Even if Facebook actually wanted to change, intended to change and put time, money, and talent to the task this would still be a serious uphill climb. The idea that anyone could rehabilitate their image when they have no such commitment is laughable. Does anyone seriously think what this really isn’t just crisis mangement? Every quarter that FB can stave off inevitable backlash and regulation is money in their pocket, even if it’s only a decaying orbit. Like the tobacco industry in its day, delay delay delay because thst delay is profitable. If you can’t make your product “healthy” without throwing out your product, this is how you act.
To those of you saying Facebook provides no value, here are some concrete examples:
- In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods.
Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites” for their shops and activities for free via pages. Facebook connects people to their pages and gives people a place to hold forums with public officials without anonymity.
- Facebook pioneered removing anonymity from a social media platform. On Facebook I can have more accountability and I am more likely to be myself. I can keep in touch with the real people who have passed through my life. I met my wife on Facebook this way.
- Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see. I’m still friends with many people from highschool I haven’t seen in over a decade. No other platform provided that type of value. Even if we rarely interact, they can always reach me on messenger even if they don’t have my phone number.
- Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with. Instagram and twitter are just echo chambers based on what I like or are just pictures of sunsets. On Facebook I have found that my friends and family often post opinions that I don’t agree with during world events. This has led to discourse that has allowed me to broaden my perspective.
- Facebook’s ADs platform allows small business to compete against much larger entities on a small advertising budget through targeted ads. I have joined several hobbyist communities by having ads targeted at me that were relevant to my interests.
Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity, but they replaced it with fraud.
> Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see.
If you rarely see them or interact, how much true value are you gaining other than an abstract sense of nostalgia.
> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with
Hearing people that disagree with you isn't enough. You need quality to build a rich library of ideas. Facebook does no vetting, giving everyone a microphone regardless of how thought-out or truthful the message is.
> Facebook’s ADs
Good advertising on a platform may make the platform less bad, but it doesn't make it good. Who goes to Facebook to enjoy nice targeted ads?
Overall, the biggest issue is the first one. It's now impossible to tell what's real and what isn't on Facebook. The site is rife with bots and hacked accounts, you don't really know if you're talking to a person or someone with a hidden agenda.
> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with. Instagram and twitter are just echo chambers based on what I like or are just pictures of sunsets
This is so weird to me. Twitter in most cases is what you make of it, if you want to hear from people you don't agree with, then you just have follow people you don't agree with and read what they say. It doesn't take long to curate a list of people who are not trolls.
Are you aware that you sound a bit like a paid ad, or a lobbyist going through a list of talking points in the preferred corporate frames of reference?
Fixing Facebook isn't a hard problem. Fixing it while keeping advertisers happy is pretty much impossible. If you try to be more vigilant on privacy settings then you give advertisers less choices to target people. And with Amazon moving into the ad market aggressively, and Google being the behemoth that they are the last thing you want is to hurt your advertising platform.
I don't think Facebook's problem is legitimate advertisers misusing personal information. Rather, it's the spammers, scammers, bots, and foreign spies that destroy trust in the system. If Facebook could get rid of those (not an easy problem), they could rebuild trust and keep legitimate big-money advertisers happy.
Wont advertisers go where the people are? Can't FB optimize for users to keep users? if they mined zero data and based ads only on the content of the current page, as long as they had the eyeballs why wouldn't advertisers still want to be there?
It's extremely obvious that Facebook knows what a good website looks like, versus what they deliver.
You can take a look at the entire ecosystem of React code out across so many repos and documentation sites, and then stand that next to Facebook proper, and then note the difference in tone, quality and psychological warfare.
I loved hearing Tim Cook's response about the incident "we would never put ourselves in the position of selling our user data". Fundamentally the Facebook business model was flawed & destined to fail. We hope the new generation of applications learn and evolve to better & stronger platforms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyH3JRxndc
There is nothing FB or Sandberg can do to fix Facebook's reputation in my mind. I have deleted most of the content I have posted to FB and keep my account only because I sometimes use Messenger.
I esp. would not use Messenger. That would seem to be the "spyingest". But I'm assuming you have someone who is all-in on Messenger you would lose otherwise.
Deleted FB and all content a year ago. Honestly, as I was on my way out, I was beginning to enjoy the "groups" I had discovered. Wish there were a lurker mode....
