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Michael Green who provided most of the stories
“We
connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is
justified,” an executive wrote in 2016.
Huffington
Post,
30
April, 2018
A
top Facebook executive wrote an internal memo in 2016 that defended
the company’s growth as necessary and justified, even if the social
network was used to bully someone to death or help plan a terrorist
attack.
The
leaked document, obtained by BuzzFeed News and published Thursday,
was written by Vice President Andrew “Boz” Bosworth. Titled “The
Ugly,” Bosworth roundly defended Facebook’s acquisition of user
data, what he calls “all the questionable contact importing
practices” and “all the subtle language that helps people stay
searchable by friends.”
“We
connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is
justified,” he wrote. “All of the work we do to bring more
communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some
day. All of it.”
He
continued: “That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it
costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone
dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”
“And
still we connect people.”
Bosworth
acknowledged that he wrote the memo but said he no longer agrees with
the post today and “didn’t agree with it even when I wrote it.”
He is seen as an outspoken figure at Facebook, the outlet reported,
known for being blunt.
"why did you write a post you don't agree with?" It was intended to be provocative. This was one of the most unpopular things I’ve ever written internally and the ensuing debate helped shape our tools for the better.
“The
purpose of this post ... was to bring to the surface issues I felt
deserved more discussion,” he said. “Having a debate around hard
topics like these is a critical part of our process, and to do that
effectively we have to be able to consider even bad ideas.”
The
document showcases Facebook executives’ awareness of its power,
both good and bad, years before the company was embroiled in
controversy over the misuse of user data. Earlier this month, The New
York Times reported that the data firm Cambridge Analytica misused the data of 50 million people, prompting calls for Facebook
co-founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress.
Zuckerberg
decried the memo in a statement released Thursday, saying it was
something he “disagreed with strongly.”
“Boz
is a talented leader who says many provocative things,” he said in
the statement. “This was one that most people at Facebook including
myself disagreed with strongly. We’ve never believed the ends
justify the means.”
Read
the full
memo
at BuzzFeed News.
Facebook Vice President Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said that “questionable contact importing practices,” “subtle language that helps people stay searchable,” and other growth techniques are justified by the company’s connecting of people.
On
June 18, 2016, one of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s most trusted
lieutenants circulated an extraordinary memo weighing the costs of
the company’s relentless quest for growth.
“We
connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is
justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the
subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of
the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will
likely have to do in China some day. All of it,” VP Andrew “Boz”
Bosworth wrote.
“So
we connect more people,” he wrote in another section of the memo.
“That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a
life by exposing someone to bullies.
“Maybe
someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”
The
explosive internal memo is titled “The Ugly,” and has not been
previously circulated outside the Silicon Valley social media giant.
The
Bosworth memo reveals the extent to which Facebook’s leadership
understood the physical and social risks the platform’s products
carried — even as the company downplayed those risks in public. It
suggests that senior executives had deep qualms about conduct that
they are now seeking to defend. And as the company reels amid a
scandal over improper outside data collection on its users, the memo
shows that one senior executive — one of Zuckerberg’s
longest-serving deputies — prioritized all-encompassing growth over
all else, a view that has led to questionable data collection and
manipulative treatment of its users. You can read the full post
below. Facebook was unable to provide comment at the time of
publication.....
“I’ve
always thought our ‘open but punitive’ stance was particularly
vulnerable to suicide bombers.”
The
publication of a June 2016 memo describing the consequences of
Facebook’s growth-at-all-costs triggered an emotional conversation
at the company today. An internal post reacting to the memo found
employees angry and heartbroken that their teammates were sharing
internal company discussions with the media. Many called on the
company to step up its war on leakers and hire employees with more
“integrity.”
On
Thursday evening, BuzzFeed published a memo from Andrew “Boz”
Bosworth, a vice president at Facebook who currently leads its
hardware efforts. In the memo, Bosworth says that the company’s
core function is to connect people, despite consequences that he
repeatedly called “ugly.” “That’s why all the work we do in
growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing
practices,” he wrote. “All the subtle language that helps people
stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more
communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some
day. All of it.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has proposed a ‘Facebook Supreme Court’ to rule on hate speech reports on the social media platform.
In
an interview
with Vox.com Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined the future of the social media platform,
at one point suggesting that a “Supreme Court” model could be
used when judging what counts as hate speech on the platform. As the
company reels from their latest user data scandal — which saw stock
prices plummet — and a market value loss of approximately $100
billion,
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been attempting to open discussion about how
Facebook can improve.
Zuckerberg
was asked about the site’s governance structure and the general
lack of oversight of the company. Ezra Klein noted that there was no
“quadrennial election for CEO of Facebook,” which may lead to a
lack of accountability for the company. Zuckerberg responded to this
by outlining Facebook’s supposed principles; “Here are a few of
the principles. One is transparency,” said Zuckerberg. “Right
now, I don’t think we are transparent enough around the prevalence
of different issues on the platform. We haven’t done a good job of
publishing and being transparent about the prevalence of those kinds
of issues, and the work that we’re doing and the trends of how
we’re driving those things down over time.”
The
Facebook CEO then discussed the lack of accountability for Facebook’s
moderation team who decide what content should be allowed on the
platform. “A second is some sort of independent appeal process.
Right now, if you post something on Facebook and someone reports it
and our Community Operations and Review Team looks at it and decides
that it needs to get taken down, there’s not really a way to appeal
that. I think in any kind of good-functioning democratic system,
there needs to be a way to appeal. And I think we can build that
internally as a first step.”
Zuckerberg’s
solution? A Facebook hate speech “Supreme Court.”
Zuckerberg
stated “What I’d really like to get to is an independent appeal.
So maybe folks at Facebook make the first decision based on the
community standards that are outlined, and then people can get a
second opinion. You can imagine some sort of structure, almost like a
Supreme Court, that is made up of independent folks who don’t work
for Facebook, who ultimately make the final judgment call on what
should be acceptable speech in a community that reflects the social
norms and values of people all around the world.”....
Tech
hath no fury like a multi-billion dollar social media giant scorned.
In
the latest turn of the developing scandal around how Facebook's user
data wound up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica -- for use in the
in development in psychographic profiles that may or may not have
played a part in the election victory of Donald Trump -- the company
has taken the unusual step of suspending the account of the
whistleblower who helped expose the issues.
Suspended by @facebook. For blowing the whistle. On something they have known privately for 2 years.
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