Saturday, March 31, 2018
'Sweetie Pie's' Star Tim Norman Says Jennifer Williams is a Vengeful Liar
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Mel B to Stephen Belafonte, Stay Away from Eddie Murphy's Daughter
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Janice Dickinson Sues Ryan Seacrest's Co. Over Romper Controversy on 'Shahs of Sunset'
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‘He’s critically ill’ Former England star Ray Wilkins 'in coma following heart attack'
Easter weekend BENDER: Revellers defy grim weather to hit the town for Bank Holiday MAYHEM
National Lottery hit with ULTIMATUM: ‘Drop number of balls for BIGGER prizes or we QUIT'
Meghan Markle’s sister backtracks on ‘Princess pushy’ book title in bid for wedding invite
Meghan Markle could pay the ULTIMATE tribute to Princess Diana on her wedding day
BBC’s new-look Generation Game dumbed down for health and safety ‘snowflakes’
Peter Kay fans fear missing out in desperate scramble for comeback tickets
BBC bosses slammed for splashing thousands on ‘fancy candles’ for celebs
Gazza fancies being a stand-up as Twitter gags leave fans in stitches
UK set for Easter Monday SNOW STORM as Met Office issues multiple weather warnings
Katie Holmes Pens Sweet Note in Support of 'Dawson's Creek' Co-Stars Who Were Left Out of the Reunion
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Mandy Moore and Fiance Taylor Goldsmith Celebrate Summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro -- See the Pics!
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Cheryl Cole Addresses 'Stupid' Liam Payne Cheating Rumors
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Celebs Have a Lot to Say About the Big 'Roseanne' Return -- and It's Not All Good
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Stacey Dash Drops Out of Congressional Race 1 Month After Announcing Campaign
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Emily Blunt Jokes About How 'Creepy' Mary Poppins Is
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Star Sightings: Demi Lovato Salsas the Night Away, Ashley Greene Gets in Wedding Prep Mode & More!
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Let Sofia Vergara, Chrissy Teigen & More Stars Inspire Your Perfect Easter Outfit
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Pink's Daughter Willow Shaves Dad Carey Hart's Head -- See the Pic!
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Sadie Robertson Reveals Her Biggest Dating Fears (Exclusive)
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Kelly Ripa Swoons Over Husband Mark Consuelos in Sweet Birthday Post
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Selena Gomez Posts Smiling Selfies Amid Speculation Over The Weeknd's New Album
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Demi Lovato Rocks Shorter Hairdo While Salsa Dancing With Lauren Jauregui
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Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi Explains That 'Ruin My Marriage' Moment From 'Jersey Shore' Trailer (Exclusive)
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‘Summer House’ Reunion: The Housemates Unleash on Kyle and Amanda (Exclusive)
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Mathew Knowles Opens Up About Solange and JAY-Z's Famous Elevator Fight
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Why Everyone, Including Alan Cumming’s Mother-in-Law, Is Talking About the Actor’s Sex Scenes (Exclusive)
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The 'Pitch Perfect' Bellas Reunite for Chrissie Fit's Birthday -- See the Adorable Pic!
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Celine Dion Celebrates 50th Birthday With Rare Family Photos
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Corey Feldman Shares Photo of 'World's Smallest Knife Wound' After Claiming He Was Attacked
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'Love & Hip Hop' Star Tommie Lee Wanted By Cops Again
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XXXTentacion Fears Extortion From Girl He Hit in Video
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Facebook fights creeps and apathy with expiring friend requests
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FTC confirms probe into Facebook data misuse scandal
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Facebook is now prioritizing local news globally
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Regulation could protect Facebook, not punish it
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Instagram reenables GIF sharing after GIPHY promises no more racism
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Zuck apologizes for Cambridge Analytica scandal with full-page print ad
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Morgan Spurlock Sued for Breach of Contract as Result of Sexual Misconduct Admission
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Bill Cosby's Lawyers Fight to Block Jury from Hearing Andrea Constand's Call to Mother
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Stephen Belafonte Accuses Mel B of Brainwashing Daughter
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Telegram chalks up 200M MAUs for its messaging app
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Facebook hit with shareholder lawsuits over data misuse crisis
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Snapchat’s new feature is aiming to turn Snap Map into a next-gen newsfeed
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Sheryl Sandberg says Facebook leadership should have spoken sooner, is open to regulation
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Cambridge Analytica’s Nix recalled by fake news probe
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Instagram will show more recent posts due to algorithm backlash
