A quick 🧵about the latest #ethics challenge at Facebook.
“In short, they have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”
No, that quote about deception in the pursuit of profit wasn't a summary of Facebook's strategy, although it could have been.
Where did it come from?
Stick with me.
In a devastating investigation, @WSJ @georgia_wells @dseetharaman @JeffHorwitz uncovered the truth behind Instagram.
But this goes deeper than the typical head-in-the-sand approach that companies like Facebook have taken...
In this case, it wasn’t third-party research that Facebook chose to ignore. It was the company’s own research.
The research was reviewed by top Facebook executives and was cited in a 2020 presentation given to Mark Zuckerberg.
He knew.
Clearly, alarm bells were sounding for anyone concerned about the health and safety of teens.
It was evident — according to Facebook's own research — that Instagram was having a profound impact on society.
When questioned by Congress in March 2021 whether Facebook had studied the impact on teens, Zuckerberg answered, "I believe the answer is yes."
When prompted to share the research, Facebook declined, instead throwing doubt on scientists' consensus on screen time.
Does this sound familiar?
In the early 50s, when research linked smoking to lung cancer, tobacco companies held a secret meeting to develop a strategy to twist science and mislead the public about the dangers of smoking.
They formed a committee and got scientists to sow doubt.
But, faced with falling numbers of smokers in the wake of the Surgeon General's warnings, tobacco companies made changes to keep people hooked.
They deceived machines designed to test cigarettes, ignoring how humans changed their smoking style to get the same amount of nicotine.
That quote in the first tweet in this thread?
It's from Judge Gladys Kessler in a 1,652-page decision in 2006, in United States of America v. Philip Morris USA.
The tobacco company was sued for fraud under the RICO Act.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Is Facebook that different?
Burying research — particularly your own research — about the harm your company does to society, is deceptive at best.
Fraudulent at the worst.
An unethical through and through.
timelesstimely.com/p/smoke-and-mi…
#ethics
I have publicly-available links to all 5 of the WSJ investigative pieces “The Facebook Files” here, if you’d like to read more:
timelesstimely.com/p/a-tangled-web
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