Thread by @CraigSilverman

The WSJ's revelation of internal reports that showed the harm of Facebook's VIP profile program and the negative effect of Instagram on teens reveal a core truth about FB: people inside the company document and articulate the problems but they really struggle to affect change

What we can read of these reports shows the quality of work done internally to try and quantify harm and issues. Yes, insiders are the only ones with access to data to do this work. But ppl at FB take these challenges on because they care and want to see the company do better

@RMac18 and I saw this time and again last year in internal threads and reports. Lots of ppl at FB want to fix this stuff. So they put in the work to make the case internally. The problem is they end up hitting a wall when fixes conflict with growth/revenue/public image

The result is that the reports and evidence exist, but the recommendations often get ignored, watered down, or rejected. And so folks at FB pushing for change often burn out and leave. Others stay because they still believe change is possible.

At the end of the day, this is about leadership and culture at the top. Which priorities win out? At FB it was growth above all else. Even as the co. tried to shift its culture, growth has remained powerful, with concerns about public image/blowback growing in importance.

So: these internal reports are going to continue to exist, and they will often be damning. That reflects reality, and also the commitment of many FB employees to try and fix things by making their case via data. The Q is always whether top leadership will listen and act.

Here's the former head of Facebook's civic integrity team — perhaps one of the most mission-driven teams to ever exist at FB — talking a bit about this dynamic of documentation versus action/priorities:

https://twitter.com/samidh/status/1437536139242459136

Here are the two WSJ stories I'm referring to in this thread:

wsj.com/articles/faceb…

wsj.com/articles/faceb…