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Zuckerberg refuses UK parliament summons over Fb data misuse
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Judge Temporarily Stops U.S. From Blocking Undocumented Teenagers’ Abortions
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Tesla Says Crashed Vehicle Had Been on Autopilot Before Fatal Accident
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What’s on TV Saturday: ‘Lover for a Day’ and ‘Operation Odessa’
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Notre Dame, a UConn Nemesis, Topples the Huskies in a Final Four Thriller
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Atlanta Falcons Had Male Cheerleaders in 1987
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Sylvester Stallone Says Arnold Schwarzenegger Will be Back
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Stacey Dash Withdraws from Congressional Run, Regrets the System of 'Plantation Politics'
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Arnold Schwarzenegger Undergoes Emergency Heart Surgery
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Hulk Hogan Face-To-Face w/ Triple H at Andre the Giant Premiere
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Corey Feldman's Hospital Tests Came Back Negative for Drugs, Diseases
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Zendaya Hangs with 2 Spider-Men
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New top story from Time: 5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week
The Weeknd returns to his brooding roots on a new six-track project, My Dear Melancholy. Plus, rising pop voice Hayley Kiyoko duets with Kehlani in her new album, soulful rock singer Matt Maeson spends some time soul searching, mysterious alt-pop artist Michl collaborates with Mura Masa for a catchy new track, and Tinashe teams up with Ty Dolla $ign and French Montana for a perfect party song.
The real threat to Facebook is the Kool-Aid turning sour
These kinds of leaks didn’t happen when I started reporting on Facebook eight years ago. It was a tight-knit cult convinced of its mission to connect everyone, but with the discipline of a military unit where everyone knew loose lips sink ships. Motivational posters with bold corporate slogans dotted its offices, rallying the troops. Employees were happy to be evangelists.
But then came the fake news, News Feed addiction, violence on Facebook Live, cyberbullying, abusive ad targeting, election interference and, most recently, the Cambridge Analytica app data privacy scandals. All the while, Facebook either willfully believed the worst case scenarios could never come true, was naive to their existence or calculated the benefits and growth outweighed the risks. And when finally confronted, Facebook often dragged its feet before admitting the extent of the issues.
Inside the social network’s offices, the bonds began to fray. An ethics problem metastisized into a morale problem. Slogans took on sinister second meanings. The Kool-Aid tasted different.
Some hoped they could right the ship but couldn’t. Some craved the influence and intellectual thrill of running one of humanity’s most popular inventions, but now question if that influence and their work is positive. Others surely just wanted to collect salaries, stock and resumé highlights, but lost the stomach for it.
Now the convergence of scandals has come to a head in the form of constant leaks.
The trouble tipping point
The more benign leaks merely cost Facebook a bit of competitive advantage. We’ve learned it’s building a smart speaker, a standalone VR headset and a Houseparty split-screen video chat clone.
Yet policy-focused leaks have exacerbated the backlash against Facebook, putting more pressure on the conscience of employees. As blame fell to Facebook for Trump’s election, word of Facebook prototyping a censorship tool for operating in China escaped, triggering questions about its respect for human rights and free speech. Facebook’s content rulebook got out alongside disturbing tales of the filth the company’s contracted moderators have to sift through. Its ad targeting was revealed to be able to pinpoint emotionally vulnerable teens.
In recent weeks, the leaks have accelerated to a maddening pace in the wake of Facebook’s soggy apologies regarding the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Its weak policy enforcement left the door open to exploitation of data users gave third-party apps, deepening the perception that Facebook doesn’t care about privacy.
And it all culminated with BuzzFeed publishing a leaked “growth at all costs” internal post from Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth that substantiated people’s worst fears about the company’s disregard for user safety in pursuit of world domination. Even the ensuing internal discussion about the damage caused by leaks and how to prevent them…leaked.
But the leaks are not the disease, just the symptom. Sunken morale is the cause, and it’s dragging down the company. Former Facebook employee and Wired writer Antonio Garcia Martinez sums it up, saying this kind of vindictive, intentionally destructive leak fills Facebook’s leadership with “horror”:
The fact that some Facebooker would place their personal grudge and views above the interests of the company fills anyone on the home team with horror (in the same way that the current administration colluding with foreigners to secure a domestic victory does Americans).
— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) March 30, 2018
And that sentiment was confirmed by Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that leaks “create strong incentives to be less transparent internally and they certainly slow us down,” and will make it tougher to deal with the big problems.
