We got an incredible window into Facebook yesterday. Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic, published “History Will Not Judge Us Kindly,” after her exhaustive reading of the leaked internal documents known as the Facebook Papers. LaFrance’s piece clarifies something that too many people are missing. Zuckerberg and his company do not serve users, shareholders,…
Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name. — The Verge Good morning, and welcome to our annual Connect conference. We’re glad to have you all here. Facebook, the company — as you’ve come to know us — has grown enormously since its founding so many years ago. What was once a…
Yes, I did that title on purpose. Passive voice is so easy to slip into. I wrote an op-ed for the Boston Globe regarding why it now makes sense for the federal government of the US — regulators and lawmakers — to bring the full weight of enforcement on Facebook. The original title was “The…
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified in Congress yesterday. And Mark Zuckerberg was mystified. He was surely thinking, “Can’t they see that we’re out to help humanity?” Today I deconstruct his sincere statement to employees after all the negative news about Facebook in the past month. If you read this critically and with the right perspective,…
We now know that Frances Haugen, Facebook’s former civic integrity product manager, is the whistleblower who leaked Facebook’s internal documents to the Wall Street Journal. She was just interviewed on “60 Minutes.” And after listening to her, I no longer trust anything Mark Zuckerberg or Facebook’s communications team has to say. On “60 Minutes,” Haugen…
Last week, I said we need to crush Facebook. A lot of you agreed. But a few found ways to explain that Facebook is just a normal part of the internet, magnifying stuff that we find engaging, and so crushing it is an overreaction. I respect these arguments and the people who make them. But…
Facebook is toxic. And its leaders no longer give a crap about even appearing to be otherwise. The reporting about Facebook this month has been brutal and disturbing. Here’s how the Wall Street Journal describes its “Facebook Files,” series, based on internal Facebook documents: Facebook Inc. knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws…
The Wall Street Journal says Facebook’s algorithm change in 2018 rewarded outrage. It’s no surprise what happened next. But if you think about it, you’ll see that its evolution towards rage is completely predictable. The article, by Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz, is titled “Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got…
Facebook claims to have a consistent set of standards for what appears on its platform. But based on the reporting in a recent Wall Street Journal article, it fails. It attempts and fails to apply fair standards to ordinary people. It attempts and fails to treat prominent people who post offensive material more personally and…