Comment by panarky

Facebook's signature feature is that it's viral. It amplifies ideas and emotions.

And it's most effective at amplifying negative ideas and emotions like rumor, gossip, fear and hate.

Of course the root cause is people. But before Facebook, the bad stuff was slow to spread, and geographically localized.

Facebook released an accelerant, a catalyst into the world. And Facebook has lost control of the monster it created.