Facebook news - amended complaint filed to what I previously called "Mother of all lawsuits" - insider trading allegations tied to FB knowingly leaking data for $, paying $5B to cover it up, governance failure, etc. I'll add more context in 15 tweets and link to prior thread. /1
It includes maybe ten new paragraphs - many in insider trading and governance failure sections. Includes new heavily redacted details regarding Facebook's "board" setting up an alleged scapegoat "Special Committee" just in time to settle for $5 billion and protect Zuckerberg. /2
Reminder, the allegation is this was done to avoid Zuckerberg being deposed or having his communications subject to discovery. To end the SEC and FTC lawsuits. There is also new info on the settlement and how many orders of magnitude larger it was than prior settlements. /3
All sorts of board members bailed in that time period. The lawsuit claims it was in part due to "clashes with Zuckerberg." Again, the board, the committees, the special committee, everything pretending to hold Zuckerberg accountable is controlled by Zuckerberg. /4
Many of the allegations relate to people both benefiting and failing in their governance roles. eg it adds a # to Sheryl Sandberg's stock trades during the cover-up in the insider trading allegations allegations. It's a whopping $1.6 billion. /5
There is actually an entire list of defendants in the lawsuit categorized as the "Insider Trading Defendants." Narrator: it's generally good to avoid being labeled this way. /6
Also new is a bunch of detail on one of Zuckerberg's board members who is a partner at WilmerHale. That's insane to me since they represent Facebook in many of its most sensitive lawsuits, coached Zuckerberg when he testified and reportedly do a lotta influencing on Congress. /7
It also adds details on how Peter Thiel has benefited being on the board. When Facebook was opening its platform providing its incredibly valuable data to other companies, some of them were Thiel investments being given special access according to the allegations. /8
On that note. Reminder much of case dates back to Facebook's slowing growth ahead of IPO. They were "running out of humans" as Sam Lessin (yes, that one) noted to Zuckerberg in emails only to regain scale for advertisers by trading on their access to users' personal data. /9
As they opened up platform data, FB whitelisted and gave special access to apps which were categorized as "Mark's friends" and "Sheryl's friends" among others. It's hard to underplay the economic and relationship value of being on those lists. But no, they didn't *sell* data. /10
When Cambridge Analytica happened, leadership and PR flipped out on the word "breach." They likely did this because it didn't fit California's definition of a security breach which would require notification. Instead, the platform was leaking data by design for profits. /11
This is also new. Zuckerberg and Sandberg's admission of direct responsibility. I assume this is intended to set up why it would be wrong to simultaneously be responsible and also drive the decision to pay Billions to settle and protect their own liability from a cover-up. /12
A couple other random notes. Who knew Peter Thiel gets to decide how much Zuckerberg gets compensated? Sleep well my friends. /13
I also didn't know Papamiltiadis left just a couple months ago at the same time he was being named in these lawsuits. I betcha he has an interesting story to tell. /14
OK, that's all for now. Here is a link to my full thread from when this lawsuit was filed by very large pension funds after winning rights to inspect Facebook's books including actual messages between its board and leadership during the cover-up. /15 /eof
smart executive leadership post here. What I like *A LOT* is focus on partnership and trust. high-quality content companies are exceeding consumer expectations -and- where audiences prefer to consume it. #OurPartnershipCommitment 1/4 together.nbcuni.com/insights/blogs…
A healthy partnership builds trust and the trust of the brands involved including the discovery, sharing, content creators and advertising partners lift all the boats - much needed right now and not zero sum game. 2/4 #OurPartnershipCommitment
Working together to bring leading news and entertainment is critically important to meeting consumer expectations, our just-released @DCNorg Gen Z research showed TikTok, YouTube leading platforms - so I find it smart they’re on this list. Twitter innovating just this week. 3/4
This is a must-read report from Vice. The last Twitter Space I hosted a woman from Ethiopia asked to speak and provided witness to the atrocities being made much worse by Facebook. We’ve seen it previously and it resulted in a genocide report from the United Nations. /1
Even if it was simply a content moderation problem (results from America show that it’s clearly not) then Facebook spending moderation resources ratably would mean spending about $400 million in Ethiopia. I would be surprise if they’re spending 1% of that. /2
This is before even recognizing that the risk is heightened rather than lessened in a nation in turmoil, there are many languages and many, many people are dying. If 3-5% of hate speech gets removed globally, imagine the percentage in Ethiopia - probably less than 1%. /3
Threading EU Parliament hearing with Facebook whistleblower (while also multitasking). Interesting to hear her very clearly delineate “personal social media” vs “broadcast social media” in describing Facebook market power. This aligns with FTC lawsuit to break up the company. /1
I don’t believe I’ve heard the term “viral variant factories” but it’s catchy. Important to recognize the systems not only pick winners and losers but also accelerates spread by microtargeting to individuals while suppressing counterspeech which historically provided friction. /2
A lot of discussion about the dangers of AI. I would lob in the question whether in this moment it’s the AI that’s the danger as much as the exaggeration of its capabilities in light of an absence of transparency and external scrutiny and research. /3
ok, Facebook whistleblower testifying again today @ 12:45pm ET. This time to EU Parliament. I expect her super important evidence will be what we've already heard in Senate Commerce, UK Parliament testimony plus strong press reporting led by Wall Street Journal. However ... /1
It will be provided in context of a package of two, fast-moving and critically important draft regulations (DSA/DMA). So here is my key point: her evidence should only heighten attention to market power and already underway antitrust investigation by European Commission. /2
Facebook and friends have managed to reframe DSA to be a ban on "targeted ads" when the core issue at hand for users and failing market incentives is Facebook's surveillance, in collecting and using our data, when users aren't even choosing to interact with the company. /3
Washington Post included their incredible report on Jan 6th as an entire section in today’s print. I went ahead and re-read “Before the Attack” - the details in print make the (ongoing) attack on democracy by Trump and his allies even more chilling. On to “During the Attack.”
Here is the online version, I can’t recommend more highly taking the time to read it even if you know the details. The full narrative is helpful context. I hadn’t had time to read the “During” or “After” so will hit next. washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
If you prefer video, I had flagged this last night and also recommend the CNN Special Report.
Although I respect @fmanjoo perspective and agree with much of this, it also gets a number of super important facts wrong on the state of holding Facebook accountable. I’m going to thread them here and may need to write a longer op-ed to get everyone back on same page. /1
First, they wouldn’t retain all the data. Even in case of German Cartel Office historic decision (under appeal), FB has to silo its data across apps and off-platform (where the company gets most of its data). In an actual breakup, it’s entirely limited esp growth leader Insta. /2
This isn’t right. Judge threw out saying states waited too long. Regarding failing to prove monopoly, judge said FTC didn’t back up with data but they could refile which they’ve already done with clearly supporting data on multiple dimensions. /3