I must be a jaded Washington insider
Nov. 15th, 2018 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osewalrusI am just not getting the shock value out of this NYT piece on Facebook's reaction to the unfolding political problems over the last two years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
It's interesting. In particular, both Zuckerberg and Sandberg come off as very disengaged and failing to grasp the seriousness of the concerns. They let their head Republican government affairs guy, Kaplan, pretty much run the show and followed advice to try to minimize their own issues by pointing to rivals.
But the supposed big thing -- their Republican spin firm tried to blame opposition on Soros -- was both fairly small (it boils down to one research memo circulated to reporters) and a consequence of relying on Republican operatives. They are clearly responsible for it, but it's not like Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg made a conscious decision to go anti-Semitic dog-whistle.
It's useful for folks to see how a big company acts in a situation like this and how FB ended up screwing itself by stumbling along and listening to the traditional political operatives rather than actually digging in and treating this like a real existential crisis. But there is a flavor of moral outrage that I guess I'm just too jaded to get.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html
It's interesting. In particular, both Zuckerberg and Sandberg come off as very disengaged and failing to grasp the seriousness of the concerns. They let their head Republican government affairs guy, Kaplan, pretty much run the show and followed advice to try to minimize their own issues by pointing to rivals.
But the supposed big thing -- their Republican spin firm tried to blame opposition on Soros -- was both fairly small (it boils down to one research memo circulated to reporters) and a consequence of relying on Republican operatives. They are clearly responsible for it, but it's not like Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg made a conscious decision to go anti-Semitic dog-whistle.
It's useful for folks to see how a big company acts in a situation like this and how FB ended up screwing itself by stumbling along and listening to the traditional political operatives rather than actually digging in and treating this like a real existential crisis. But there is a flavor of moral outrage that I guess I'm just too jaded to get.
