Reconcerning surveillance: “The Facebook” model
M. Gokhan Aslan
Surveillance, literally the “watching over” of one person by another person, is as old as social relationships themselves. In each period it is formed through the social, political, cultural and technological changes. Considering the changes in these periods surveillance is tried to be defined by referring different notions and models. The Panopticon and Big Brother are the two prominent modern models, which are used to conceptualize surveillance. On the other hand, we need to question the modern models of surveillance, which may fall behind to explain contemporary computer mediated surveillance. In this study, the architecture of
Facebook is critically analyzed to inquiry a model to understand contemporary surveillance by comparison the previous metaphors. The architecture of Facebook can offer us a new model explaining contemporary surveillance, which is computerized, automated, ubiquitous, large-scale and flexible (the information is fluid in time and space). Facebook’s architecture is highly complex and flexible that offers various settings to the users to change the surveillance options. The subject positions are not located hierarchically, not in top-down power relations. It ensures many-to-many, networked surveillance. The aim of this study is to offer “the Facebook” to add novel arguments to the theory of surveillance.