Welcome back to Wednesday! Over the weekend, I read Sarah Wynn-Williams’ Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, her tell-all book about her time working at Facebook. Reading it sparked an anger stronger than when I read Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter a year ago. Not because Facebook is any worse than Twitter, but because Wynn-Williams’ book provides a deep look at the effect Facebook has on global politics.
It’s a book about the social networks driving the world’s largest social network. She writes, “Facebook is an elite product, born in an elite college, fronted by elite Harvard grads, who show up for other elite Harvard grads, who are decision makers in all sorts of places.” A bunch of powerful people in interconnected circles who are searching for the next big growth opportunity to make Facebook bigger, more integral to the electronically connected world.
As it grows in geopolitical power, “the entitlement in the Facebook offices flows as freely as the prosecco from the Prosecco Tap that’s installed in one of the Facebook office kitchens.” Mark Zuckerberg shifts from being completely disinterested in politics to one who wants to drive politics, and even flirts with what seems to be the setup for a potential presidential run. Sheryl Sandberg demands audiences and even being scheduled around the most elite of the elite. Status is everything to these people. And those at the top of Facebook are surrounded by sycophants – who go so far as to roll over and let Zuckerberg win at board games to preserve his ego.
And while the weird behaviors and the sexual harassments of Facebook’s elite create frustration, it’s the passages about the impacts of Facebook’s global policies – employees being expected to face jail time as just part of the cost of doing business. The compromises they are willing to make to get Facebook operational in China, while lying to the US government about it. And their complete indifference to the genocide in Myanmar, driven by misinformation on Facebook.
Again, these aren’t entirely unique to Facebook. Any major corporation operating globally is complicit in similar evils. But seeing it all laid out, the alarms that were raised along the way (which I admittedly take with some grain of salt – Wynn-Williams may not be an entirely unbiased narrator, although I trust the overall thrust of what she lays out), and the complete indifference of Zuckerberg and others makes it all the more clear why no one person or corporation should be allowed to amass a level of power and influence like that.
But one other line from the book jumped out at me: “Autonomy disturbs a certain kind of powerful person.” And I think that is where there is some hope. Raising your voice and pushing back has real and tangible impacts. Like Elon Musk, these are people surrounded by yes-men who enable their behaviors. Showing them that they are not as cool, beloved, and ingenious as they think can help break the illusion that they have unlimited power.
So raise your voice. Whether it’s against Facebook, Twitter, Trump, or whatever evil and injustice you see in the world. Because they are not inevitable and they are not invincible. But even as you do that, be kind and thoughtful to one another here in the PT. Cheers.