{"id":1828,"date":"2021-11-28T10:47:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T09:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/28\/facebook-is-weaker-than-we-knew-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2021-11-28T10:47:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T09:47:06","slug":"facebook-is-weaker-than-we-knew-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/2021\/11\/28\/facebook-is-weaker-than-we-knew-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cfbc967f0983488262956e73eca9483a\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3859091246952232\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- blok -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3859091246952232\" data-ad-slot=\"1334354390\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n<\/div>\n<p>The Shift<br \/>A trove of leaked documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, hints at a company whose best days are behind it.<br \/><span class=\"css-1f9pvn2 technology\">\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span>Delcan &#038; Company<\/span><\/span><\/span><br \/>Supported by<br \/><span class=\"byline-prefix\">By <\/span><span class=\"css-1baulvz last-byline\" itemprop=\"name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/kevin-roose\" class=\"css-mrorfa e1jsehar0\">Kevin Roose<\/a><\/span><br \/><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, <\/em><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.audm.com\/?utm_source=nyt&amp;utm_medium=embed&amp;utm_campaign=roose_facebook_weaker_shift\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">download Audm for iPhone or Android<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">.<\/em><br \/>One possible way to read \u201cThe Facebook Files,\u201d The Wall Street Journal\u2019s <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-facebook-files-11631713039\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">excellent series <\/a>of reports based on <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/13\/technology\/facebook-workplace-transparency-leaks.html\" title=\"\">leaked<\/a> internal <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/02\/arts\/mark-zuckerberg-meta.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> research, is as a story about an unstoppable juggernaut bulldozing society on its way to the bank.<br \/>The series has exposed damning evidence that <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook has a two-tier justice system<\/a>, that it <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">knew Instagram was worsening body-image issues<\/a> among girls and that it had a <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-vaccinated-11631880296?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">bigger vaccine misinformation problem than it let on<\/a>, among other issues. And it would be easy enough to come away thinking that <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/technology\/facebook-like-share-buttons.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> is terrifyingly powerful, and can be brought to heel only with aggressive government intervention.<br \/>But there\u2019s another way to read the series, and it\u2019s the interpretation that has reverberated louder inside my brain as each new installment has landed.<br \/>Which is: <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/facebook-outage-impact.html\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Facebook<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> is in trouble.<\/em><br \/>Not financial trouble, or legal trouble, or even senators-yelling-at-<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/20\/technology\/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-lawsuit.html\" title=\"\">Mark-Zuckerberg<\/a> trouble. What I\u2019m talking about is a kind of slow, steady decline that anyone who has ever seen a dying company up close can recognize. It\u2019s a cloud of existential dread that hangs over an organization whose best days are behind it, influencing every managerial priority and product decision and leading to increasingly desperate attempts to find a way out. This kind of decline is not necessarily visible from the outside, but insiders see a hundred small, disquieting signs of it every day \u2014 user-hostile growth hacks, frenetic pivots, executive paranoia, the gradual attrition of talented colleagues.<br \/>It has become fashionable among <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/04\/technology\/facebook-down.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> critics to emphasize the company\u2019s size and dominance while bashing its missteps. In a Senate hearing on Thursday, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/30\/technology\/facebook-senate-hearing.html\" title=\"\">lawmakers grilled Antigone Davis<\/a>, <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/08\/podcasts\/facebook-regulation.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a>\u2019s global head of safety, with questions about the company\u2019s addictive product design and the influence it has over its billions of users. Many of the questions to Ms. Davis were hostile, but as with most Big Tech hearings, there was an odd sort of deference in the air, as if the lawmakers were asking: <em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Hey, Godzilla, would you please stop stomping on Tokyo?<\/em><br \/>But if these leaked documents proved anything, it is how un-Godzilla-like <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/08\/podcasts\/facebook-regulation.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> feels. The documents, shared with The Journal by <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html\" title=\"\">Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager<\/a>, reveal a company worried that it is losing power and influence, not gaining it, with its own research showing that many of its products aren\u2019t thriving organically. Instead, it is going to increasingly extreme lengths to improve its toxic image, and to stop users from abandoning its apps in favor of more compelling alternatives.