1 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:06,960 Speaker 1: All Zone Media. Hello, and welcome to Better Offline. I'm 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:21,639 Speaker 1: your host ed ze Tron. Over the last decade, few 3 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: platforms have declined quite as much as Facebook and Instagram. 4 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: What used to be apps for like catching up with 5 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: your friends and family and seeing things from bands you 6 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,639 Speaker 1: might like and now pretty much algorithmic nightmares, and they 7 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:37,560 Speaker 1: interrupt you constantly with suggested content and advertisements that far 8 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: outweigh the stuff you actually logged onto the platform to see. Conversely, 9 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: those running Facebook groups or pages routinely find that their 10 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: content isn't even being shown to people that follow them, 11 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,879 Speaker 1: and that's all thanks to Meta's basically abusive approach to 12 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,640 Speaker 1: social media. The customer is not only always wrong, but 13 00:00:56,760 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: they ideally will have little to no control over the 14 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: things that they see on the platform that you monetize 15 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: them on. It's all very frustrating, and in the next 16 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: two episodes, I'm going to walk you through the decline 17 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: of these platforms, in particular Facebook and Meta of course 18 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: as a company, and I'm going to start today with 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 1: the events that led to its decay and those I 20 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: believe are responsible for turning the world's most popular consumer 21 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: apps into skinner box or advertising agencies. In this episode, 22 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:30,039 Speaker 1: I want to frame Facebook's to cline around two specific 23 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: features people you may know, which is an innocent yet 24 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: kind of horrible feature that really explains itself, and the 25 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: news feed, which is the central hub of information on 26 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: the platform, one that's become so algorithmically charged that it's 27 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:45,680 Speaker 1: far more about what Facebook wants to show you than 28 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 1: any conscious action by a user. And it's my belief 29 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: that these products, piloted by the deeply insidious people led 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: by Mark Zuckerberg himself, are central to the darkness that 31 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: has enveloped this company. But I want to be clear, 32 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: none of this is really new. It's a common trope that, oh, well, 33 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: Facebook went downhill because they went public, which is partially true, 34 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, But I really want to be 35 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: clear that the rot began early. Facebook has always been 36 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: a rotten, manipulative company, and they've always acted very little 37 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: regard for their users, even at times when they pretended 38 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: to do so. The goal's always been more, not just 39 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: more money, but more engagement, more time on app, more 40 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,160 Speaker 1: visits to the website, perpetual growth, all mandated by Mark 41 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg himself, and a rogue's gallery of rot economist assholes. 42 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: But as ever, I need to give you a little 43 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: history lesson, so we need to go back in time. 44 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: We start our story in two thousand and four, a 45 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: few months after the company was founded, when Peter Seal 46 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: became Facebook's first investor, and he put five hundred thousand 47 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,640 Speaker 1: dollars into the company and got an astonishing ten point 48 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: two percent steak. As you might have seen in twenty 49 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: ten's The Social Network by Aaron Sorkin, Teel was introduced 50 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: to Zuckerberg by Sean Parker, the co founder of Napster 51 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: and if you're a little younger than I am, that 52 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: was a website he used to use to illegally download music, 53 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: and he was fresh from a beat down by Lars 54 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,240 Speaker 1: Auric and Metallica, who again, if you're younger than me, 55 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:21,239 Speaker 1: much younger, I guess. They sued Sean Parker, who was 56 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:27,079 Speaker 1: running Napster, which was basically imaginative Spotify was just stealing everything. Anyway, 57 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: They sued him, he had to shut down the website, 58 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: made him very sad. But what was significant about this 59 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: event when Sean Parker introduced Teal to Mark Zuckerberg wasn't 60 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: really the people involved the amount of money, but the 61 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: terms of the deal, terms that would permanently and inextricably 62 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: ruin Facebook forever. Parker, ever the advocate for founders, He 63 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 1: negotiated with Peter tee Or to allow Mark Zuckerberg to 64 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,960 Speaker 1: retain two of Facebook's five board seats. When Parker resigned 65 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, he insisted that Mark Zuckerberg 66 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: be given his seat. Just to be clear, that's three 67 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 1: out of five board seats for one guy unilateral power. 68 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: While this may have seemed no paul and maybe even 69 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: ideal for a founder in these early days, this single 70 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: move has allowed Mark Zuckerberg to wield complete power over Facebook, 71 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: which I know is now called Meta. And it was 72 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: the first step along a road that made him completely 73 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 1: impossible to fire, which is doomed to this company, to 74 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: this endless, miserable death march, all thanks to Harvard's most 75 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: quirked up white boy, Mark Zuckerberg. I really cannot express 76 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:38,159 Speaker 1: how important this moment was. This was when the mistake 77 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,640 Speaker 1: was made, albeit innocently, to keep Zuckerberg in power. I'd 78 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: be kind and suggest that Sean Parker didn't know what 79 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:47,159 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg was like at this point, other than the fact 80 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,279 Speaker 1: that he absolutely did and he should have known better, 81 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 1: or maybe it's more about Sean Parker just selecting people poorly. 82 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: I guess we'll never know. A few years later, in 83 00:04:57,279 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: April two thousand and six, Zuckerberg was once again able 84 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:02,400 Speaker 1: to negotiate terms that kept him at the top, in 85 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: part thanks to Facebook's pretty strong revenue for the time 86 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: six million dollars a year in revenue, pretty impressive for 87 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:11,800 Speaker 1: a social network, especially and at the time, by the way, 88 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,840 Speaker 1: very early days, and the fact that he owned three 89 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,279 Speaker 1: out of the five board seats and could do whatever 90 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: the hell he wanted allowed him to pretty much dictate 91 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: the terms. Venture capitalists were desperate to avoid missing out 92 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: in this company had rocket ship growth, and that the 93 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:31,160 Speaker 1: time my space was actually a very successful business, and 94 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: thus what were they going to do try and negotiate 95 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: with the petty king? Absolutely not, They needed that cash. 96 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,160 Speaker 1: In September two thousand and six, Facebook would launch the newsfeed, 97 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: a relatively unsophisticated chronological feed of your friend's status is 98 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,200 Speaker 1: that is on some level kind of one of the 99 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: most important launches in software history, and it's a great 100 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,800 Speaker 1: example of a good product that got completely bulldozed by 101 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: executives that don't really care about their users and want 102 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: to just use advertising in what algorithms to torture them. 103 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:05,720 Speaker 1: The feed, which Facebook product manager Rugi sang Give described 104 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: as quite unlike anything you can find on the web, 105 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: led to an immediate revolt within Facebook's nine point five 106 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: million users at the time, as it effectively showed a 107 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,480 Speaker 1: stream of literally every action you took on the platform, 108 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: which users found and I quote creepy and stalker esque, 109 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,760 Speaker 1: according to a group made at the time called Students 110 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: against Facebook Newsfeed. For those who weren't around when it 111 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:30,599 Speaker 1: launched or didn't use Facebook, which I don't blame you for, 112 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: this is all kind of hard to grasp. It would 113 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: show you literally every activity you and your friends did. 114 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:38,919 Speaker 1: If you joined or left a group, or made a 115 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: new connection, everyone could see it. It was almost like 116 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: a pnopticon, except you were both the jailer and the prisoner. Somehow. 