In January 2018, Facebook announced adjustments to its News Feed algorithm, dramatically reducing organic reach for fan pages. The news exploded across Taiwan’s marketing and self-media circles.

“Facebook betrayed us!” “This is platform hegemony!” “Ten years of building destroyed overnight!”

Watching these angry posts, my mind wandered to something else: what exactly are you angry about?

The Logic of Free Meals

Let me do some math.

Over the past ten years, we—as users, creators, brand managers—have done so much on Facebook: built fan pages, posted content, ran ads, managed communities, communicated with customers through Messenger. We’ve enjoyed humanity’s first taste of internet-scale network effects within this massive system of over 2 billion users.

And as end users, how much have we paid Facebook?

Zero.

Zero dollars. Ten years.

This is like being invited to dine at a grand mansion, enjoying free meals for ten years. One day the host says: “I’m going to rearrange the seating and change the menu.” You jump up and curse the host for betraying you—is this reasonable?

It’s not. But this is most people’s reaction.

You’re Not a Guest, You’re the Product

The harsher truth is: you’re not even a “guest.”

In the free platform business model, you’re not the customer—advertisers are. You are the product. Your attention, your behavioral data, your social graph—these are what Facebook sells to advertisers.

So when Facebook adjusts its algorithm, it’s not “betraying” you. It’s optimizing its core product—the allocation of user attention—to better serve its real customers—advertisers.

This logic has been there from day one. Ten years of free lunch just made most people forget.

Digital Colonialism Isn’t Metaphor

I later used a term to describe this state: digital colonialism.

This isn’t hyperbolic metaphor. Consider the definition of colonialism: your productive activities occur on land owned by others, your resources are allocated by others, your rules are set by others. And—this is most crucial—you have zero bargaining power over any of this.

What’s the structural difference between a self-media creator who puts all content on Facebook and a farmer cultivating in a colony?

The farmer’s crops are allocated by the colonial government. Your content is allocated by algorithms. The farmer can’t decide tax rates. You can’t decide reach rates. If the farmer protests, the colonial government suppresses them. If you protest—well, algorithms won’t acknowledge you.

Admitting you’re a digital colonist isn’t shameful at all. What’s truly shameful is enjoying free services for ten years, then acting betrayed when rules change.

Inescapable Dependence

Some say: “Then let’s just leave Facebook!”

Fine, leave. Then where?

Jump to Instagram? That’s also Facebook’s (now Meta). Manage YouTube? That’s Google’s, algorithms change there too. Build your own website? Your traffic is still choked by Google’s search algorithm. Switch to Line@? Platforms change at will.

This is the dilemma of digital colonialism: you can change colonial masters, but you can’t escape the colonial structure. Because in today’s internet ecosystem, all traffic allocation power is held by a few giant platforms.

In running my company, I’ve deeply experienced this reality. We help clients manage communities, do content marketing, run ads. Every strategy’s foundation is built on platform rules. And these rules can suddenly change when you’re completely unprepared.

Once, we spent a month crafting a Facebook content strategy for a client. Two weeks after launch, we hit an algorithm adjustment that dropped organic reach by 40%. The client asked: “Is there something wrong with your strategy?” I said: “The strategy hasn’t changed—the floor beneath our feet has.”

What to Do After Awakening

So what then? Give up?

No. Replan with clarity.

First, build your own assets. Email lists, owned websites, LINE official accounts—these are channels for directly reaching your audience, not controlled by any single platform’s algorithm. They grow slowly, but they’re yours.

Second, diversify risk. Don’t put all eggs in one platform basket. If 80% of your traffic comes from Facebook, you’re handing 80% of your destiny to a variable you can’t control.

Third, observe opportunities within rule changes. Reinhold Niebuhr had a useful saying: misfortune and fortune are intertwined. Every algorithm adjustment brings some down and lifts others up. Those who calmly analyze new rules while everyone else wails often find new breakthroughs.

Interdependence of Fortune and Misfortune

Back to that 2018 algorithm adjustment.

Who cried the loudest? Those brands and self-media creators who had lived off free organic reach for years. They had never built paid strategies or established traffic sources outside the platform. When algorithms changed, they were swimming naked.

At the same time, another group began seriously developing podcasts, newsletters, and owned communities. These channels lacked Facebook’s scale, but they had something Facebook could never give you: you call the shots.

The reality of digital colonialism won’t change. But your position within the colonial structure can change.

The key isn’t leaving platforms—that’s unrealistic. The key is whether you’re building something truly your own outside the platforms.

Cultivating on others’ land is fine. But remember to simultaneously plant some crops on your own land that no one else can take away.