, without basic automation to prevent it, isn’t a technology problem. It’s a choice. A choice that Facebook has made.

With just a small amount of research, we see repeated examples of hate, violence and extremism being spread, unchecked, across Facebook’s platform. Examples include the Christchurch incident, an AFLW footballer being trolled (unchecked) because she dares be athletic, and the almost daily stresses of cyberbullying that relate to teenage suicide.

So, at Smartrak we’ve decided that enough is enough. We can only hope that more companies follow. Ultimately if the corporate world were to take a collective stand on what it expects from its social media partners, perhaps we could drive change.

I am all for allowing free speech, but when this speech is nothing more than hateful, anti-social, and violent content, these social media services (Facebook) become platforms for the harmful edges of society. The users of these services don’t deserve being subjected to these negative and harmful perspectives, and we at Smartrak want no further part of it.

Sincerely,

Troy O’Connor
General Manager
Smartrak