Mark Zuckerberg has long insisted that Facebook is a force for social good, the benefits of which outweigh the harm. While he may have succeeded in convincing himself of this, many others—within the company, in Washington, and beyond—appear less persuaded, especially as ongoing issues with the platform come to be seen as features rather than bugs. Seemingly frustrated that he can’t get control of the narrative, Zuckerberg reportedly signed off last month on an even more aggressive plan to repair his company’s image.
According to the New York Times, Project Amplify was first proposed earlier this year, and involves bombarding users with pro-Facebook stories in the platform’s News Feed feature to give users a more positive view of the company. The plan “shocked” several executives when it was pitched at a virtual meeting in January, an attendee told the Times: “Facebook had not previously positioned the News Feed as a place where it burnished its own reputation,” the paper reported. But the plan was part of a broader strategy on the part of the company to more forcefully defend itself against critics and distance Zuckerberg, its founder, from the scandals that have battered the brand.
“They’re realizing that no one else is going to come to their defense,” former Facebook public policy director Katie Harbath told the Times, “so they need to do it and say it themselves.”
Joe Osborne, a company spokesman, said Facebook had not changed its approach, and told the Times that users “deserve to know the steps we’re taking to address the different issues facing our company.” “We’re going to share those steps widely,” Osborne said. Oddly, Zuckerberg responded to the Times piece by focusing on a brief mention of him riding an electronic surfboard. “Look, it's one thing for the media to say false things about my work,” he wrote on Facebook, “but it's crossing the line to say I'm riding an electric surfboard when that video clearly shows a hydrofoil that I'm pumping with my own legs.”
Facebook has, indeed, been more assertive recently in its efforts to combat toxic content on the platform; earlier this year, it took what may have been its boldest step yet when it booted then-President Donald Trump in the wake of his inciting the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. But it has continued to struggle against disinformation and harmful content and has dodged transparency, as a series of Wall Street Journal reports last week made clear. Among the investigation’s findings: the company’s own research made clear that Instagram, which it owns, had harmful impact on teenage girls’ mental health; it has been overmatched by the scourge of misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines; and it gave preferential treatment to high-profile users, a matter Facebook’s oversight board is now reportedly probing. Facebook may be doing more to address the issues on its platform—but it also still seems to treat criticism more as a PR problem than a substantive problem to solve.
Indeed, company leaders seem to be embracing their worst tendencies rather than shifting away from them: Rather than increasing transparency, the Times report suggests that Facebook has sought to clamp down on its internal data. Rather than take responsibility for the company’s failures, Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and other executives have tried to distance themselves from them—including, perhaps, by paying extra to the Federal Trade Commission to avoid being held personally liable in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as a lawsuit filed by shareholders last month and made public Tuesday alleged. (Facebook declined to comment to Politico.) “The Board has never provided a serious check on Zuckerberg’s unfettered authority,” the suit charges. “Instead, it has enabled him, defended him, and paid billions of dollars from Facebook’s corporate coffers to make his problems go away.”
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Mark Zuckerberg Still Seems to Think Facebook’s Big Problem Is Bad P.R. - Vanity Fair
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