{"id":12606,"date":"2018-04-02T23:47:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T23:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=12606"},"modified":"2018-04-02T23:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T23:47:00","slug":"mark-zuckerberg-wants-you-to-know-he-cares-just-like-he-did-last-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2018\/04\/02\/mark-zuckerberg-wants-you-to-know-he-cares-just-like-he-did-last-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know he cares, just like he did last time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever Mark Zuckerberg talks about something that has gone wrong at Facebook\u2014which happens rather frequently\u2014he almost always comes off as sincerely concerned and apologetic, and his latest interview<\/a> with Ezra Klein of Vox Media is no exception to this rule. But anyone who has been following Facebook for any length of time probably feels an overwhelming sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, because it all sounds very familiar: We screwed up, we’re sorry, we didn’t know, we will fix it. And please keep using Facebook.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the middle of a lot of issues, and I certainly think we could\u2019ve done a better job so far. I\u2019m optimistic that we\u2019re going to address a lot of those challenges, and that we\u2019ll get through this, and that when you look back five years from now, 10 years from now, people will look at the net effect of being able to connect online and have a voice and share what matters to them as just a massively positive thing in the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be fair, no one has ever run a globe-spanning social network that has over two billion daily users before, so perhaps we should forgive Mark for not being that good<\/a> at it. But still, it seems disingenuous to have spent 14 years building a company that now has $40 billion in revenue, but at the same time to claim that it never occurred to anyone such a giant social network\u2014especially one powered by surveillance of its users\u2014could become a tool for deception or evil of various kinds. Which is effectively what Mark wants us to believe.<\/p>\n

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I think the basic point that you\u2019re getting at is that we\u2019re really idealistic. When we started, we thought about how good it would be if people could connect, if everyone had a voice. Frankly, we didn\u2019t spend enough time investing in, or thinking through, some of the downside uses of the tools. So for the first 10 years of the company, everyone was just focused on the positive. I think now people are appropriately focused on some of the risks and downsides as well.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What this means in practice is that Facebook has been doing its best to ignore the repeated warnings from researchers such as Danah Boyd and Zeynep Tufekci<\/a> of the dangers inherent in Facebook’s structure and business model. And why wouldn’t it? Some of those concerns go straight to the heart of how the company makes the billions of dollars a year investors have come to rely on.<\/p>\n

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Facebook's repeated insistence that they mean well but just constantly blindsided–despite giant warning signs and a chorus of people trying to warn them–isn't an apology, it is an admission that they are not equipped to handle this kind of power. https:\/\/t.co\/F5OdZrHPmI<\/a><\/p>\n

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) April 2, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n