<br \/>You can see this vulnerability on display in <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-instagram-kids-tweens-attract-11632849667?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an installment of The Journal\u2019s series that landed last week<\/a>. The article, which cited internal <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/08\/podcasts\/facebook-regulation.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> research, revealed that the company has been strategizing about how to market itself to children, referring to preteens as a \u201cvaluable but untapped audience.\u201d The article contained plenty of fodder for outrage, including a presentation in which <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/09\/technology\/facebook-big-tobacco-regulation.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> researchers asked if there was \u201ca way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand\/growth among kids?\u201d<br \/>It\u2019s a crazy-sounding question, but it\u2019s also revealing. Would a confident, thriving social media app need to \u201cleverage playdates,\u201d or concoct elaborate growth strategies aimed at 10-year-olds? If <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/02\/technology\/facebook-facial-recognition.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> is so unstoppable, would it really be promoting itself to tweens as \u2014 and please read this in the voice of the Steve Buscemi <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cHow do you do, fellow kids?\u201d<\/a> meme \u2014 a \u201cLife Coach for Adulting?\u201d<br \/>The truth is that Facebook\u2019s thirst for young users is less about dominating a new market and more about staving off irrelevance. Facebook use among teenagers in the United States has been declining for years, and is expected to plummet even further soon \u2014 internal researchers predicted that daily use would decline 45 percent by 2023. The researchers also revealed that Instagram, whose growth offset declining interest in <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/02\/technology\/facebook-facial-recognition.html\" title=\"\">Facebook\u2019s<\/a> core app for years, is losing market share to faster-growing rivals like TikTok, and younger users aren\u2019t posting as much content as they used to.<br \/>\u201c<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/02\/technology\/facebook-facial-recognition.html\" title=\"\">Facebook<\/a> is for old people\u201d was the brutal verdict delivered by one 11-year-old boy to the company\u2019s researchers, according to the internal documents.<br \/>A good way to think about Facebook\u2019s problems is that they come in two primary flavors: problems caused by having too many users, and problems caused by having too few of the kinds of users it wants \u2014 culture-creating, trendsetting, advertiser-coveted young Americans.<br \/>The Facebook Files contains evidence of both types. One <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-drug-cartels-human-traffickers-response-is-weak-documents-11631812953?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">installment<\/a>, for example, looked at the company\u2019s botched attempts to stop criminal activity and human rights abuses in the developing world \u2014 an issue exacerbated by Facebook\u2019s habit of expanding into countries where it has few employees and little local expertise.<br \/>But that kind of problem can be fixed, or at least improved, with enough resources and focus. The second type of problem \u2014 when tastemakers abandon your platforms en masse \u2014 is the one that kills you. And it appears to be the one that Facebook executives are most worried about.<br \/>Take the <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-algorithm-change-zuckerberg-11631654215?mod=article_inline\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">third article in The Journal\u2019s series<\/a>, which revealed how Facebook\u2019s 2018 decision to change its News Feed algorithm to emphasize \u201cmeaningful social interactions\u201d instead generated a spike in outrage and anger.<br \/>The algorithm change was portrayed at the time as a noble push for healthier conversations. But internal reports revealed that it was an attempt to reverse a yearslong decline in user engagement. Likes, shares and comments on the platform were falling, as was a metric called \u201coriginal broadcasts.\u201d Executives tried to reverse the decline by rejiggering the News Feed algorithm to promote content that garnered a lot of comments and reactions, which turned out to mean, roughly, \u201ccontent that makes people very angry.\u201d<br \/>\u201cProtecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,\u201d said Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman. \u201cTo say we turn a blind eye to feedback ignores these investments, including the 40,000 people working on safety and security at Facebook and our investment of $13 billion since 2016.\u201d<br \/><strong>A tech giant in trouble.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>The leak of internal documents by a former Facebook employee has provided <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/04\/technology\/facebook-files.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">an intimate look<\/a>\u00a0at the operations of the secretive social media company and renewed calls for better regulations of the company\u2019s wide reach into the lives of its users.<\/span><br \/><strong>How it began.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>In September, The Wall Street Journal published The Facebook Files, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/17\/business\/dealbook\/facebook-files-whistleblower.