
Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own - aaronbrethorst
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sheryl-sandberg-leans-into-a-gale-of-bad-news-at-facebook-1536085230
======
UpshotKnothole
Even if Facebook actually wanted to change, intended to change and put time,
money, and talent to the task this would still be a serious uphill climb. The
idea that anyone could rehabilitate their image when they have no such
commitment is laughable. Does anyone seriously think what this really isn’t
just crisis mangement? Every quarter that FB can stave off inevitable backlash
and regulation is money in their pocket, even if it’s only a decaying orbit.
Like the tobacco industry in its day, delay delay delay because thst delay is
profitable. If you can’t make your product “healthy” without throwing out your
product, this is how you act.

~~~
jliptzin
Facebook is the cigarette of our generation

~~~
mehrdadn
Really? Besides "feeling good" (I assume?), I would be hard pressed to think
of a single beneficial thing about cigarette. Facebook certainly has more
productive uses than just making you feel good... the question is whether
they're worth the downsides.

~~~
waterhouse
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses)

"Enhancing performance: Nicotine is frequently used for its performance-
enhancing effects on cognition, alertness, and focus.[38] A meta-analysis of
41 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies concluded that nicotine or smoking
had significant positive effects on aspects of fine motor abilities, alerting
and orienting attention, and episodic and working memory.[39] A 2015 review
noted that stimulation of the α4β2 nicotinic receptor is responsible for
certain improvements in attentional performance;[40] ..."

Not that this is how most people use it (esp. because those who do smoke are
likely not allowed to do so inside an office building, meaning they couldn't
be e.g. programming at their multi-monitor desk while doing it; seems the
half-life of nicotine in the body is 1-2 hours, so perhaps it could be net-
beneficial to go outside briefly); nor that it couldn't be done via skin
patches or other delivery mechanisms.

~~~
sebleon
Very interesting - the few times I've had a cigarette, I've definitely noticed
a sense of clarity in thinking and alertness. For non-smokers, showers seem to
be one of the rare times where one is left alone with ones thoughts to
explore, while cigarette smokers may experience this with every smoking break.

~~~
gaius
Yes, I’ve never smoked cigarettes but I’ve always envied the way smokers could
always just take a few minutes to gather their thoughts whenever they wanted.
And smoking as a social activity cuts out all class and other boundaries.

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ilovecaching
To those of you saying Facebook provides no value, here are some concrete
examples:

\- In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on
messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to
barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods.

Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites”
for their shops and activities for free via pages. Facebook connects people to
their pages and gives people a place to hold forums with public officials
without anonymity.

\- Facebook pioneered removing anonymity from a social media platform. On
Facebook I can have more accountability and I am more likely to be myself. I
can keep in touch with the real people who have passed through my life. I met
my wife on Facebook this way.

\- Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see. I’m still
friends with many people from highschool I haven’t seen in over a decade. No
other platform provided that type of value. Even if we rarely interact, they
can always reach me on messenger even if they don’t have my phone number.

\- Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with.
Instagram and twitter are just echo chambers based on what I like or are just
pictures of sunsets. On Facebook I have found that my friends and family often
post opinions that I don’t agree with during world events. This has led to
discourse that has allowed me to broaden my perspective.

\- Facebook’s ADs platform allows small business to compete against much
larger entities on a small advertising budget through targeted ads. I have
joined several hobbyist communities by having ads targeted at me that were
relevant to my interests.

~~~
speedplane
> Facebook pioneered removing anonymity

Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now
impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity,
but they replaced it with fraud.

> Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see.

If you rarely see them or interact, how much true value are you gaining other
than an abstract sense of nostalgia.

> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with

Hearing people that disagree with you isn't enough. You need quality to build
a rich library of ideas. Facebook does no vetting, giving everyone a
microphone regardless of how thought-out or truthful the message is.

> Facebook’s ADs

Good advertising on a platform may make the platform less bad, but it doesn't
make it good. Who goes to Facebook to enjoy nice targeted ads?

Overall, the biggest issue is the first one. It's now impossible to tell
what's real and what isn't on Facebook. The site is rife with bots and hacked
accounts, you don't really know if you're talking to a person or someone with
a hidden agenda.

~~~
mercer
> > Facebook pioneered removing anonymity

> Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now
> impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity,
> but they replaced it with fraud.

While true, it's also true that for most people, most of their facebook
friends _are_ real people using their real name. That's decidedly different
from how people use Twitter, Reddit and the like.

~~~
speedplane
If just 5% of your “friends” are fake, it ruins any trust you may have in your
community, it doesn’t need to be anywhere close to a majority. The other
networks have similar problems, but Facebook is the worst offender at
promoting a false sense of trust.

