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Mark Zuckerberg Reportedly Ordered All Facebook Executives To Use Android Phones After Tim Cook Criticized Facebook (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the executive-order dept.

A new report from the New York Times sheds some light on what happened inside Facebook last year as the company was fighting numerous scandals, including Russian interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March. In addition to reportedly hiring a public relations firm to write dozens of articles critical of rivals Google and Apple, the social media company ordered Facebook executives to use Android phones, after Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the company in an MSNBC interview for being a service that traffics "in your personal life." According to the report, the order came from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Verge reports: In those comments made back in March, Cook dismissed a question asking him what he would do if he were in Zuckerberg's shoes dealing with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal by saying, "I wouldn't be in this situation." Zuckerberg soon after retorted in an interview with Recode that he found Cook's comments to be "extremely glib," and that "I think it's important that we don't all get Stockholm syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you. Because that sounds ridiculous to me." While it's not clear how Cook's aggressive comments directly provoked Zuckerberg into issuing his Android-only order, it's still a rational decision to make Americans use Android. Android is the dominant operating system in many regions outside of the U.S., including South America, Europe, Russia, South Asia, and parts of the Middle East.

15 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Rational Decision? by mentil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it's still a rational decision to make Americans use Android. Android is the dominant operating system in many regions outside of the U.S., including South America, Europe, Russia, South Asia, and parts of the Middle East.

    Bandwagon Fallacy = 'rational decision' now?

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re: Rational Decision? by luvirini · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are two major reasons for "the average user" to chose Android devices over iOS devices.

      1) Price. In many parts of the world even the basic iPhone is way too expensive to most people, but the budget Android devices are much more possible.

      2) Choice of devices. With so many manufacturers doing so many different types of Android phones there is obviously a lot more choice in what to pick.

      In US, the first option affects less people, though obviously still many people, but the second option is definitely a valid effect in US too.

    2. Re: Rational Decision? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Number 2 is why I have an iPhone. There are so many options that no one can make a solid, well rounded phone. They all want to differentiate themselves and they end up with things like holographic screens and bixby.

    3. Re:Rational Decision? by kamakazi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am glad that line jumped out at more than just me. Totally disregarding the actual content in the article, here I am reading "news" and all the sudden there is this drum beating editorial line that has no basis in the article. It was very discordant, and felt to me like something that may have been stuck in after the article was written by an editor with an axe to grind.
      Gettin back to the actual content, 'rational' and 'make Americans ...' very seldom belong in the same sentence, in fact one of the founding tennets of a free America is supposedly that making people decide things in their private life isn't allowed.
      I don't have a problem with Facebook requiring their employees to use particular company provided phones for work, for any reason they want, security or paid product promotion, or because they like the color.
      I do have problems when people in positions of power throw juvenile temper tantrums because somebody said something that hurt their feelings. Unfortunately that seems to be the methodolgy of power these days, whether it is entertainment celebrities, politicians of all persuasions, or corporate CEOs.

      --
      "Proximity to wonder has blunted our perception and appreciation of it" --Tim Hartnell in 'Exploring ARTIFICIAL INTELLI
    4. Re: Rational Decision? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wait. Rationality is determined by market share? So any time you aren't using the most popular of anything you are fundamentally being irrational?

      That argument seems.....irrational.

    5. Re: Rational Decision? by caution+live+frogs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What are you talking about? I have data on my iPhone 8 that came from games I originally installed on my first iPhone, which was a 3GS. I have never had an OS update wipe the phone and delete everything (and I generally choose to push new OS versions on day of release). I have had media on my phone that was from all over the damned place - only 4% of my music is purchased from Apple. The only lawsuit I see regarding "wiped" data is a British suit initiated after a Genius Bar employee erased a phone. The only OS I have seen that did something like this was Windows - in the 32/64 bit transition. iOS and macOS converted to 64 bit seamlessly without a wipe.

      Perhaps you have been clicking "Restore" rather than "Update". Those words mean different things. Perhaps you jailbroke your phone. The company is under no obligation to support your device after you deliberately circumvented the software. They certainly are under no obligation to provide software updates that preserve the bug or hack used to circumvent the OS in the first place. You can be indignant, but you can only blame yourself for loss of data.