I’m really worried about this. I worry it’ll make it much more difficult to step up to the challenges we face.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018
Those thoughts weigh heavy on Facebook’s team. A source close to several Facebook executives tells us they feel “embarrassed to work there” and are increasingly open to other job opportunities. One current employee told us to assume anything certain execs tell the media is “100% false.”
If Facebook can’t internally discuss the problems it faces without being exposed, how can it solve them?
Implosion
The consequences of Facebook’s failures are typically pegged as external hazards.
You might assume the government will finally step in and regulate Facebook. But the Honest Ads Act and other rules about ads transparency and data privacy could end up protecting Facebook by being simply a paperwork speed bump for it while making it tough for competitors to build a rival database of personal info. In our corporation-loving society, it seems unlikely that the administration would go so far as to split up Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — one of the few feasible ways to limit the company’s power.
Users have watched Facebook make misstep after misstep over the years, but can’t help but stay glued to its feed. Even those who don’t scroll rely on it as a fundamental utility for messaging and login on other sites. Privacy and transparency are too abstract for most people to care about. Hence, first-time Facebook downloads held steady and its App Store rank actually rose in the week after the Cambridge Analytica fiasco broke. In regards to the #DeleteFacebook movement, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that.” And as long as they’re browsing, advertisers will keep paying Facebook to reach them.
That’s why the greatest threat of the scandal convergence comes from inside. The leaks are the canary in the noxious blue coal mine.
Can Facebook survive slowing down?
If employees wake up each day unsure whether Facebook’s mission is actually harming the world, they won’t stay. Facebook doesn’t have the same internal work culture problems as some giants like Uber. But there are plenty of other tech companies with less questionable impacts. Some are still private and offer the chance to win big on an IPO or acquisition. At the very least, those in the Bay could find somewhere to work without a spending hours a day on the traffic-snarled 101 freeway.
If they do stay, they won’t work as hard. It’s tough to build if you think you’re building a weapon. Especially if you thought you were going to be making helpful tools. The melancholy and malaise set in. People go into rest-and-vest mode, living out their days at Facebook as a sentence not an opportunity. The next killer product Facebook needs a year or two from now might never coalesce.
And if they do work hard, a culture of anxiety and paralysis will work against them. No one wants to code with their hands tied, and some would prefer a less scrutinized environment. Every decision will require endless philosophizing and risk-reduction. Product changes will be reduced to the lowest common denominator, designed not to offend or appear too tyrannical.
In fact, that’s partly how Facebook got into this whole mess. A leak by an anonymous former contractor led Gizmodo to report Facebook was suppressing conservative news in its Trending section. Terrified of appearing liberally biased, Facebook reportedly hesitated to take decisive action against fake news. That hands-off approach led to the post-election criticism that degraded morale and pushed the growing snowball of leaks down the mountain.
It’s still rolling.
How to stop morale’s downward momentum will be one of Facebook’s greatest tests of leadership. This isn’t a bug to be squashed. It can’t just roll back a feature update. And an apology won’t suffice. It will have to expel or reeducate the leakers and those disloyal without instilling a witch hunt’s sense of dread. Compensation may have to jump upwards to keep talent aboard like Twitter did when it was floundering. Its top brass will need to show candor and accountability without fueling more indiscretion. And it may need to make a shocking, landmark act of contrition to convince employees its capable of change.
When asked how Facebook could address the morale problem, Mosseri told me “it starts with owning our mistakes and being very clear about what we’re doing now” and noted that “it took a while to get into this place and I think it’ll take a while to work our way out . . . Trust is lost quickly, and takes a long time to rebuild.”
I think it starts with owning our mistakes and being very clear about what we’re doing now. For much of the company November 2016 was their first negative cycle, so it’s also good to share old stories. And then you have to deliver, you have to make real progress on the issues.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018
This isn’t about whether Facebook will disappear tomorrow, but whether it will remain unconquerable for the forseeable future.
Growth has been the driving mantra for Facebook since its inception. No matter how employees are evaluated, it’s still the underlying ethos. Facebook has poised itself as a mission-driven company. The implication was always that connecting people is good so connecting more people is better. The only question was how to grow faster.
Now Zuckerberg will have to figure out how to get Facebook to cautiously foresee the consequences of what it says and does while remaining an appealing place to work. “Move slow and think things through” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
If you’re a Facebook employee or anyone else that has information to share with TechCrunch, you can contact us at Tips@techcrunch.com or this article’s author Josh Constine’s DMs are open on Twitter. Here are some of our feature stories on Facebook’s recent issues:
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