Facebook Is Passing the Buck

The company has finally responded to the Cambridge Analytica scandal—sort of.

By WILL OREMUS @ Slate.com, March 20, 5:50 pm

After a long, awkward silence, Facebook has issued its first official statement since Saturday morning in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that is rocking its business and public image. And it says—well, not a whole lot [....]

He concludes it sounds like they are afraid of legal consequences but it still seems to boggle his mind how they are just sort of sitting there doing the silence thing, disastrously losing customers and company value and not saying much. Which in itself implies they must be really scared by what lawyers or analysts are saying?

Facebook Made Him a Billionaire. Now He’s a Critic.

By Nellie Bowles @ NYTimes.com, MARCH 21, 2018

As Silicon Valley experiences a wave of criticism, even some former colleagues are becoming adversaries.

Another prominent skeptic spoke out this week, as a creator of one of Facebook’s top products waded into criticism of the internet giant.

“It is time. #deletefacebook,” wrote Brian Acton, one of the founders of WhatsApp, wrote on Twitter. His company was bought by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. The deal made him a billionaire.

Mr. Acton’s anti-Facebook message, retweeted more than 10,000 times, captured a moment in the tech industry when even some of its best-known people are publicly calling for change. The chorus has grown louder this week, as Facebook faces questions over how it allowed a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to obtain data on 50 million users.

“The question is, ‘What are you loyal to?’” said Tristan Harris, a former Google employee who has started The Center for Humane Technology, an organization for Silicon Valley workers who want to change corporate culture. He has been critical of social media companies for creating addictive products that inflame cultural tensions. 

“Are you more loyal to your company,” Mr. Harris said. “Or are you more loyal to protecting the fabric of our society?”

The tech defections have accelerated in recent months, especially for Facebook.

Justin Rosenstein, the creator of the Facebook “like” button, deleted the product from his phone and spoke out about the industry using psychologically manipulative advertising. Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook’s former head of user growth, said in December that the company was “ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” And Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook platform operations manager, wrote on Tuesday in The Washington Post that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, must “be held accountable for the negligence of his company.” [....]