[Download]

Facebook Needs to Shut Up

A CEO of one of the worlds most powerful companies sat dumbfounded, stammering, unable to address predictable questions from a member of Congress who is well known to be as prepared and relentless in her interrogations as any politician in America.

The hearing was supposed to be about Libra, Facebooks ill-fated plan to offer a global financial transfer and transaction systems backed up by an independent cryptocurrency.

By placing Zuckerberg at that table, before all those cameras, yet again, Facebook basically asked to have its CEO schooled on a completely different matter by a much smarter person.

Libra has been mired in confusion, largely because Facebook, for all its engineering talent, cant seem to convey a clear message.

If Libra fails to launch, which seems likely, it will be because Facebook took the lead in pushing it, not because it was a bad idea in the first place. Had it been a PayPal, Visa, or Mastercard initiative that Facebook partnered with, the public debate about it might have been about its costs and benefits rather than about Facebook and everything else the company has done wrong.

Facebooks reputation is so soiled, its public trust so eroded by more than three years of revelations of its excesses, carelessness, and hubris, that it cant get a break even when company leaders are trying to make a solid argument.

Facebook could have spent the past two years quietly building up its security, content moderation, and fused messaging systems without bombast or delusions of grandeur.

Instead, the story has been an unrelenting barrage of chaos, arrogance, panic, overreaction, defensiveness, and even the occasional act of vengeance against criticsan act that seemed to carry the echoes of antisemitism.

The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our livesfrom culture to business, science to design.

Original article
Author: Conde Nast

Conde Nast has recently written 11 articles on similar topics including :
  1. "The Facebook CEO didn't announce new initiatives in a highly promoted speech, but reaffirmed his view that the company makes the world a better place". (October 19, 2019)
  2. "The social media company will pay companies including the New York Times, WIREDand Breitbartto distribute their content". (October 26, 2019)
  3. "Twitter used phone numbers provided for two-factor authentication to target ads—just like Facebook did before". (October 9, 2019)
  4. "Twitter has decided to ban all political ads on its platform, while Facebook continues to allow even ones that lie". (October 31, 2019)
  5. "At WIRED25, the ex-chief product officer talks about why he left the social media company and his new work on climate and progressive politics". (November 9, 2019)
  6. "Opinion: The social network needs to develop better ways to stop the spread of millions of harmful images". (October 25, 2019)
  7. "Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat, lock down who can see what you're up to". (October 20, 2019)
  8. "The social media company says it will more closely monitor foreign outlets, and warn users when posts are considered falseunless they're from politicians". (October 22, 2019)
  9. "Facebook's flaws are apparent, but the CEO's reluctance to police speech shows he stills sees it as a place that connects people and makes the world a better place". (November 1, 2019)
  10. "On this weeks podcast, we talk about Facebook's loud new look, Google buying Fitbit, and what happens when big brands take over small, disparate products". (November 8, 2019)
  11. "Dave Willner helped put together Facebook's content standards over a decade ago. He's not happy with the company's exceptions for politicians". (September 30, 2019)
Posted on  , ,