117 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,480 Speaker 1: A few days later, Zuckerberg would apologize, saying that Facebook 118 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,279 Speaker 1: and I quote really messed this one up, and that 119 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 1: Facebook spent two days coding non stop to add a 120 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,279 Speaker 1: special privacy page that allowed users to choose which types 121 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: of stories went into the feed while this feature was 122 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: actually released. It's important to know that the rest of 123 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 1: the world might not have known what you were doing afterwards, 124 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:13,360 Speaker 1: but Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook absolutely did. This was the 125 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: same year that Facebook opened to the general public. Had 126 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: previously been just for college students, then for certain organizations, 127 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: and I think then they had high schoolers. But then 128 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: they opened up to everyone. And they also turned down 129 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: a billion dollar acquisition offer from Yahoo and signed a 130 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,720 Speaker 1: three year advertising deal with Microsoft. Ah ah who in 131 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,840 Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Who was worth probacar rakavam? Anyway, 132 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: moving on yet, Facebook's rot really began in ernest in 133 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:44,720 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight when a former McKinsey analyst, Yes, 134 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: now the vice president of Global Online Sales and Operations 135 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: at Google will be made chief operating officer. Her name 136 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 1: was Sheryl Sandberg, and she'd be the force that would 137 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: grow Facebook into one of the most evil companies alive. 138 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: Now that I've given you the basic history and the 139 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:13,000 Speaker 1: basic terms here, you've got Mark Zuckerberg completely empower, cannot 140 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:16,440 Speaker 1: be fired, never will be fired. And then you've got 141 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: a COO chief operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, former McKinsey, analyst 142 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: chief of staff under Larry Summers's Department of Treasury. A 143 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: real management consultant brain is in here, and it's only 144 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: going to get worse. According to an excerpt from Stephen 145 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: Levy's Facebook The Inside Story, sometime in two thousand and eight, 146 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:41,120 Speaker 1: Facebook's growth had stalled somewhere around ninety million users, with 147 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:43,679 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg telling Levy in an interview that his company had 148 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 1: hit a wall. Shamath Paliapatia, a former venture capitalist who 149 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,359 Speaker 1: was at the time Facebook's VP of Platform and Monetization, 150 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: came to Mark Zuckerberg with an idea the Facebook should 151 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: focus on a new metric, monthly active users. This metric, 152 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:02,520 Speaker 1: which is now a cornerstone of most tech companies growth metrics, 153 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:04,839 Speaker 1: would be a measure of whether the users were actually 154 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: sticking around on the platform, and boosting this number would 155 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: mean that users were coming to Facebook and they were staying. 156 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:14,839 Speaker 1: Please remember this metric. It's going to be important in 157 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: the second episode, an even more important right now. In 158 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: a meeting with Zuckerberg and Sandberg, Shamath was asked to 159 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:24,359 Speaker 1: name it, and he came up with the term maus. 160 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: Samberg responded that they should just call it growth. At 161 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,440 Speaker 1: the next board meeting, Shamath would present what Levy would 162 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,079 Speaker 1: call aggressive growth techniques that would double or even triple 163 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: Facebook's user base and then use the platform itself as 164 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: an engine for growth. After a tepid response at the meeting, 165 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,120 Speaker 1: Shamouth was given license to build a new growth team 166 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: from both within and outside of Facebook, one that would 167 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:54,000 Speaker 1: eventually become pretty much the most evil super team in tech, 168 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: like the Avengers of Assholes, including Facebook head of Product 169 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 1: Naomi gLite and Alex Schultz, who go on to become 170 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:04,240 Speaker 1: Meta's Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Analytics, along with 171 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:08,319 Speaker 1: fellow teammate Javier olivan who replaced Samberg as chief operating 172 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:11,520 Speaker 1: officer in twenty twenty two. All of these people, now, 173 00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: by the way, have senior roles at the company. I 174 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:19,199 Speaker 1: want you to remember that throughout this story, Glight, Olivin, 175 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: and Schultz are at the epicenter of almost every single 176 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:25,079 Speaker 1: choice that Meta has made to put growth above the 177 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 1: user experience. Shamath wanted their team, which also included early 178 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: Facebook data scientists Danny Ferrante and Blake Ross, who previously 179 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: co created the Firefox web browser, to become and I 180 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: quote the growth circle, what Levy refers to as a 181 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: power center in the company, with special status and distinctive subcultures. 182 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:51,079 Speaker 1: Not great, but he succeeded. Chamath succeeded. In two thousand 183 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 1: and eight, Facebook would launch a feature called People You 184 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: May Know, a seemingly innocent feature that would, as the 185 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 1: name suggests, suggest people that you might know on Facebook. 186 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: Yet this feature seemed a little too good at its job. 187 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,599 Speaker 1: With reporter Kashmir Hill, who spent over a year investigating 188 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 1: the feature book Gizmoda between twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen, 189 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: Hill said that it mined information users didn't have control 190 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:19,839 Speaker 1: over to make connections that they might not actually want 191 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: to make, such as suggesting patients find their psychiatrist or 192 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: outing a sex workers real name to her clients. Despite 193 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:31,120 Speaker 1: doggedly researching People You May Know, He'll never really got 194 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:35,199 Speaker 1: Facebook to explain how it works. Nevertheless, Stephen Levy was 195 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: able to get Shamath to reveal one horrifying detail. The 196 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,680 Speaker 1: Facebook's growth team would take out Google ads on people's names, 197 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,040 Speaker 1: targeting those who hadn't joined Facebook, with something called a 198 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: dark profile, a fake link that would suggest that somebody 199 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: was already using your name on Facebook, conning you into 200 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:57,960 Speaker 1: going to the saite. This is absolutely goddamn disgraceful. It's 201 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 1: insane to me that more people know about this and 202 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:05,240 Speaker 1: more people aren't angrier. And by the way, you're wondering 203 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: how they found out who the Facebook hold outs. Where 204 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,840 Speaker 1: you wondering where that came from, Well, it's because they 205 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,839 Speaker 1: would happily ingest your entire contact list, allowing them to 206 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: see which friends were on there and which weren't using 207 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:20,320 Speaker 1: that data. And you may think edge you jump into 208 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: bloody conclusions. You just put in words in their mouth incorrect. 