At this late date, who still trusts Mark Zuckerberg? Isaiah was saying "Unfriend" months ago.
Who's the Zucker now? A lot of people. Olivia Solon and Cyrus Farivar (NBC NEWS) report:
Olivia Solon and Cyrus Farivar Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversaw plans to consolidate the social network’s power and control competitors by treating its users’ data as a bargaining chip, while publicly proclaiming to be protecting that data, according to about 4,000 pages of leaked company documents largely spanning 2011 to 2015 and obtained by NBC News.
The documents, which include emails, webchats, presentations, spreadsheets and meeting summaries, show how Zuckerberg, along with his board and management team, found ways to tap Facebook’s trove of user data — including information about friends, relationships and photos — as leverage over companies it partnered with.
In some cases, Facebook would reward favored companies by giving them access to the data of its users. In other cases, it would deny user-data access to rival companies or apps.
The government needs to open a serious investigation into how FACEBOOK has violated the privacy of its users. And before you fall for fake ass Gloria Steinem's many endorsements of Sheryl Sandberg? Grasp that former CIA employee Gloria (John Leland, THE NEW YORK TIMES, "Gloria Steinem started her career as a CIA operative"), once again manipulated people and betrayed their trust with her ringing endorsement of Sheryl. NBC NEWS notes:
Still, these freshly leaked documents show that the plans to sell access to user data were discussed for years and received support from Facebook’s most senior executives, including Zuckerberg, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, chief product officer Chris Cox and VP of growth Javier Olivan. Facebook declined to make them available for comment.
Not everyone fell for Sheryl's little con job. Susan Faludi didn't fall for it. At THE BAFFLER, Susan used her keen observation skills to note realities that so many wanted to ignore:
But the real foundation of the movement is, of course, Sheryl Sandberg’s bestselling book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, billed modestly by its author as “sort of a feminist manifesto.” Sandberg’s mantra has become the feminist rallying cry of the moment, praised by notable figures such as Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda, Marlo Thomas, and Nation columnist Katha Pollitt. A Time magazine cover story hails Sandberg for “embarking on the most ambitious mission to reboot feminism and reframe discussions of gender since the launch of Ms. magazine in 1971.” Pretty good for somebody who, “as of two and a half years ago,” as Sandberg confessed on her book tour, “had never said the word woman aloud. Because that’s not how you get ahead in the world.”
The lovefest continues on LeanIn.org’s “Meet the
Community” page, where tribute is paid by Sandberg’s high-powered
network of celebrities, corporate executives, and media moguls (many media moguls), among them Oprah Winfrey, New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, Newsweek and Daily Beast editor in chief Tina Brown, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Cosmopolitan editor in chief Joanna Coles, former Good Morning America
coanchor Willow Bay, former first lady Laura Bush (and both of her
daughters), former California first lady and TV host Maria Shriver, U.S.
senators Barbara Boxer and Elizabeth Warren, Harvard president Drew
Gilpin Faust, Dun & Bradstreet CEO Sara Mathew, Yahoo CEO Marissa
Mayer, Coca-Cola marketing executive Wendy Clark, fashion designer Diane
von Furstenberg, supermodel Tyra Banks, and actor (and Avon “Global
Ambassador”) Reese Witherspoon.
Beneath highly manicured glam shots, each “member”
or “partner” reveals her personal “Lean In moment.” The accounts
inevitably have happy finales—the Lean In guidelines instruct
contributors to “share a positive ending.” Tina Brown’s Lean In moment:
getting her parents to move from England to “the apartment across the
corridor from us on East 57th Street in New York,” so her mother could
take care of the children while Brown took the helm at The New Yorker.
If you were waiting for someone to lean in for child care legislation,
keep holding your breath. So far, there’s no discernible groundswell.
When asked why she isn’t pushing for structural
social and economic change, Sandberg says she’s all in favor of “public
policy reform,” though she’s vague about how exactly that would work,
beyond generic tsk-tsking about the pay gap and lack of maternity leave.
