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Kara Swisher Profile picture
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29 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
And they asked such tough questions like: Cool skeleton avatar, dude! When can I get one?
When I got to Silicon Valley, I was struck by the dudefest tone of reporting in which reporters (all male) ran after gadgets thrown by the tech moguls with the enthusiasm of dogs chasing tennis balls at the park. Some things never change.
This VR stuff might be cool, but it’s kind of besides the point in our currently stressed real world where there is also a pretty significant dumpster fire going on that seems invisible to some.
Mark’s answers today had a this-is-bullshit, I-am-moving-on tone, returning to his let-me-tell-you-my-grand-vision zone of comfort. I can barely tolerate that from a real tech visionary like Bezos or Musk, but sadly, it’ll probably work.
Lastly, from the looks of some of the Haugen docs and the preso today, this is a lot about a fear of losing the youngs to more innovative platforms and becoming irrelevant. This is inevitable obvi, so I leave you with this perfecto clip from “Moonstruck”:

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Kara Swisher Profile picture
4 Oct
This is from 2018, which is when FB stopped engaging with me after more than a decade of reporting. They deserved every word, none of which was meant to be mean. It was a plea for them to change: nytimes.com/2018/08/02/opi…
“The arms race metaphor is a good one, but not for the reasons Facebook intended. Here’s how I see it: Facebook, as well as Twitter and Google’s YouTube, have become the digital arms dealers of the modern age. All these companies began with a gauzy credo to change the world.”
But they have done that in ways they did not imagine — by weaponizing pretty much everything that could be weaponized. They have mutated human communication, so that connecting people has too often become about pitting them against one another …
Read 4 tweets
Kara Swisher Profile picture
4 Oct
Again ⁦@nickclegg⁩ is making a false assertion that few do, which is that Facebook is responsible for Jan. 6: “The responsibility for the violence on Jan. 6 & the insurrection on that day lies squarely with the people who inflicted the violence … washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
… and those who encouraged them, including then-President Trump and candidly many other people in the media who were encouraging the assertion that the election was stolen.” Yes, Trump and the rioters, as well as Fox News, are all also responsible. Oh yeah, humanity sucks too.
But Facebook and it’s sloppy management and obsession with growth needs to belly up to the bar and admit its own culpability — as do many in tech — in all this. As I wrote in 2018x they have amplified, weaponized and then largely fake apologized.
Read 4 tweets
Kara Swisher Profile picture
3 Oct
Clever Clegg, but no one thinks FB is the PRIMARY cause, tho size creates an amplifier of unprecedented power: “What evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization.” nytimes.com/2021/10/02/tec…
These verbal gymnastics illuminate nothing, which is why I would love to have @nickclegg on for a substantive full hour discussion on Sway at this important moment. Unfortunately, we get persistent declines from FB, even as they book on press with less experience in this arena.
Come on, Nick!! If you can convince me, you’d benefit. You would only not come on if you thought you had a losing argument. Here are some folks who somehow survived me this week.
Read 5 tweets
Kara Swisher Profile picture
25 Mar
My tips for a former President who wants to start a social network! You’re welcome, Donald! First, naming: Avoid MeinSpace and InstaGraft, for obvious reasons nytimes.com/2021/03/25/opi…
Also learn to love Section 230 and your fellow tech moguls. Yes, even Jeff Bezos. Hug it out.
Also, you should think about having a fresh kombucha station at HQ.
Read 6 tweets
Kara Swisher Profile picture
9 Feb
1/Or maybe @cwarzel you don’t want to paint a rich VC’s fence by giving up your attention & analysis gratis. Reminds me of when Facebook was bugging everyone to do FB Live. Alls I could reply was: What is the actual benefit to anyone BUT FB?
2/It is certainly good for those who need or want to make a splash or as a place for new voices to emerge. The real benefit of the service to users imho is in the non-famous-for-SV groups that are creative and additive to life and work in some way.
3/The panoply of achingly dull “interviews” w/famed dudes is fine. Being in the same room, even virtual, is exciting, like being near a celeb at a cocktail party & you don’t care that a lot of it is retread remarks/PR. But it’ll get tired like those endless SV VC parties did.
Read 6 tweets
Kara Swisher Profile picture
4 Feb
Just for an actual fact check, I just listened to the entire video ⁦AOC did on Instagram about this and she does not say insurrectionists were in the halls of her particular office area. She said she did not know what was going on in the chaos & was scared about where to go. Image
She def sounds and describes herself as someone who did not know what was going on and was nervous about the worst possibilities, which seems a pretty normal response to me given the level of hatred aimed at her. She was scary because it was scary and a moment of zero good info.
AOC clearly says “all these crazy thoughts go through your head.” It seems like a perfectly normal response to a surreal & potentially dangerous situation. So not exactly clear why Rep. Mace needs to dunk, other than to score her own points, since she had also expressed fear. Sad
Read 5 tweets

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