209 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: Now the CTO of Facebook guy called Boz Andrew Bosworth, 210 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,839 Speaker 1: and I'll get to him later. He's already said, quite 211 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 1: literally that that feature was justifiable. But we continue. While 212 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:41,560 Speaker 1: many might consider people you may know as a well 213 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,200 Speaker 1: meaning feature, indeed a useful one for a social network, 214 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:48,680 Speaker 1: the algorithm behind the service is powerful and sinister, and 215 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,240 Speaker 1: it's capable of dragging up these distant relationships honed in 216 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,920 Speaker 1: by both the data you give Facebook and other shadowy 217 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: sources that we may never know. I do, however, believe 218 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:04,640 Speaker 1: there's another person responsible, a man named Lars Bakstrom, a 219 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: relatively unknown yet extremely powerful figure in Facebook's history. Backstrom's 220 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,040 Speaker 1: LinkedIn notes that he built pymk people you may know, 221 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,280 Speaker 1: and he built its back end infrastructure and machine learning 222 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:20,079 Speaker 1: system starting from September two thousand and nine through February 223 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: twenty twelve. In twenty thirteen, and this is nasty by 224 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,679 Speaker 1: the way, Backstrom published a paper in tandem with a 225 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: computer scientist called John Kleinberg, and it was called Romantic 226 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: Partnerships and the Dispersion of Social Ties. A network analysis 227 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 1: of relationship status on Facebook. Try saying that fast twice. 228 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: It's actually very difficult. This paper focuses on an algorithm 229 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:46,280 Speaker 1: that was able to independently identify someone's spouse according to 230 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: the time Stephen Law, sixty percent of the time, and 231 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: it was even capable of predicting when someone would break 232 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 1: up with someone else. The paper hinged on the idea 233 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,720 Speaker 1: that mutual friends isn't really an indicator of a couple's 234 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: relationship status, but rather the dispersion of those mutual friends 235 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,400 Speaker 1: the amount of mutual friends that are also mutual friends 236 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,840 Speaker 1: with each other. This is a sensible idea that when 237 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:13,120 Speaker 1: framed as an algorithm made by an engineer who made 238 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:17,560 Speaker 1: Facebook's extremely successful growth tool feels a lot more creepy. 239 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: Backstrom in a twenty ten talk relayed again by Stephen Levy, 240 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: said that people you may know accounted for a significant 241 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,880 Speaker 1: chunk of all friending on Facebook, and that friends of 242 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: friends are the most powerful part of the tool. People 243 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: you may know as power wasn't just that it found 244 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 1: people that you knew well, but people that you kind 245 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: of saw on you, offering you the tantalizing idea of 246 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: proximity to them, and when you're friended them, Facebook's news 247 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:46,360 Speaker 1: feed would automatically make their content more prevalent, forcing a 248 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,040 Speaker 1: kind of into mercy that may not have actually existed 249 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,520 Speaker 1: by making a new connection even if it was super tangential, 250 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,720 Speaker 1: and the feed made it feel more immediate, giving Facebook 251 00:14:56,760 --> 00:15:00,520 Speaker 1: more power over you and also actively manipulating. And this 252 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: isn't even the half of them. This subtle feature is 253 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:07,400 Speaker 1: responsible for much of Facebook's growth, and it was deliberately 254 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: engineered by rot economists like Schultz, Klite and Olivin to 255 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: do so at any cost, even if it endangered the 256 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 1: lives of children. And by the way, I'm not being dramatic. 257 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: According to the Wall Street Journal. In twenty eighteen, David Irb, 258 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,720 Speaker 1: an engineer in charge of one of Facebook's community integrity teams, 259 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: found that and I quote, the most frequent way adults 260 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: found children to pray upon was using people you may know. 261 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 1: The journal also reported that a few days later, Herb 262 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:37,720 Speaker 1: found that Meta was planning to add encryption to the 263 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: Facebook messages system on the platform, something that would prevent 264 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: the company from fixing this problem, and he threatened to 265 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:47,360 Speaker 1: resign in process. Now you'd think at this point that 266 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,200 Speaker 1: the company would go, ah, yeah, that sounds dangerous, so 267 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: I probably don't want it. No, no, no. They placed 268 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: him on administrative leave, and then he eventually resigned. Facebook, 269 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 1: by the way, did introduce encryption to its mesas despite 270 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: Herb's stark warning, and this is a quote, that millions 271 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: of pedophiles were targeting tens of millions of children. People 272 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,800 Speaker 1: you may know was and is a dangerous tool. And 273 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: it was created and maintained and proliferated by people that 274 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: now effectively run Meta. Schultz is the CMO, Bosworth is 275 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: the CTO. Olivan is the COO Glit is a head 276 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,160 Speaker 1: of product and from what I've been told by sources, 277 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 1: pretty much the Darth Vader to Mark Zuckerberg's Emperor. And 278 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: if you've not watched Star Wars, just google it. I'm 279 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,920 Speaker 1: not gonna help you there. Once. Palliopetia left Facebook in 280 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:42,840 Speaker 1: twenty eleven to start a venture capital firm his team Schultz, 281 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:46,760 Speaker 1: gLite and Olivan. They continued to accumulate power, and as 282 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,400 Speaker 1: I've mentioned, I believe these people, along with Lars Bakstrom, 283 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 1: are responsible for making people you may know, into this reckless, dangerous, 284 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,920 Speaker 1: scurrilous growth tool for a company that doesn't really seem 285 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: to give a shit about its users. But we continue 286 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:06,439 Speaker 1: because they're not done writing yet. In January twenty twelve, 287 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,160 Speaker 1: that's when it really would set in, with the launch 288 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: of sponsored stories in Facebook's news feed, which Josh Constein, 289 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,240 Speaker 1: allegedly a journalist at the time, claimed he would rather 290 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: see inform him about the activity of friends than traditional 291 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 1: ads that can be much less relevant, a statement that 292 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:27,160 Speaker 1: frames exactly how little the tech media criticized this company. 293 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:31,200 Speaker 1: Makes me feel crazy. He also added one interesting tidbit. 