Web 2.0 Untruth

The fallacy of Web 2.0 is that while many purport it to be the new wave of information, it has created a dangerous situation on the internet. This is because this "revolution" is putting a more personal, objective kind of face on the same corporate platitudes that have always been spewed by corporate America. One of the more blatant examples of this is the case of "Working Families for Wal-Mart", a group that maintains a blog and a website that is used to praise Wal-Mart's ideals and work conditions, and is a seemingly grass-roots organization. They often fight against union intervention, and when they emerged in 2005, seemed to briefly put a human face on an enormous corporation that is well known for paying low wages and at times defying United States labor laws. The reality of Working Families of Wal-Mart is that they are a group that was created by Edelman Public Relations, a company that is well known for attempting to craft new images for massive companies such as Wal-Mart and Microsoft. The organization is not a non-profit, which means they are not required to disclose funding sources, and this is exactly one of the dangers of Web 2.0, because they created an entirely separate and for a time, distinct entity that was wholly controlled by corporate interests in an attempt at economic propaganda, as well as to undermine attempts by employees to create a workers union, or any attempt at formation of workers groups. This kind of deceit may also be what in the long run is the downfall of Web 2.0, this ability for any person or group to speak to the world in whatever voice they choose.