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">a series of reports based on leaked documents<\/a>. The series exposed evidence that Facebook, which on Oct. 28 assumed the corporate name of Meta, knew Instagram, one of its products <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/01\/technology\/facebook-instagram-teenagers.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">was worsening body-image issues among teenagers<\/a>.<\/span><br \/><strong>The whistle-blower.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>During an interview with \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired Oct. 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/03\/technology\/whistle-blower-facebook-frances-haugen.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Frances Haugen, a Facebook product manager <\/a>who left the company in May, revealed that she was responsible for the leak of those internal documents.<\/span><br \/><strong>Ms. Haugen\u2019s testimony in Congress.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>On Oct. 5, Ms. Haugen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/what-happened-at-facebook-whistleblower-hearing.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">testified before a Senate subcommittee<\/a>, saying that Facebook was willing to use hateful and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/05\/technology\/haugen-facebook.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">harmful content<\/a>\u00a0on its site to keep users coming back. Facebook executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, called her accusations untrue.<\/span><br \/><strong>The Facebook Papers.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Ms. Haugen also filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided the documents to Congress in redacted form. A congressional staff member then supplied the documents, known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/business\/facebook-papers-takeaways.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook Papers<\/a>, to several news organizations, including The New York Times.<\/span><br \/><strong>New revelations.<!-- --> <\/strong><span>Documents from the Facebook Papers show the degree to which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/22\/technology\/facebook-election-misinformation.html?action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc\">Facebook knew of extremist groups on its site<\/a>\u00a0trying to polarize American voters before the election. They also reveal that internal researchers had repeatedly determined how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/technology\/facebook-like-share-buttons.html?action=click&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Article&#038;state=default&#038;module=styln-facebook-meta&#038;variant=show&#038;region=MAIN_CONTENT_3&#038;block=storyline_levelup_swipe_recirc&#038;module=RelatedLinks&#038;pgtype=Article\">Facebook\u2019s key features<\/a>\u00a0amplified toxic content on the platform.<\/span><br \/>It\u2019s far too early to declare Facebook dead. The company\u2019s stock price has risen nearly 30 percent in the past year, lifted by strong advertising revenue and a spike in use of some products during the pandemic. Facebook is still growing in countries outside the United States, and could succeed there even if it stumbles domestically. And the company has invested heavily in newer initiatives, like augmented and virtual reality products, that could turn the tide if they\u2019re successful.<br \/>But Facebook\u2019s research tells a clear story, and it\u2019s not a happy one. Its younger users are flocking to Snapchat and TikTok, and its older users are posting anti-vaccine memes and arguing about politics. Some Facebook products are actively shrinking, while others are merely making their users angry or self-conscious.<br \/>Facebook\u2019s declining relevance with young people shouldn\u2019t necessarily make its critics optimistic. History teaches us that social networks rarely age gracefully, and that tech companies can do a lot of damage on the way down. (I\u2019m thinking of MySpace, which grew increasingly seedy and spam-filled as it became a ghost town, and ended up <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/05\/09\/technology\/myspace-agrees-to-privacy-controls.html\" title=\"\">selling off user data<\/a> to advertising firms. But you could find similarly ignoble stories from the annals of most failed apps.) Facebook\u2019s next few years could be uglier than its last few, especially if it decides to scale back its internal research and integrity efforts in the wake of the leaks.<br \/>None of this is to say that Facebook isn\u2019t powerful, that it shouldn\u2019t be <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/08\/podcasts\/facebook-regulation.html\" title=\"\">regulated<\/a> or that its actions don\u2019t deserve scrutiny. It can simultaneously be true that Facebook is in decline and that it is still one of the most influential companies in history, with the ability to shape politics and culture all over the globe.<br \/>But we shouldn\u2019t mistake defensiveness for healthy paranoia, or confuse a platform\u2019s desperate flailing for a show of strength. Godzilla eventually died, and as the Facebook Files make clear, so will Facebook.<br \/>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/04\/technology\/facebook-files.html\">source<\/a><\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ShiftA trove of leaked documents, published by The Wall Street Journal, hints at a company whose best days are behind it.\u00a0Credit&#8230;Delcan &#038; CompanySupported byBy Kevin RooseTo hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.One possible way to read \u201cThe Facebook Files,\u201d The Wall Street Journal\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow1sXXCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monblogeur.tech\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}