ok, I'll add some thoughts here for this Mosseri hearing...time to go deeper. Mosseri just used future Ernst & Young audits to Senator Lee as a defense. It's worth noting Instagram is nowhere on being audited for brand safety by the industry. See the red box. /1
Sen Sullivan has locked in on problem here. US Surgeon General report recommending limits on social media usage by teens is directly at odds with Instagram's core biz model. Mosseri deflecting. As Sen Klobuchar pointed out earlier, if Instagram had competition it would matter. /2
Senator Cruz once again doing an outstanding job digging into Mosseri and research. Rightly tries to pin down Mosseri on:
- raw data from Instagram research
- powerpoint presentations memorializing the data
Mosseri claims data is gone. Facebook, Inc. is an unethical cesspool.
/3
Senator Blackburn closes strongly. Empathy has historically appeared to be a PR tactic for the top leadership of Facebook. When we've seen it, we've later learned it was a cover-up. /4
Sen Blumenthal closing with his AG experience then shifting to why we need competition - he's absolutely right. As many have heard me say, there is no defensible case Instagram and Facebook's blue apps wouldn't be better for the public if they had to compete with each other. /5
Now a few clips. This was a powerful close by @MarshaBlackburn but the company’s actions are limited to the bare necessity due to public and government relations in the absence of competition. If Insta had to compete with blue or couldn’t share data, things would be different. /6
It’s worth noting @MarshaBlackburn also brought receipts. It’s pretty absurd the default would be wrong for such a large cohort even if it’s a minority of users. Sounds like another Alex Schultz growth hack to me. There are dozens at play always. Video game for them. /7
“I want to make sure I understand the commitment you’ve made to this committee.”… here is @SenTedCruz with precision. Remember Facebook never actually released to the public a majority of the decks as promised. Instead they annotated much of one and gaslit everyone over it. /8
One last clip for now. @SenMikeLee rightly asks a question about algorithmic amplification and recommendations. Mosseri answers with intentions and a metric on prevalence (5 of 10,000). /9
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Woah. Exhibit list just posted for Facebook trial in DE starting in a few weeks. We finally have confirmation Sheryl Sandberg was deposed by the SEC - one week prior to Zuckerberg which also kept secret until a lawsuit unsealed it. Sandberg was also sanctioned in this case. /1
This matters as it gets at Who Knew What When at FB ahead of the world finding out its platform was leaking personal data for years. Zuckerberg was dodgy at best under oath to Congress, FB responses to Parliaments focused on 2018 news. But exhibits include Jan 2017 MZ emails. /2
The DE lawsuit claims Facebook's $5 billion record settlement was inflated in order to protect its CEO, Zuckerberg, and also includes (civil) insider trading claims. Zuckerberg was ordered to sit for multiple day depo this year, will have to testify live. /3
Scanning front pages across America this morning. Still today, the local A1 best captures the biggest story of the day. The majors from NY to LA to Detroit to even Arkansas. /1
From Washington DC all of the way up to the major newspapers in Alaska… the No Kings protest images are everywhere capturing the moment. /2
All of them capture peaceful protest, democracy in action, and what America is all about at a time when social media algorithms may distort what the day was all about. Illinois to Colorado. /3
Incredible work being done by the press to keep facts building on facts. Grateful. This entire WSJ report overnight starting with this lede on how White House orders sparked LA crackdown is both chilling and informative. /1
This statement. “We came to the United States for protection of what we encountered in Russia. It seems that we are encountering here what we fled.” /2
WSJ separating out cases of targeting groups who have not committed crimes but even noting here incredible resources being used against what appears to be clear, First Amendment protected activity alerted the community. Here is the must-read report. /3 wsj.com/us-news/protes…
Confession. Having watched Scott Pelley's outstanding work over nearly three decades, I almost didn't take the time to watch his W.F. commencement speech thinking the news reports told me enough of the facts. Frankly, that would have been a huge mistake on my part. Huge. 1/5
Disclosure: I'm a 60 Minutes fan. In fact, I read Don Hewitt's "Tell Me a Story" after nearly a decade in sports media and it likely tipped the scale in 2007 when I decided to jump to work at CBS. I find Pelley and team brilliant in telling stories in barely 15 min segments. 2/5
“If liberty means anything at all, it means telling someone something that they don’t want to hear. I fear there may be some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today but I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.” - Scott Pelley 3/5
wow, another order for Mark Zuckerberg to sit for another court deposition. This time in a case involving privacy violations with ingesting web-wide health data. Remember they paid billions in cases to try to avoid this. Data and privacy issues are especially sensitive. /1
Zuckerberg depositions are interesting as they often go on for hours with highly informed attorneys driving for answers. And those answers may be put up against the often questioned veracity of his answers to Congress. Yes, as a CEO, he has testified to Congress A LOT. /2
I think his first real depo was SEC on very sensitive data scandal leading to $5B+ settlements with FTC+SEC. That scandal is still playing out in courts (did he overpay to protect himself?) It took 3yrs to get unsealed after I caught it in a footnote. /3
The Verge comes in with a massive scoop on the backstory reporting it was Musk - and Sacks - behind the scenes trying to blow up IP to train AI on behalf of his allies. This wouldn't be a surprise to anyone. /1
they have reports and details on the carnage and firing of the leadership and on the possible incorrect assumption that the new people in charge were running their playbook. /2
It may be rare that @mrddmia is in agreement with Dems but in the world of accountability for big tech abuse whether over data, monetization, IP, censorship, privacy, you name it, these aren't partisan issues. appreciate the shared voice from advocates all around. /3