294 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,439 Speaker 1: The Facebook are tested letting advertisers pay for sponsored content 295 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: in the news feed in two thousand and six, but 296 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: discontinued doing so in two thousand and eight because they 297 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 1: decided to advertisers shouldn't be able to show content in 298 00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 1: the news feed unless it could appear there naturally, a 299 00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: statement that Constein wrote without a single hint of alarm. 300 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: Isn't that funny though? He is really funny that half 301 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: of these companies, they've said at some point now will 302 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,120 Speaker 1: never build the Torment nexus. Then it decade later like, yep, 303 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:03,360 Speaker 1: we got the Sawmant nexus going fellas it looks great 304 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: s making US billions anyway. In February twenty twelve, last Backstrom, 305 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 1: as mentioned the architect to People you may know, would 306 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 1: move over to manage Facebook's news feed rankings, and then 307 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,639 Speaker 1: a few months later, Facebook would acquire Instagram for a 308 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:21,199 Speaker 1: billion dollars, possibly one of the best acquisitions in history, 309 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,920 Speaker 1: at least for a company. In May twenty twelve, Facebook 310 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,639 Speaker 1: would have what would be considered a disastrous IPO, with 311 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,040 Speaker 1: Wall Street concerned about its lack of growth on mobile devices. 312 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:33,960 Speaker 1: After its first day of trading, the share price was 313 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,520 Speaker 1: barely over its debut, and by September it had shared 314 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,159 Speaker 1: more than half of its value. Something had to change, 315 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,040 Speaker 1: and sometime in twenty twelve, Facebook would find one man, 316 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:48,119 Speaker 1: one man who could fix these problems. They'd promote a 317 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,280 Speaker 1: product manager called Adam Masseri to the head of Facebook's 318 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,639 Speaker 1: newsfeed division. It was during this period when it started 319 00:18:54,680 --> 00:19:00,200 Speaker 1: recommending content into your feed. In Mark Zuckerberg's statement of 320 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: intent to potential investors in Facebook's IPO, a standard letter 321 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,200 Speaker 1: that you'll see in pretty much every run up to 322 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,879 Speaker 1: a public offering, he declared that there was a huge 323 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:13,160 Speaker 1: need and huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected. Well, 324 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:16,040 Speaker 1: what I like to know is phase one of Facebook's decline. 325 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,000 Speaker 1: Behind the curtain. Zuckerbug's vision wasn't to, by the way, 326 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: get everyone connected in the world or anything like that. 327 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,480 Speaker 1: He wanted to connect everyone in the world to Facebook, 328 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,719 Speaker 1: and by the end of twenty twelve, the site had 329 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: a billion users, or about seventh of humanity. He also 330 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 1: made one very weird statement in this letter. He said 331 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: that Facebook didn't build services to make money, but they 332 00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:46,119 Speaker 1: made money to build services, and as I'll shortly reveal, 333 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:50,439 Speaker 1: he was completely lying. Look, I'm on a level with you. 334 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: For over a decade, Facebook has deliberately made itself worse 335 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:57,320 Speaker 1: to make more money. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and his 336 00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:01,480 Speaker 1: growth team perpetuating a culture that manipulates and tortures users 337 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,439 Speaker 1: to make number go up. It really is that simple. 338 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,160 Speaker 1: While reporting this, I genuinely had to check with multiple 339 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: people just to make sure I hadn't accidentally written a 340 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:15,400 Speaker 1: rot economy fan fiction piece. This shit is completely bonkers 341 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,239 Speaker 1: and also a lot of its public has no one 342 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:23,080 Speaker 1: put anyway. In a twenty sixteen memo leaked a BuzzFeed. 343 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: Several years ago, then vice president Andrew bos Bosworth, now 344 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: Facebook's chief technology officer, wrote a horrifying screed. It's a 345 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:36,360 Speaker 1: real stomach turner, and it romanticized Facebook's growth at all 346 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:40,400 Speaker 1: cost culture. Boss want to name no if that connecting 347 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: people on Facebook, and these are quotes, by the way, 348 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: may cost a life by exposing someone to bullies, and 349 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:50,159 Speaker 1: that and again I quote, maybe someone dies in a 350 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:56,200 Speaker 1: terrorist attack coordinated using Facebook's tools, but that because Facebook's 351 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: mission was to connect people, all the work that Facebook 352 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: does in growth is justified. Boss makes it clear that 353 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: this is a moral judgment by adding that again I quote, 354 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: all questionable contact important practices such as the one by 355 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:11,679 Speaker 1: the way that I mentioned with people. You may know, 356 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,879 Speaker 1: all the subtle language that helps people stay searchable to 357 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,919 Speaker 1: their friends, which again refers to terms and conditions, and 358 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,400 Speaker 1: all the work that Facebook does to bring more communication 359 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:27,000 Speaker 1: in was justified in the pursuit of growth. This man, 360 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:31,199 Speaker 1: this horrible, nasty man, is the chief technology officer of 361 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 1: meta and he's the mastermind, by the way, behind both metas, 362 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 1: Metaverse and their artificial intelligence goals. This is the guy. 363 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,160 Speaker 1: This is the guy. Anyway, as I'll explain and as 364 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:47,160 Speaker 1: you can probably kind of work out right now, Facebook 365 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: is culturally a rot economy company. It is at its 366 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:55,400 Speaker 1: core a growth at all costs enterprise, and they will 367 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: make any changes they need to make their products, make 368 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,880 Speaker 1: a number go up, and it can be as simple 369 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:03,840 Speaker 1: as revenue, or it can be a completely made up 370 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,000 Speaker 1: number that they made just to make Mark Zuckerbok happy. 371 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: In December twenty twenty, a Facebook engineer published a document 372 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,960 Speaker 1: that they wrote in twenty nineteen called when User Engagement 373 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,359 Speaker 1: Doesn't Equal User Value? Shared with me by a source 374 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 1: that assures me that these documents are available through Harvard. 375 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:27,080 Speaker 1: This remarkable document is a stark warning one posted internally 376 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:31,119 Speaker 1: at the company, and it's warning them that Facebook's brutal 377 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,280 Speaker 1: focus on user engagement and I quote time spent on 378 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: the app damages the user experience and the person in question. 