Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Facebook employed a series of “addictive by design” features specifically targeted and tailored to exploiting the vulnerabilities of young users, while hiding the risky and harmful nature of such features. Forcing every lever to drive engagement and drive that addiction.

This “don’t mention the children” ethos is of course the opposite of the cheery slogans at Facebook to “bring your authentic self to work.” All Sheryl’s Lean In stories about leaving work at 5:30 P.M. and telling her coworkers she needed to be home with her children. Because the reality is that there is a big difference between what people at Faceb

Autonomy disturbs a certain kind of powerful person, and Sheryl has never accepted independence among her advisers. Even

How it’s an astonishingly effective machine to turn people against each other. And monitor people at a scale that was never possible before. And manipulate them. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for the most autocratic, oppressive regimes, because it gives them exactly what those regimes need: direct access into what people are saying from the top

At Facebook, the veil of civility is very thin.

“You’re looking at the election all wrong.” Joel’s tone is mildly patronizing. “If you look at Trump’s agenda it’s the Republican agenda. It’s the things we want. The things I want. It’s tax cuts. It’s less government. He’ll get it done. Trump’s got the Senate. He’s got the House. It’s a decisive victory. He can do things. Great things. Not only th

But the point when I realize that Facebook’s meetings with politicians are changing is when I see that Cameron and Osborne don’t want to confront Joel and Sheryl about any regulatory issues. What they want to talk about—and ultimately request—is Facebook’s support against the Brexit vote.

Instead, users get access to a handful of apps and websites that have been approved by Facebook and local service providers. This violates basic principles of net neutrality, the idea that everyone should have equal access to all the information and services on the internet, and the ability to create content and innovate without asking anyone for p

wants to establish a team within Facebook to figure out how to build the tools that will use the algorithm and platform to pressure adversaries, including politicians who oppose us, to bolster the policy team.