I've noticed most of the current gen college kids are very sparing of their fb use (at least the computer saavy ones). It seems to me (disclaimer: completely anecdotal) that the previous gen and previous-gen^2 (ie circa 2008-2016) generation of college-age kids were the ones who were much less restricted in their use of fb.
Seeing as I’ve never heard of her prior to reading this article, I think the best course of action on her part would be to make a ton of noise doing good things for the community so that it increases the chances of people who haven’t heard of her, learning of her through those actions rather than these.
MZ (screaming): you broke my Facebook, so you better damn fix it.
CS: Whoah Mark, you know people want me to run for president. I can’t scorch my reputation fixing your dumb internet site. Plus enough of my shares have vested for me to leave with my pockets full of loot. It’s not like I ever have to work again.
MZ: [redacted]
CS: OK, I’ll do it.
What did Mark promise her? Would love to know what deal she cut.
[+] [-] UpshotKnothole|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jliptzin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ilovecaching|7 years ago|reply
- In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods.
Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites” for their shops and activities for free via pages. Facebook connects people to their pages and gives people a place to hold forums with public officials without anonymity.
- Facebook pioneered removing anonymity from a social media platform. On Facebook I can have more accountability and I am more likely to be myself. I can keep in touch with the real people who have passed through my life. I met my wife on Facebook this way.
- Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see. I’m still friends with many people from highschool I haven’t seen in over a decade. No other platform provided that type of value. Even if we rarely interact, they can always reach me on messenger even if they don’t have my phone number.
- Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with. Instagram and twitter are just echo chambers based on what I like or are just pictures of sunsets. On Facebook I have found that my friends and family often post opinions that I don’t agree with during world events. This has led to discourse that has allowed me to broaden my perspective.
- Facebook’s ADs platform allows small business to compete against much larger entities on a small advertising budget through targeted ads. I have joined several hobbyist communities by having ads targeted at me that were relevant to my interests.
[+] [-] speedplane|7 years ago|reply
Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity, but they replaced it with fraud.
> Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see.
If you rarely see them or interact, how much true value are you gaining other than an abstract sense of nostalgia.
> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with
Hearing people that disagree with you isn't enough. You need quality to build a rich library of ideas. Facebook does no vetting, giving everyone a microphone regardless of how thought-out or truthful the message is.
> Facebook’s ADs
Good advertising on a platform may make the platform less bad, but it doesn't make it good. Who goes to Facebook to enjoy nice targeted ads?
Overall, the biggest issue is the first one. It's now impossible to tell what's real and what isn't on Facebook. The site is rife with bots and hacked accounts, you don't really know if you're talking to a person or someone with a hidden agenda.
[+] [-] Jare|7 years ago|reply
This is so weird to me. Twitter in most cases is what you make of it, if you want to hear from people you don't agree with, then you just have follow people you don't agree with and read what they say. It doesn't take long to curate a list of people who are not trolls.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] confounded|7 years ago|reply
Are you aware that you sound a bit like a paid ad, or a lobbyist going through a list of talking points in the preferred corporate frames of reference?
[+] [-] elorant|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] speedplane|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tokyodude|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arcliteIndira|7 years ago|reply
You can take a look at the entire ecosystem of React code out across so many repos and documentation sites, and then stand that next to Facebook proper, and then note the difference in tone, quality and psychological warfare.
https://reactjs.org
With that in mind, consider what kind of strategy and tactics Facebook's internal operations must be operating.
[+] [-] armini|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] collyw|7 years ago|reply
Is seems to be doing pretty well right now.
[+] [-] Jyaif|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] charlesism|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LUmBULtERA|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trophycase|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dblohm7|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] electic|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gkanai|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JKCalhoun|7 years ago|reply
Deleted FB and all content a year ago. Honestly, as I was on my way out, I was beginning to enjoy the "groups" I had discovered. Wish there were a lurker mode....
[+] [-] dev510213|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deytempo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GreeniFi|7 years ago|reply
CS: Whoah Mark, you know people want me to run for president. I can’t scorch my reputation fixing your dumb internet site. Plus enough of my shares have vested for me to leave with my pockets full of loot. It’s not like I ever have to work again.
MZ: [redacted]
CS: OK, I’ll do it.
What did Mark promise her? Would love to know what deal she cut.
[+] [-] paxys|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] L_226|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scottlocklin|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] golemiprague|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] stevehawk|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zwaps|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Grangar|7 years ago|reply