379 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,560 Speaker 1: They explain it through the context of cable TV versus 380 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: broadcast TV, and how cable TV needs to maximize its 381 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,360 Speaker 1: value for their fixed fee options, and that broadcast TV 382 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,880 Speaker 1: needs to maximize people watching shows intently because one makes 383 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,960 Speaker 1: money off of subscription and one makes money off of advertisement, 384 00:22:56,040 --> 00:22:59,480 Speaker 1: which means people need to really watch it in the 385 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: case of broad cost TV, and what the engineer was 386 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,040 Speaker 1: getting at when they were talking about this was that 387 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:07,880 Speaker 1: this sometimes leads broadcast television to do some nasty things, 388 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,320 Speaker 1: some kind of anti user things, by having constant recaps, 389 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:15,320 Speaker 1: padding scenes with flashbacks, adding cliffhangers, giving people a reason 390 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,639 Speaker 1: to keep watching that isn't just the show's good. But 391 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: I'm going to continue here. The engineer then goes on 392 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,720 Speaker 1: to explain several ways that Facebook has deliberately made its 393 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: products worse to maximize engagement. He lists the Facebook deliberately 394 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,359 Speaker 1: limited the amount of information and notifications to make people 395 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,040 Speaker 1: come to the site to increase engagement, as people had 396 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: to keep checking to see what was happening and couldn't 397 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,320 Speaker 1: rely on notifications for well, I don't know notifying them 398 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,960 Speaker 1: about stuff. The Engineering Question referred to this as a 399 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: clear value engagement trade off. Facebook also deliberately stopped sending 400 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: out emails telling people what happened on their feed, so 401 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:57,879 Speaker 1: that they would have to visit the site. Facebook would also, 402 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 1: by maximizing time spent on the site, incentivize a kind 403 00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:04,800 Speaker 1: of bad ranking, I imagine, because when you're incentivizing things 404 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: to keep people on the site, you're not actually trying 405 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 1: to show them the things they want. You're trying to 406 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,879 Speaker 1: get in the way of it. One other not is 407 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: Facebook's algorithm kept prioritizing headlines that said misleading things and 408 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,160 Speaker 1: subtly exaggerated things to get people to click links, and 409 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:24,919 Speaker 1: the Engineering Question says it did this all the time, 410 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,320 Speaker 1: and the solution to deal with it, again quoting was 411 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: very crude. To be clear, all of these things would 412 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,720 Speaker 1: deliberate actions by Facebook. Facebook could have more information in 413 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:38,840 Speaker 1: notifications than indeed they used to. Facebook could get rid 414 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:42,000 Speaker 1: of clickbaity stuff like this, but doing that would bring 415 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,360 Speaker 1: the numbers down, and that just isn't gonna make Mark 416 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: Zuckerberg happy. This piece was a dire warning to Facebook's 417 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,240 Speaker 1: internal staff, and it includes new most really worrying warnings 418 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,360 Speaker 1: about what the company's doing to keep people engaged. It's 419 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,240 Speaker 1: laired with evidence from news in academia. The engineer warns 420 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:05,720 Speaker 1: that higher Facebook use is correlated to worse psychological states 421 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: that an experiment found that a month long break from 422 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:13,600 Speaker 1: Facebook improved self reported well being in people. They found 423 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: that a large fraction of Facebook users struggled with their 424 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram use, and that a significant minority of users, 425 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:22,480 Speaker 1: about three point one percent of them at the time, 426 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,119 Speaker 1: reported serious problems with sleep, work, or relationships that they 427 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,800 Speaker 1: attributed directly to Facebook, and concerns or preoccupations with how 428 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:35,960 Speaker 1: they used the website. Underneath these warnings, the engineer gave 429 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: some suggested solutions, and they noted that over the last 430 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 1: couple of years, Facebook's news feed has slowly switched from 431 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:46,360 Speaker 1: maximizing time spent towards maximizing sessions, meaning that Facebook had 432 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,880 Speaker 1: now changed to focus less on how long a user 433 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,720 Speaker 1: was on the platform and more towards how many times 434 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: they visited, which the engineer noted was a strong predictor 435 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,120 Speaker 1: of problematic use. This document, again, just to be clear, 436 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:03,679 Speaker 1: written in twenty nine, published in twenty twenty, it really frames, 437 00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,879 Speaker 1: how craven Facebook was about twisting its users habits, and 438 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,920 Speaker 1: how intimately aware the company was of these problems. One 439 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,640 Speaker 1: commenter on the piece added, in a larger thought about 440 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: addiction that they personally worried that driving sessions incentivized Facebook 441 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,399 Speaker 1: to make its products more addictive without providing much more value, 442 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:25,399 Speaker 1: and that, my friends, is exactly what Facebook has become, 443 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 1: a gratuitor social experiment where the customer is manipulated to 444 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: make a number go up. And for over a decade, 445 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: as I have said, Facebook has knowingly and repeatedly taken 446 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 1: these steps to maximize activities on the website at the 447 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:44,960 Speaker 1: direct cost of the user experience, and they've made countless 448 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,640 Speaker 1: tweets for the product to increase internal metrics, metrics obsessed 449 00:26:48,640 --> 00:27:01,119 Speaker 1: over by Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Schultz, and Haavier Olivan. In 450 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 1: another document from October twenty twenty provided to me by 451 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,840 Speaker 1: the same source, an engineer explained why the Facebook app 452 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,280 Speaker 1: took on sessions as a top line metric. In twenty nineteen, 453 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,440 Speaker 1: this piece posted on an internal channel centered around Facebook's 454 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,919 Speaker 1: app strategy of building and I quote socially powered services 455 00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,000 Speaker 1: that were focused on and I quote again the possibilities 456 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: of what people could do with Facebook, largely because Facebook 457 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 1: is no easy way to measure how it's satisfied news 458 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,440 Speaker 1: and needs. And by the way, that last part is 459 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,760 Speaker 1: a quote. This document's important because it reveals some very 460 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,919 Speaker 1: very specific details about the company, such as that in 461 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,879 Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, Mark Zuckerberg unilaterally decided that time spent on 462 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:46,119 Speaker 1: Facebook was a top level engagement goal and forced it 463 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,960 Speaker 1: upon the News team despite their protest that it was 464 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,480 Speaker 1: too easy to game. Now you may think too easy 465 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: to game, right, that's referring to exterior actors. Surely, right, 466 00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,760 Speaker 1: there's just some people who would manipulate the feed. No no, 467 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,359 Speaker 1: no, no no. When someone at Facebook says something is too 468 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,960 Speaker 1: easy to game, it means that they're warning that people 469 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: at Facebook will build products specifically to game the system 470 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,119 Speaker 1: to hit those metrics, even if it means making them worse, 471 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,480 Speaker 1: such as in the case of time spent on the app, 472 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,960 Speaker 1: making the product more convoluted to use, meaning that people 473 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 1: use the app more because it takes more effort to 474 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:26,119 Speaker 1: do the thing you want to. Hey, this kind of 475 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,960 Speaker 1: reminds me of something when propagard Ragavan led a coup 476 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,679 Speaker 1: to take over Google search from Ben Gomes mentioned this 477 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,480 Speaker 1: few episodes ago. Is specific obsession was with queries or 478 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: how many searches people made on Google. Mark Zuckerberg is 479 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 1: effectively doing the same thing here demanding In twenty fourteen, 480 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 1: as I mentioned that Facebook increased two specific metrics daily 481 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,880 Speaker 1: active people and time spent on the app, and he 482 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: was looking for a perpetual increase ten percent year of 483 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:58,200 Speaker 1: a year. It didn't matter if these things made the 484 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:01,080 Speaker 1: product worse or didn't actually to show that their users 485 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: were happy here, enjoying the website, or found it useful. 