[frostmatthew]

> People working for tabacco companies have always been in the same boat.

That's not a very fair comparison - there aren't exactly any huge positives associated with tobacco use. So it's not like someone could work for a tobacco company and say "sure some people die from consuming our product but on the other hand look at all the good we're doing..."

That's very different than Facebook where yes there may be some negatives but there's also positives (e.g. it's certainly raised countless millions for various charities, helped people keep in touch with others and discover (or rediscover) relationships, and spread the awareness of important social issues).

[st1ck]

The positives you listed are features of most social networks, not just Facebook. If Facebook disappeared overnight, another platform(s), hopefully more ethical, would quickly take over its role, and it could be a net positive for the world.

[notacoward]

That seems very optimistic to me. Ethically, Facebook is the perfect exemplar of an internet-oriented company. No better, perhaps, but no worse either because it's such a low bar. It seems at least as likely that any replacement would turn out to be even scummier, simply because it would absolutely have to hire from the same talent pool and would have had even less time to figure out what all the ethical dangers are.

But it's simply not going to happen, so this is all moot.