Thread by @WIRED

Facebook’s past 15 months have been pure hell. Trapped by its own pathologies, the company careened into a period of backstabbing, scandals, record earnings, reboots, and resignations. Time bombs, planted by Facebook’s prior choices, exploded everywhere 1/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Time bomb: Politics, crime, tragedy
In early 2018, FB started demoting posts from publishers. Due to an obscure choice by engineers, stories involving “politics, crime, or tragedy” were somewhat shielded from the blow. NewsFeed changed dramatically 2/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Scandal: Cambridge Analytica
In mid-March, as the CA story spread, Facebook HQ melted down. Former employees recall a scene of chaos marked by exhausted executives and snack wrappers littering private conference rooms. Externally: 5 days of silence 3/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Time bomb: Chris Cox and Instagram
In May, Facebook initiated its biggest reshuffle ever. Chris Cox, head of FB’s core product, would oversee WhatsApp and Instagram. To some, it looked like succession planning. For Instagram, it was a loss of autonomy 4/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Scandal: Politics, Crime, and Tragedy
As publishers suffered from Facebook’s algorithm changes, the company debated whether to give serious outlets a boost. Some cautioned that doing so would appear to support liberal media. FB tabled the issue 5/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Backstabbing: Instagram
Facebook's growth was slowing, but Instagram’s was on a roll. Zuckerberg wanted to put Instagram in its place. He asked for a list of ways Facebook supported traffic to Instagram, then pulled away all of those supports 6/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Resignations: Instagram’s Founders
That summer, Facebook told Instagram it was slashing its hiring budget. Years of tension between the two platforms had finally started boiling over, and on a Monday morning Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger quit 7/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Scandal: Kavanaugh/Kaplan
Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings divided the US … and Facebook. Joel Kaplan, FB’s VP of public policy, sat behind his friend Kavanaugh during the testimony. And he didn’t tell anyone at Facebook he would be there 8/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Facebook’s staff was so shocked at Kaplan's attendance that the company called an all-hands. Women poured forward to recount their own experience with sexual assault.

The next day, Kaplan hosted a party for Kavanaugh’s lifetime court appointment 9/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Scandal: Definers
In November, @nytimes dropped a bombshell report that FB had hired research firm Definers to investigate George Soros. Zuckerberg denied he knew. Sandberg, less plausibly to people inside FB, did the same. Elliot Shrage took the fall 10/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Scandal & Record Earnings
In Jan. 2019, another privacy reckoning hit Facebook—this one closer to home. FB had deployed an app that went around Apple’s rules to gather data on users as young as 13. Apple retaliated by closing FB’s in-house iPhone apps 11/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

That same day, Facebook held an earnings call. Profits hit a new record. Employees couldn’t get their shuttle bus schedules, but within 24 hours the company was worth $50 billion more than it had been the day before. Zuckerberg beamed 12/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Reboot: Privacy Initiative
With trust in Facebook at an all-time low, Zuckerberg announced in March that it will follow a new privacy-based philosophy. Messages will be encrypted end to end, and Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram will further integrate 13/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Resignation: Chris Cox
One person who didn’t agree with the direction: Chris Cox, Zuckerberg’s most trusted lieutenant, seen as his most likely successor. In mid-March, Cox announced that he was leaving Facebook, dealing a huge blow to the company 14/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

Time bomb: Privacy initiative
In some ways, Facebook’s focus on privacy and interoperability could deprioritize safety and civility. It will both solve and create problems.

The ramifications of that trade-off will be the story of its next 15 months 15/ wired.trib.al/xN4kXEE

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