486 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:09,760 Speaker 1: All that matters was the number went up. But I continue. 487 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:14,120 Speaker 1: The document notes that in twenty seventeen, engagement metrics started 488 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,720 Speaker 1: to take a dive, but the company's focus on time 489 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: spent meant that nobody actually noticed because the number that 490 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,560 Speaker 1: Mark Zuckerberg cared about was going up until the alarm 491 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,360 Speaker 1: was sounded by some internal engineers, and then Facebook moved 492 00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,240 Speaker 1: to the concept of sessions. To be clear, time spent 493 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: always stuck around, but it was no longer the prize 494 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,959 Speaker 1: pig that must be fattened up. In this document, they 495 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,840 Speaker 1: discuss a term called meaningful interactions, which is the underlying 496 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,959 Speaker 1: metric which allegedly guides Facebook today. In January twenty eighteen, 497 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,040 Speaker 1: Adam Masseeri, then head of Newsfeed, would post an update 498 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 1: about the feed, claiming it would now prioritize posts that 499 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people, which may explain 500 00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:58,400 Speaker 1: both the chaos and the rot in the news feed thereafter. 501 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: And to be clear, you've really got to think about that, 502 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,800 Speaker 1: got to think about what he meant with that. Prioritize 503 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: posts to spark conversations and meaningful interactions sounds like engagement 504 00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:11,400 Speaker 1: bait to me. And if you've used Facebook at any 505 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: time in the last few years, I don't think you're 506 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: going to disagree. As I've said, metrics around time spent 507 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,479 Speaker 1: hung around this company like a stinky fart, especially with 508 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: regard to video, and Facebook has repeatedly and intentionally made 509 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:28,240 Speaker 1: changes to manipulate its users to satisfy these metrics. In 510 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:31,600 Speaker 1: his book Broken Code, Jeff Horwitz notes that Facebook changed 511 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,240 Speaker 1: its news feed design to encourage people to click on 512 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,840 Speaker 1: the reshare button or follow a page when they view 513 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: the post, with engineers altering the Facebook algorithm to increase 514 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: how often users saw content reshared from people they didn't know, which, 515 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: by the way, think about that for a second. They 516 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:50,880 Speaker 1: changed the algorithm to make your feed more full of 517 00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:55,000 Speaker 1: stuff that was not people you knew, just strangers just 518 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: so annoying. Horwitz also notes that Facebook began hunting for 519 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,000 Speaker 1: and I quote friction, anything that was slowing users down 520 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: or limiting their activity, with the goal of eliminating it, 521 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:09,120 Speaker 1: something that manifested in Facebook allowing users to create an 522 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: unlimited amount of pages and cross posts the same material 523 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,840 Speaker 1: to multiple groups at once, and even a change to 524 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,320 Speaker 1: people you may know that prioritized recommending accounts that were 525 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,840 Speaker 1: likely to accept a friend request. Naturally, this led to 526 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,480 Speaker 1: negative incentives, and in an internal document from twenty eighteen 527 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: called the friend in one percent inequality in Friending, an 528 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:33,760 Speaker 1: unnamed internal Facebook worker noted that Facebook's aggressive optimization to 529 00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: make people send friend requests had created a weird situation 530 00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,680 Speaker 1: where point five percent of Facebook accounts were responsible for 531 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 1: fifty percent of friend requests. Worse still, accounts that were 532 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: less than fifteen days old now made up twenty percent 533 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,240 Speaker 1: of all outgoing friend requests, and more than half of 534 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: friend requests were sent by somebody who was making more 535 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: than fifty of them a day. Heavily suggesting that Facebook 536 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:01,480 Speaker 1: was basically growing its platform by allowing spammers to spam. 537 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:07,680 Speaker 1: It's astonishing how stupid this company is. Or maybe they're 538 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: quite brilliant if you just think of them as a 539 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: deeply evil and manipulative software company built to grow metrics 540 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: and revenue, in which case they're amazing. In a later 541 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:21,040 Speaker 1: document published in mid twenty nineteen, another engineer proposes limiting 542 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,680 Speaker 1: the amount of invites that Facebook users can cent to groups, 543 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: specifically noting that and I quote a larger proportion of 544 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: invites into bad groups come from a small subset of 545 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: whale inviters that sent out massive amounts of invites in 546 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 1: a small amount of time, specifically noting that this effect 547 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:42,240 Speaker 1: was really helping vaccine misinformation groups, which posed and I 548 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:45,600 Speaker 1: quote an integrity and product relevant risk to the company. 549 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,800 Speaker 1: A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg grudgingly established some limits 550 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: on invites. It's not really clear what they are, though. 551 00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:58,400 Speaker 1: For Facebook and Meta at large, anything that might get 552 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:00,880 Speaker 1: in the way of growth is kind of an oh. 553 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: Sometime in twenty twenty, another document I've reviewed through the 554 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: same source proposed limiting the distribution as in the recommendation 555 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,560 Speaker 1: of groups before they've proven to be trustworthy. So give 556 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:14,160 Speaker 1: you an example here. The idea would be that if 557 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: a group came up that was outwardly racist or anti 558 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,800 Speaker 1: vags or I don't know, a January sixth style group, 559 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,800 Speaker 1: just throwing that out there, you would want to stop 560 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,200 Speaker 1: them from being recommended to others so they don't grow 561 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: and do something bad like I don't know, visit Washington DC. 562 00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,400 Speaker 1: The problem, as the unnamed engineer describes, is that and 563 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,880 Speaker 1: I quote, unproven movements were able to get traction on 564 00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: Facebook way before community standards could review them, and some 565 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: of them were gaining millions of followers in a single day, 566 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: and that the groups had immediately began to violate community standards. 567 00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:51,280 Speaker 1: And yeah, by the way, if you're thinking that this 568 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,400 Speaker 1: ends with me saying and then Facebook realized that this 569 00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:56,920 Speaker 1: was a problem and they changed something, You're wrong. They 570 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 1: did nothing. Facebook never put any limitation. They never did. 571 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 1: I'm sure that they're going to claim they have, but 572 00:34:03,400 --> 00:34:08,560 Speaker 1: its bollocks in broken code. Hollwitz notes that quote, even 573 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,280 Speaker 1: when the safety benefits were high and the business risks 574 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,839 Speaker 1: were low, Facebook would choose not to use its emergency 575 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,719 Speaker 1: break the glass playbooks to take action, which by the way, 576 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,360 Speaker 1: were their emergency see things that allowed them to quickly 577 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,240 Speaker 1: make groups have to review every post, and various other measures. 