It seems many religious people, the article says Haredim, have Facebook accounts but are uncomfortable with the fact that all sorts of activity can still happen on their pages on Shabbos, even if they themselves are not involved in that activity. Other people can write on my wall, like my old posts, comment on my posts and post their own things and tag me, and whatnot. And many don't just think of it as uncomfortable because others are writing on my wall or commenting on Shabbos on my posts, but they are worried that at times they might be considered as having caused chilul shabbos, as my Facebook post causes, so to speak, in some way, someone to comment.
So this marketing firm, Gil Group, has approached Facebook Israel with a request to develop a shomer shabbat profile. Gil Group is pushing this idea saying that resolving this issue would make religious people far more comfortable with using Facebook and more would join if this were resolved. This new
"shomer shabbat profile" status would" disable any activity on my page or profile on Shabbos.
The Gil Group people think there is no reason for Facebook to not agree to this idea.
Interesting suggestion. I am sure Gil Group is wrong about there being "no reason to not agree to the idea", but it is interesting and if Facebook agrees and it makes people more comfortable with the service, that would be an impressive change.
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How does that work in a 24-hour world? Does the profile stay locked until Shabbos is over everywhere? What about for people who hold Rabbeinu Tam? What about people who think everyone else should (also) hold Rabbeinu Tam?
ReplyDeletegood questions but nothing that cannot easily be worked out. it could be location based. maybe they can make it so the user can set the hours.
Deletethey can already disable the account before shabbos and re-enable after, but I guess they want it to be automatic and not require remembering to do it manually every week
Once when I was a Shabbat guest at a Rabbbi's house. There was another guest who said that he deleted all e-mails that were sent to him on Shabbat (his time). It did not matter if it was from a Jew or non-Jew or even if it was Shabbat where the email originated from.
ReplyDeleteThe Rabbi politely told him that what he was doing was completely unnecessary and possibly harmful.
Currently Facebook doesn't allow businesses (or anyone else) to block commenting on posts. Starbucks is threatening to close their Facebook account because they get so many hateful comments on their posts. I can't see Facebook considering investing any resources into resolving this issue, unless it is rolled up into some bigger issue placed dealt with in much more general terms.
I work for a company that does emailing for other companies. Most of our customers (Israeli companies) don't send emails on Shabbat, even though it is completely automatic.
Deleteinteresting. thanks
Delete