“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.”
If you justify "questionable contact importing practices" then you aren't putting up a straw man. You are talking honestly about your "questionable" decisions and trying to defend them. Thus you should expect outrage from those who realize you've lied to the public using "subtle language" in order to grow at any costs.
In other words, the self-awareness to call out the "subtle language" and "questionable practices" implies that the company pursued those growth strategies despite CLEARLY knowing they were sketchy. This is extremely damning but those in power will try to deflect the problem as if someone leaking it is the issue.
I never would have worked at Facebook before due to their questionable policies. This incident reinforces that and shows that the problems come from the top. Now we'll watch debate there get muzzled in the interest of staying out of the news and growing at all costs. Perhaps a success for shareholders, but a failure for rank and file employees with morals.
The work we will likely have to do in China some day
Social media disruption disintegrated Libyan society to the point it could no longer function. The Arab Spring was a test firing of a psychological nuke. We should all be concerned that Facebook is planning to attack China, because they will defend themselves.
I didn't interpret that as Facebook planning to attack China. To me, it sounded like the work they'd have to do to cooperate with the Chinese system of censorship and surveillance in order to get their product accepted there. (E.g., build a version of PRISM[1] for the Chinese government, just as they did for the NSA.)
This kind of collaboration with an authoritarian regime is something that Facebook employees who value freedom might find to be distasteful, but if it furthers the company's lofty goal of "connecting everyone in the world", then, hey, it can be justified.
If you justify "questionable contact importing practices" then you aren't putting up a straw man. You are talking honestly about your "questionable" decisions and trying to defend them. Thus you should expect outrage from those who realize you've lied to the public using "subtle language" in order to grow at any costs.
In other words, the self-awareness to call out the "subtle language" and "questionable practices" implies that the company pursued those growth strategies despite CLEARLY knowing they were sketchy. This is extremely damning but those in power will try to deflect the problem as if someone leaking it is the issue.
I never would have worked at Facebook before due to their questionable policies. This incident reinforces that and shows that the problems come from the top. Now we'll watch debate there get muzzled in the interest of staying out of the news and growing at all costs. Perhaps a success for shareholders, but a failure for rank and file employees with morals.