578 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 1: And even when Facebook used these measures, it was very 579 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:30,360 Speaker 1: quick to roll them back. Holwitz gives an example of 580 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,120 Speaker 1: the run up to Myanmar's twenty twenty election, when the 581 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: company rolled out the break the glass measures, limiting the 582 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,879 Speaker 1: spread of reshared content and replacing it with content from 583 00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,000 Speaker 1: user's friends. These countermeasures were quite successful, and they produced 584 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,560 Speaker 1: an impressive twenty five percent reduction in viral inflammatory posts 585 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,760 Speaker 1: and a forty nine percent reduction in viral hoax photos, 586 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,600 Speaker 1: and it only cost them about two percent of meaningful 587 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: social interactions, which was facebooks and is Facebook's most favorite metric. 588 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:01,800 Speaker 1: Holwitz then notes that despite the small change in engagement, 589 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,279 Speaker 1: an internal team chose to roll these changes back a 590 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:08,520 Speaker 1: few months later. Can't stop that number going up. But 591 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,879 Speaker 1: I got a worse story. This one, This one really 592 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:16,719 Speaker 1: turns my stomach. One particularly horrible story, and it really 593 00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,120 Speaker 1: pisses me off, is one of something called Project Daisy, 594 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,480 Speaker 1: which was a pilot program that would remove likes from 595 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,720 Speaker 1: Instagram in an attempt to reduce the anxiety and negative 596 00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,960 Speaker 1: feelings that teenagers felt using the app, and this idea, 597 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,759 Speaker 1: by the way, it was retired after Adam Masseerri, who 598 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:34,799 Speaker 1: is now the head of Instagram, claimed it had a 599 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 1: and I quote very little impact and the result was neutral, 600 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: relegating it to a feature I have to opt into. Yet. 601 00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:44,560 Speaker 1: A complaint filed by several US states, including California and 602 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,680 Speaker 1: New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania in May twenty twenty 603 00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,360 Speaker 1: three quoted a Meta researcher saying that project Daisy, so 604 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:53,759 Speaker 1: turning off visible likes on Instagram, was one of the 605 00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: clearest things supported by research that Meta could do to 606 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,480 Speaker 1: positively impact social comparison and well being on Instagram, and 607 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,799 Speaker 1: they advocated for shipping it, with another researcher saying that 608 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:08,120 Speaker 1: Daisy is such a rare case where a product intervention 609 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: can improve well being for almost everyone that uses Meta's products. Chillingly, 610 00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: one Meta employee said that if Meta refused to implement 611 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,719 Speaker 1: Daisy despite the research, they were doubtful that Meta would 612 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,880 Speaker 1: implement any broad product changes with the purpose of improving 613 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,880 Speaker 1: user well being. I think we can all agree they 614 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:33,920 Speaker 1: were correct that story. Just it's so disgusting because usually 615 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,000 Speaker 1: with these big tech companies, they do something horrible and 616 00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,920 Speaker 1: you kind of have to work backwards. You're like, okay, 617 00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,400 Speaker 1: so they probably did it for this reason. This was 618 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: something where Adam Messeri utter scumbag lied. He lied so 619 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,880 Speaker 1: that Facebook could make this, so that Facebook could handwave 620 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:53,240 Speaker 1: away not doing something that would help many people, including 621 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:58,200 Speaker 1: millions of children, and then lied. And it's just disgraceful. 622 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,120 Speaker 1: These people have names. These people's names need to be 623 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:06,720 Speaker 1: attached with the word scumbag and lyar it's so disgusting. Anyway, 624 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: the suit in question is labyrinthine, and it specifically makes 625 00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:13,600 Speaker 1: one allegation aligns with the current state of both of 626 00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:18,600 Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram. And I quote that Meta's algorithm alters 627 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: users experience on the platform and draws on witting users 628 00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:26,200 Speaker 1: into rabbit holes of algorithmically curated material. And as I've 629 00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,600 Speaker 1: mentioned before, the people involved from the very beginning are 630 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:34,040 Speaker 1: those perpetuating this abuse of users. An email thread from 631 00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 1: late twenty seventeen and early twenty eighteen, cited on page 632 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,759 Speaker 1: fifty four of the aforementioned complaint is one between Adamisari 633 00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:45,240 Speaker 1: and other executives discussing significant declients in US engagement metrics 634 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:50,239 Speaker 1: naming how reducing notifications was associated with reduced engagement, with 635 00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:52,359 Speaker 1: an unnamed employee stating that there would be a trade 636 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,839 Speaker 1: off between making a better notification experience for users and 637 00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 1: recovering flailing numbers in Facebook's daily active people metric. In 638 00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,800 Speaker 1: the same thread, chief product officer Chris Cox said that 639 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,920 Speaker 1: if the team believed that a filtered notification experience was better, 640 00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:10,600 Speaker 1: they shouldn't make changes because the metric was down, adding 641 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 1: that Meta needed to get better at making the harder 642 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:17,800 Speaker 1: decisions when the main decision criteria was choosing the customer 643 00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 1: experience over a particular metric. The then VP of Analytics 644 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,280 Speaker 1: now chief marketing officer Alex Schultz responded that he fundamentally 645 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,280 Speaker 1: believed that Meta abused the notifications channel as a company. 646 00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,560 Speaker 1: Though the suit doesn't quote the rest of the thread, 647 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,080 Speaker 1: it notes that the director of Growth, Andrew Bocking, ended 648 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,040 Speaker 1: the discussion by saying that Meta would prioritize engagement over 649 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,480 Speaker 1: reducing notifications and that he just got clear input from 650 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,760 Speaker 1: Naomi gLite that US daily active people is a bigger 651 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:54,839 Speaker 1: concern for Mark Zuckerberg right now than user experience. Fuck. Look, 652 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,799 Speaker 1: when I wrote about Probacar Ragavan's destruction of Google Search. 653 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,440 Speaker 1: It was a lot harder to find real, tangible proof 654 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 1: of his actions that one could easily chart a path 655 00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,839 Speaker 1: of intent in how he wanted to increase queries and 656 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:09,239 Speaker 1: revenue in Google Search at any cost, even if it 657 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,799 Speaker 1: men making changes to make it worse. But in Matter's case, 658 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:18,840 Speaker 1: it's just so much easier. Mark Zuckerberg is personally responsible 659 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,839 Speaker 1: for the state of Facebook and Instagram today, and he's 660 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:26,200 Speaker 1: assembled this marvel super team of growth fiends that will 661 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 1: at times happily and times begrudgingly make the user experience 662 00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:33,239 Speaker 1: worse to increase engagement. And it isn't even a new 663 00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:36,680 Speaker 1: phenomenon from the early days of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is 664 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,760 Speaker 1: acted without remorse. He's tricked, he's schemed, he's screwed over others, 665 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,399 Speaker 1: and it's all in pursuit of dominance and financial gain 666 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: and growth. And it's absolutely goddamn disgusting. Yet Zuckerberg could 667 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:55,399 Speaker 1: not do these things, He could not perpetuate these disgusting 668 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 1: acts without the help of people like Chief marketing officer 669 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:02,000 Speaker 1: Alex Schultz, who saw to it that Meta shut down 670 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:06,000 Speaker 1: crowd Tangle, a public inside tool from Meta that allowed 671 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:09,320 Speaker 1: researchers to easily analyze what was happening on the platform. 