‘Facebook Has Lost the Plot’

MG Siegler:

And beyond the stupidity and potential danger, I find myself increasingly annoyed simply because it’s certainly not helping to paint our increasingly embattled industry in any better a light. Reading these headlines, you’d think Facebook, and by extension, the tech sector in the Bay Area is the worst place in the world, full of jokers and jerks.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of jokers and jerks. But there are also plenty of brilliant, hard-working people. We can quibble about whether there are more or less than in other industries and other places, but that’s not the point. The point is that I now believe Facebook doesn’t just have an image problem, as I’m sure many around the company would want you to believe — “the press is out to get us!” Facebook has a self-awareness problem.

To put it more bluntly: it seems like Facebook has lost the plot. And given their scale, this is more than a little terrifying.

I don’t think they ever had the plot. They got away with their utter disregard for the privacy of their users from the get-go — literally from the time when Facebook’s entire userbase consisted of 4,000 gullible students at Harvard. It’s just taken a long time for public opinion to recognize and react to their institutional sociopathy. Facebook thought no one cared, but what was really going on is that no one (well, very few) realized the extent of what was going on.

★ Tuesday, 20 March 2018