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Facebook Employees In An Uproar Over Executive's Leaked Memo (nytimes.com)
According to The New York Times, "Facebook employees were in an uproar on Friday over a leaked 2016 memo from a top executive defending the social network's growth at any cost -- even if it caused deaths from a terrorist attack that was organized on the platform." From the report: In the memo, Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook vice president, wrote, "Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good." Mr. Bosworth and Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, have since disavowed the memo, which was published on Thursday by BuzzFeed News.
But the fallout at the Silicon Valley company has been wide. According to two Facebook employees, workers have been calling on internal message boards for a hunt to find those who leak to the media (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). Some have questioned whether Facebook has been transparent enough with its users and with journalists, said the employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Many are also concerned over what might leak next and are deleting old comments or messages that might come across as controversial or newsworthy, they said. In the aftermath, some Facebook executives have taken to Twitter for a public charm offensive, sending pithy phrases and emoticons to reporters who cover the company. Adam Mosseri, Facebook's head of news, in recent days wrote unprompted to a BuzzFeed editor and to its chief executive reminiscing and telling a story about his mother. He also wrote to a reporter from the Verge tech site about the songs played at his wedding reception.
But the fallout at the Silicon Valley company has been wide. According to two Facebook employees, workers have been calling on internal message boards for a hunt to find those who leak to the media (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). Some have questioned whether Facebook has been transparent enough with its users and with journalists, said the employees, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Many are also concerned over what might leak next and are deleting old comments or messages that might come across as controversial or newsworthy, they said. In the aftermath, some Facebook executives have taken to Twitter for a public charm offensive, sending pithy phrases and emoticons to reporters who cover the company. Adam Mosseri, Facebook's head of news, in recent days wrote unprompted to a BuzzFeed editor and to its chief executive reminiscing and telling a story about his mother. He also wrote to a reporter from the Verge tech site about the songs played at his wedding reception.
Nicely stated.
The way you phrase your analysis brought to mind another point of view about Facebook.
It is a cult.
Self-serving, self-aggrandizing, megalomaniacal autocrats promulgate a set of obscene antisocial philosophies that somehow hook in a group of followers solely on the basis of lies, subterfuge, or a perverse charisma (or money). They get their followers to "drink the Kool Aid" of thinking that there is something righteous in the plan or promotion. It all sounds so innocent or inspiring at first, but when it reaches its peak, or when the promoters slip up and "light the match", the dark side is revealed. It can happen on the small scale of the Manson Family, or on the massive scale of Hitler's Germany. Couched in the guise of a corporate entity giving its servile followers a free incentive (a website to post pictures of poochie), it all seemed so innocent, but Facebook is starting to look more and more like a genuine cult run by perverse leaders. (No disrespect is intended to anyone, reading this or otherwise, who is on Facebook.)
I have never been on Facebook - never understood the fascination, never understood how a medium that is inherently anti-social can be spun up as "social media", never understood the Kool Aid (Jonestown) that made others sign up, and never for a moment trusted that platform. Like a lot of young tech startups, it is sorely in need of of an adult or at least someone with a conscience somewhere in upper echelons.
How just it would be if Zuckerberg failed to show up for his Congressional hearing, and they found him dead, suicide, clutchinig a copy of Mein Kampf.