672 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,880 Speaker 1: Jeff Horwitz's notes in Broken Code that Facebook, led by Schultz, 673 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,160 Speaker 1: killed crowd Tangle because reporter Kevin Ruth kept posting a 674 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,320 Speaker 1: list of Facebook's most engaged with content and that Facebook 675 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 1: was dominated with right wing assholes and lunacy in misinformation 676 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:27,360 Speaker 1: like the movie Plandemic, an obvious COVID conspiracy film that 677 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,080 Speaker 1: Joel Kaplan, head of Meta's public policy team and a 678 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 1: former Googler, by the way, initially blocked the health team 679 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,560 Speaker 1: from removing until rus reported that it was Facebook's number 680 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:42,640 Speaker 1: one post. Just to be abundantly goddamn clear, the head 681 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,160 Speaker 1: of public policy at Facebook deliberately allowed the spread of 682 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:49,600 Speaker 1: COVID conspiracies and would have continued to do so if 683 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,479 Speaker 1: a reporter had not used a Facebook tool to show 684 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:57,040 Speaker 1: them how popular the post was and the result. By 685 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,120 Speaker 1: the way, they killed the tool that allowed Kevin in 686 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:05,720 Speaker 1: Rous to find out that this happened. Thanks Alex. Every 687 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:09,680 Speaker 1: single terrible thing you see on Facebook, be it some 688 00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:13,080 Speaker 1: sort of insane right wing free or a confusing, annoying 689 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:18,080 Speaker 1: product decision, every single thing has been done and pushed 690 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,399 Speaker 1: in pursuit of growth. Every bit of damage that matter 691 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,800 Speaker 1: as course to the world has been either an active 692 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,839 Speaker 1: ignorance or an act of deliberate harm, and many times 693 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,240 Speaker 1: tweaking the product to make it harder or more annoying 694 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,840 Speaker 1: to use so that you'll log onto Facebook or Instagram 695 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:34,719 Speaker 1: multiple times a day and spend as much time on 696 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:39,879 Speaker 1: the app as possible. This should also explain why both 697 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:43,760 Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook are just so terrible to use. Meta's 698 00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,839 Speaker 1: company culture is one of sycovancy and user abuse, and 699 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,640 Speaker 1: both of these apps are deliberately engineered to get in 700 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:51,400 Speaker 1: the way of once you want to do as a 701 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,880 Speaker 1: means of increasing your engagement, even if that engagement is 702 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:58,200 Speaker 1: one because the thing you're engaging with is actively fighting you. 703 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:01,400 Speaker 1: And the rock begins at the top. And all of 704 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:06,439 Speaker 1: these horrifying, infuriating, disgusting, stomach changing choices have been perpetuated 705 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,000 Speaker 1: by Mark Zuckerberg and he's enforcer, Naomi Glait, making demands 706 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,239 Speaker 1: of engineers desperate to appease the almighty uck having to 707 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,719 Speaker 1: and I quote Horwitz, be careful not to frame decisions 708 00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:19,040 Speaker 1: in terms of right and wrong, because god damn, we 709 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,680 Speaker 1: won't want Mark Zuckerberg having a fucking conscience. All right, 710 00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,880 Speaker 1: let me calm down for a second story. But this 711 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:28,239 Speaker 1: really is the petty king of the tech industry, a 712 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: multi billionaire that can never be fired. That's billions of 713 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,320 Speaker 1: people on websites that he's deliberately made worse to boost 714 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,960 Speaker 1: engagement rather than provide any kind of service for a 715 00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:41,480 Speaker 1: company that makes billions and billions and billions of dollars. 716 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:46,040 Speaker 1: You can probably hear how frustrated I am with this company, 717 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:48,120 Speaker 1: and I apologize if I've gone a little bit off 718 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,200 Speaker 1: the depend but Mark Zuckerberg is a goddamn scumbag, and 719 00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,760 Speaker 1: he hurts his users for profit. The entire tech industry 720 00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:58,520 Speaker 1: should know who he is, the culture he's created, and 721 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:01,560 Speaker 1: the ways in which he's brutalized this company into finding 722 00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:04,880 Speaker 1: ways to increase numbers, all at the cost of user happiness. 723 00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,960 Speaker 1: And my anger is because there was a time that 724 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,160 Speaker 1: Facebook was useful. There was a time that Instagram is useful. 725 00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:14,640 Speaker 1: There are friends and family that I've kept in touch 726 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:18,080 Speaker 1: with thanks to Facebook products, thanks to Instagram. There are 727 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:20,759 Speaker 1: things that these products have actually done for people that 728 00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:23,239 Speaker 1: have made their lives better, and all of that is 729 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,840 Speaker 1: going away. All of it's being crushed by the rot economy, 730 00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:31,080 Speaker 1: and it's King Mark Zuckerberg. There is no one who 731 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:35,319 Speaker 1: is more of a rot economist than Mark Zuckerberg. It's disgusting, 732 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:41,400 Speaker 1: it's unconscionable. It's also utterly pathetic. Mark Zuckerberg created probably 733 00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,279 Speaker 1: one of no, I would say, within Facebook's history, at 734 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,560 Speaker 1: least three or four different products, the idea of news feeds, 735 00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,919 Speaker 1: profile pages, these are all things that Facebook really popularized. 736 00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:53,919 Speaker 1: Mark did something kind of incredible, as did the people 737 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,800 Speaker 1: under him, and then he just wanted more. He always 738 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,880 Speaker 1: wanted more. Mark zucker must have more. He must have 739 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,480 Speaker 1: more of Hawaii, he must have more of the Internet. 740 00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,239 Speaker 1: But I will give you a funny side to this. 741 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:13,759 Speaker 1: Everything's kind of falling apart. In the next episode, I'm 742 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,160 Speaker 1: gonna show you how Mark Zuckerberg's disgusting attitude to running 743 00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:21,799 Speaker 1: a company is genuinely destroying these products. I've shown you 744 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,160 Speaker 1: the harm he's perpetuated and the deliberate actions behind it. 745 00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,120 Speaker 1: And in this next episode, I'm gonna show you how 746 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:32,440 Speaker 1: bad things have got and honestly that Facebook's hand a dang. 747 00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:44,200 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Thank you for listening to Better Offline. 748 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,759 Speaker 1: The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song 749 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:49,480 Speaker 1: is Matasowski. You can check out more of his music 750 00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:53,000 Speaker 1: and audio projects at Matasowski dot com, M A T 751 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:57,759 Speaker 1: T O. S O w Ski dot com. You can 752 00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:00,319 Speaker 1: email me at easy at Better offline dot com or 753 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:02,880 Speaker 1: visit Better Offline dot com to find more podcast links 754 00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:06,040 Speaker 1: and of course, my newsletter. I also really recommend you 755 00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:08,200 Speaker 1: go to chat dot where's youreaed dot at to visit 756 00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:10,880 Speaker 1: the discord, and go to our slash Better Offline to 757 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,040 Speaker 1: check out I'll Reddit. Thank you so much for listening. 758 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,560 Speaker 1: Better Offline is a production of cool Zone Media. For 759 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,840 Speaker 1: more from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool Zonemedia 760 00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:23,759 Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 761 00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,480 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.