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elorant
Fixing Facebook isn't a hard problem. Fixing it while keeping advertisers
happy is pretty much impossible. If you try to be more vigilant on privacy
settings then you give advertisers less choices to target people. And with
Amazon moving into the ad market aggressively, and Google being the behemoth
that they are the last thing you want is to hurt your advertising platform.

~~~
speedplane
I don't think Facebook's problem is legitimate advertisers misusing personal
information. Rather, it's the spammers, scammers, bots, and foreign spies that
destroy trust in the system. If Facebook could get rid of those (not an easy
problem), they could rebuild trust and keep legitimate big-money advertisers
happy.

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armini
I loved hearing Tim Cook's response about the incident "we would never put
ourselves in the position of selling our user data". Fundamentally the
Facebook business model was flawed & destined to fail. We hope the new
generation of applications learn and evolve to better & stronger platforms
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyH3JRxndc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyH3JRxndc)

~~~
Jyaif
FB does not sell user data and Tim Cook knows this very well. Puzzling that he
reduces himself to propagating such FUD.

~~~
xiphias2
Tim Cook never said that.

When asked what he would do if he were currently faced with the problems
confronting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Cook said: "I wouldn't be in this
situation."

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charlesism
"Move fast and repeatedly betray your users' trust" isn't a good strategy,
long-term.

~~~
trophycase
Their market cap begs to differ I suppose

~~~
ardy42
>> "Move fast and repeatedly betray your users' trust" isn't a good strategy,
long-term.

> Their market cap begs to differ I suppose

It seems to do OK in the short to medium term.

~~~
trophycase
I just mean they are one of the largest companies in the world and don't seem
to be going anywhere with the rise of Instagram. It more or less seems that
they have had no penalty for using this strategy.

~~~
charlesism
Everyone here is aware FB has had a good run. I wouldn't bank on them _long-
term_. This stuff does not bode well...

    
    
        > Facebook on Thursday posted the largest one-day loss in
        > market value by any company in U.S. stock market history 
        > after releasing a disastrous quarterly report.

~~~
dingaling
'Facebook' didn't post any loss, its short-term shareholders did.

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dblohm7
[http://archive.is/H640P](http://archive.is/H640P)

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electic
[https://outline.com/5PcXMf](https://outline.com/5PcXMf)

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gkanai
There is nothing FB or Sandberg can do to fix Facebook's reputation in my
mind. I have deleted most of the content I have posted to FB and keep my
account only because I sometimes use Messenger.

~~~
JKCalhoun
I esp. would not use Messenger. That would seem to be the "spyingest". But I'm
assuming you have someone who is all-in on Messenger you would lose otherwise.

Deleted FB and all content a year ago. Honestly, as I was on my way out, I was
beginning to enjoy the "groups" I had discovered. Wish there were a lurker
mode....

~~~
vlehto
I found such too. But the quality of discussion is sub par even when the
original idea was good.

Large share of the people who are still active on facebook seem to be types of
people who have very few friends and like to shout their ideas into the abyss.
Or alternatively very connected people who promote slogans to mindless crowd
of agreeing zombies.

It's mostly result of "your aunt sees what you just said" which means that you
rarely see anybody genuinely argue anything. Because the feeling of your aunt
briging up your facebook discussion from two years back at summer cottage is
not worth it. Facebook is shitty at managing interpersonal connections, kinda
weird at this point. Then the lack of dislike button keeps noise levels high
from people with no aunts. Even the few actual discussions typically develop
into pointless drama.

Reddit has very bad problems with eternal September, but its not nearly
brainless if you dig deep enough into subreddits.

------
deytempo
Seeing as I’ve never heard of her prior to reading this article, I think the
best course of action on her part would be to make a ton of noise doing good
things for the community so that it increases the chances of people who
haven’t heard of her, learning of her through those actions rather than these.

------
GreeniFi
MZ (screaming): you broke my Facebook, so you better damn fix it.

CS: Whoah Mark, you know people want me to run for president. I can’t scorch
my reputation fixing your dumb internet site. Plus enough of my shares have
vested for me to leave with my pockets full of loot. It’s not like I ever have
to work again.

MZ: [redacted]

CS: OK, I’ll do it.

What did Mark promise her? Would love to know what deal she cut.

~~~
L_226
He just promised not to publish whatever private FB messages she's been
sending... /s

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stevehawk
But... Who cares?

~~~
dang
Maybe no one, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

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zwaps
Paywalled article :<

~~~
Grangar
outline.com/[url]

