Woah. This claim in must-read except from new book on Peter Thiel. We knew this secret meeting happened shortly after Zuckerberg's "free expression" speech at Georgetown. FB denies "agreement" happened - it would be an astounding abuse of market power by FB and Trump admin. /1
A reminder the secretive meeting happened as Facebook was receiving massive pressure to follow Google and Twitter's lead in banning micro-targeted political advertising on its platform particularly around misleading ads and messages breaking its policies. /2
This claim also significant and resurfaces why SEC needs to revisit its settlement. A reminder on reports that Peter Thiel's Palantir was involved in teaching Cambridge Analytica how to scrape data from Facebook's platform. Investors should be concerned. /3
It's outrageous to consider Thiel has been a Facebook board member throughout this. The excerpt claims Zuckerberg leaned into him for political support which certainly the facts would seem to support. At minimum. /4
Thiel reportedly funded Gawker's destruction as revenge for embarrassing him so noting anecdote here. “He viewed liberals through a lens as people who were not nice to him,” said a classmate. “The way people treated him at Stanford had a huge impact. That’s still with him.” /5
It also may explain Zuckerberg's discomfort when questions surfaced about Thiel and Palantir. /6
Ask both Google and Facebook whether they are linking to any data or collecting any data from outside of their owned apps on Apple iOS for users who have Asked not to be Tracked. /2
Facebook witness just testified their users understand how FB uses their data. So that's entirely false and in most cases of tracking a majority don't understand it. That's why they're taking advance of opting out now that Apple is allowing them. /3 niemanlab.org/2018/04/jason-…
!!! news. mother of all lawsuits quietly filed last month vs Facebook in Delaware. I'll explain why it avoided notice until now in a bit but Zuckerberg, Sandberg, CFO, board inc Peter Thiel and Palantir are defendants - it's a result of sealed docs between FB execs and board. /1
Major new plaintiff allegations - many long concerning:
1 FB spent billions to protect Zuckerberg personally
2 claims "epic corporate governance breakdown"
3 adds list of "insider trading" defendants
4 documents Zuckerberg misled Congress /2
It's a whopping 390 pages and there is a related 220 page suit filed in same court on the same day. Together they bring the kitchen sink on allegations as to how the platform gained market power, failed its 2012 FTC Consent Decree, covered-up and failed to disclose data harms. /3
👋🏽 @nickclegg@andymstone, your BS blog post yesterday attacking GREAT journalism led to this newsletter gem going out to nearly every major marketer. Carolyn Everson would have advised you it would backfire with advertisers who trust WSJ but she is no longer there to protect. /1
I mean this is about as scorching as I’ve ever seen. “Thoroughly corrupt” and “rotten to the core” doesn’t seem like a good place for a brand to me. I mean @AdContrarian writes and I quote, “Dude, your company is a shit factory and you are a clown.” /2
Here is the full newsletter. Just take it from me, MPK may all read Stratechery and whatever else makes them feel ok but this newsletter gets read widely by CMOs and is a disaster coupled with WSJ headlines all week. Cover-ups always end up bad. /3 createsend.com/t/d-DCAA738102…
“deliberate mischaracterizations” Facebook’s top global policy chief and disgraced parliamentarian is tripling down and impugning a significant number of top journalists holding his masters to account by implying motivations. Please don’t share his blog post. It’s garbage.
Spineless lieutenants.
Here are all of the reports so far which have drawn intense praise from many of the most respected journalists covering Facebook including those at competitive newsrooms. Read them and then judge Facebook comms cheap shots.