  2. Make Americans Android Again..? by geekmux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "...it's still a rational decision to make Americans use Android. Android is the dominant operating system in many regions outside of the U.S., including South America, Europe, Russia, South Asia, and parts of the Middle East."

    I'm not here to get the iNerds and 'Droid Dorks all fired up, I merely question how the hell OS dominance equates to a rational decision to make Americans use a particular smartphone OS. Smartphones have become black box devices that run apps (go ahead, ask an smartphone user to find the "operating system" on their phone), and all smartphones pretty much do the same damn thing. The OS that the consumer can hardly touch is damn near irrelevant.

    And where it works outside the U.S. is becoming more and more irrelevant for Americans too. They spent all their travel money on a $1000+ fashion accessory and an unlimited everything plan. They can hardly afford to change their mind, let alone their location.

  3. And your point is? by ebonum · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bring an Android phone into Apple HQ, and see how well that works out for you!

  4. No surprice that Facebook likes Android by luvirini · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As the privacy controls on iOS are better than Android(though the difference is a lot less than it used to be) and Facebook does not seem to like such things.

    1. Re: No surprice that Facebook likes Android by monkeyxpress · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it is more fundamental than that: The Android business model depends on harvesting your data, while Apple's does not (yet).

      Google can't really change that, since their whole existence depends on watching you on the internet, and Tim Cook has decided to make privacy a key product differentiator for Apple. So Google is fundamentally aligned with Facebook's business model, while Apple is becoming fundamentally opposed. Is there any surprise then that Zuckerberg would rather the world move towards Android?

      While I'm no fan of Tim Cook, I do think he is on the right path with the privacy thing. It is one of the main reasons I have little interest in moving over to Android. Google already has so much info on me, it just feels creepy to give them pretty much everything. I also hope he ties Apple up with enough promises to ensure that, like the 'stylus' thing, it becomes very hard for them to back track when (not if) they figure out they can make lots more money by harvesting data.

  5. Did Apple a favor by DarkOx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mark probably did Apple a favor if only a very tiny one.

    1) No such thing as bad publicity. In this case its not even bad. People HATE facebook, they don't trust facebook. There are people who have feelings like that about Apple too of course but they don't count they were never going to buy an iWhatever anyway. Mark probably will drive some anti-fb folks into the arms of Apple.

    2) I have seen this stuff play out in the corporate world. His staff will have to go buy new Android phones; but its not like Apple loses anything on the phones they have already sold those users; or any of their cut on the apps those users already bought. Meanwhile Mark's anger will at some point find a new target. At which point most of those people will go back to their preferred device. They may even end up buying a new one having given their old one away to friends or family (there by bringing some new people into the apple fold) and increasing Apples sales even more.

    Zuck is being short sighted and stupid here.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  6. Old hardware, old android, extremely low prices by perpenso · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, Android is the dominant OS for some reasons right?

    Its largely cost. Not just current device but old devices running old versions of Android are plentiful at very low prices. I can get a Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.4 at Walmart for $115. According to Google 8% of Android users are running this ancient version of Android, 4.4, 18% Android 5, 21% Android 6. Pick a price point and you can find legacy hardware and legacy android matching that price. So its not necessarily that people chose Android over iPhone, for many it was Android was all they could afford.

    1. Re:Old hardware, old android, extremely low prices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Problem. I rate Android as 2/10 (Apple 8/10). why- because there is no way to upgrade old devices. Seriously - why is this? Not even a try this - it may not work.
      You should be able to relink and patch security flaws..

      Android = disposable product with short lifetime, and would any same person do online banking on android 4.4 in a hotspot?

      Now is Google made Android quality and aimed at OpenBSD quality - my fears
      would be less. As Google will not support older google devices and 3 years? then I see their offerings as junk

  7. Re: Adulting is hard by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since he spied on his users, he is worried that Apple will spy on him (and his executives). After all, he would do it in Tim Cook's position.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  8. Re: Adulting is hard by sh00z · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How do I know for a fact this article was written by a lieberal? Because he thinks it's right to force people to use android. Only a lieberal would make such a statement that flies in the face of core American values.

    I'm a raging liberal, and I think the submitter's editorial comment of "it's still a rational decision to make Americans use Android" is the dumbest hing I've heard this year from a person not named Donald John Trump. Why in the world would I want to use an operating system (phone, computer, television, social network) that monetizes my data?