She says she supports reforming the workplace—but the particulars of
comparable worth or subsidized child care are hardly prominent elements
of her book or her many media appearances.
Sheryl, Mark, they're all liars who use you and betray you.
"While Facebook remains one of the largest companies in the world, it has lost some public trust in recent years," Judy Woodruff masterfully understated last week on PBS' THE NEWSHOUR as she introduced a discussion on the program:
Jeffrey Brown:
So, what do you see as the most important change here?
So, what do you see as the most important change here?
Elizabeth Dwoskin:
The most important change, hands down, is that Zuckerberg is consciously making a decision to limit Facebook's ability to collect data.
Right now, especially on Facebook Messenger, they can read your messages if they need to. That helps them with law enforcement. That helps them fight Russian operatives and other bad actors. And it also helps them in their massive ad business.
But now they're going to go to an encryption model, which means they won't be able to read the content of their messages.
The most important change, hands down, is that Zuckerberg is consciously making a decision to limit Facebook's ability to collect data.
Right now, especially on Facebook Messenger, they can read your messages if they need to. That helps them with law enforcement. That helps them fight Russian operatives and other bad actors. And it also helps them in their massive ad business.
But now they're going to go to an encryption model, which means they won't be able to read the content of their messages.
Jeffrey Brown:
So, why are they doing this?
And we should say this involves integrating all of Facebook's assets, right, including WhatsApp and Instagram.
What is he saying, what is Mark Zuckerberg telling you about why they're doing this?
So, why are they doing this?
And we should say this involves integrating all of Facebook's assets, right, including WhatsApp and Instagram.
What is he saying, what is Mark Zuckerberg telling you about why they're doing this?
Elizabeth Dwoskin:
So, Zuckerberg would say it's all about privacy.
But one thing you have to understand about Mark Zuckerberg is that he's a master of following trends and getting credit for leading those trends. First of all, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, has been talking about privacy for a while.
And you're — if you're an iPhone user communicating with another iPhone user, your messages are already encrypted. WhatsApp, which Facebook owns, is already encrypted. But that's not because of Facebook. That's because the former founders of WhatsApp, who both left the company in frustration, believed in encryption.
The other thing is that Facebook is trying to restore its reputation with the public. So it makes sense to talk about privacy. But, remember, this is a person who just 10 years ago really said privacy is dead and everything should be public.
So it's definitely a 180 for the company and for Zuckerberg. But there's a little bit of — I don't know if you want to call it a bait and switch here, but just to remember, Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook owns Facebook.
And Instagram is growing like gangbusters. And Instagram is a public social network. So they're not saying, we're going to get rid of the public social network. They're just saying that we're going to double down on messaging, which, by the way, is where the world is going anyway.
Think about how often you text message vs. post on a social network these days.
So, Zuckerberg would say it's all about privacy.
But one thing you have to understand about Mark Zuckerberg is that he's a master of following trends and getting credit for leading those trends. First of all, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, has been talking about privacy for a while.
And you're — if you're an iPhone user communicating with another iPhone user, your messages are already encrypted. WhatsApp, which Facebook owns, is already encrypted. But that's not because of Facebook. That's because the former founders of WhatsApp, who both left the company in frustration, believed in encryption.
The other thing is that Facebook is trying to restore its reputation with the public. So it makes sense to talk about privacy. But, remember, this is a person who just 10 years ago really said privacy is dead and everything should be public.
So it's definitely a 180 for the company and for Zuckerberg. But there's a little bit of — I don't know if you want to call it a bait and switch here, but just to remember, Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook owns Facebook.
And Instagram is growing like gangbusters. And Instagram is a public social network. So they're not saying, we're going to get rid of the public social network. They're just saying that we're going to double down on messaging, which, by the way, is where the world is going anyway.
Think about how often you text message vs. post on a social network these days.
If people don't have the good sense to protect themselves, maybe the fates will take care of it by making FACEBOOK even more and more outmoded and out of date.