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Facebook's PR feels broken

themargins.substack.com

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Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#21

Post by cbhl »

iso1824 wrote: post #8
quanticle wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would encourage you to read the memo itself [1] and find out. It's not that long. In it Bosworth acknowledges that Facebook, as a new medium for propagating information, had a role in shaping the outcome of the 2016 election. He said that it was no longer tenable for Facebook to claim that it had no effect, and that as the 2020 election approaches, Facebook should be conscious of its role and formulate specific pol…

Newspapers, Radio, and Television all have a named editor who is responsible for output. Facebook doesn't.

Facebook, at one point, did curate the news that was shown in the News Feed. It stopped doing so after one side complained.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#22

Post by JohnFen »

In my opinion, the problem with Facebook isn't really the PR. Yes, Facebook's PR is broken as the article describes, but the real problem started years ago, back when it was a "well-oiled machine".

The problem is that there is a huge distance between what Facebook PR says and what Facebook does. The constant apologies for misbehaviors that never are never corrected, the apparently deliberate misinterpretations of much of the criticism leveled at Facebook, the continual discovery of new misbehaviors that should have been stopped, and so forth.

That Facebook has now taken an official public stance of being antagonistic, dismissive, and condescending is bad, but it's just bad icing on an already bad cake.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#23

Post by ar_lan »

The beginning of this article really plays out like the author is just against Zuckerberg simply talking to people with conservative viewpoints.

Being willing (and encouraging) others to listen to other viewpoints should not be considered a PR issue.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#24

Post by frabcus »

svachalek wrote: post #7
creaghpatr wrote: post #2

>Boz posted an explanation on Facebook, where he advertises the post as an organizational, internal call-to-debate. But while it's great to have a safe space for internal, organizational debates, it's still hugely concerning when that internal debate is whether we should all have a free and fair election in the U.S. Was Facebook having an internal debate over whether we should all have a free and fair election in the…

I think the argument goes like this: 1. The US Presidential election is decided by a small percentage of voters who have an open mind and live in the right districts. 2. Facebook’s targeted advertising allows advertisers to efficiently buy the votes of these select voters. 3. Without Facebook, this wasn’t already happening. Personally, I believe #1 is more or less indisputable, and I’m willing to believe #2. But I’m…

I'd add that for #2 they don't need to persuade people to change their vote with the adverts, or even mislead them (although the latter may help).

All they need to do is target adverts reminding you to vote to the people who will vote the way they want.

Facebook ran an experiment in 2010 that shows they can definitely increase the chance of individual users voting: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-a-facebook...

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#25

Post by duxup »

JohnFen wrote: post #22

In my opinion, the problem with Facebook isn't really the PR. Yes, Facebook's PR is broken as the article describes, but the real problem started years ago, back when it was a "well-oiled machine". The problem is that there is a huge distance between what Facebook PR says and what Facebook does. The constant apologies for misbehaviors that never are never corrected, the apparently deliberate misinterpretations of muc…

Yeah it seems like whatever rules there are ... there aren't many.

The whole VPN they ran that tracks kids ... that's not even a mystery as far as being a terrible idea.

Then Apple told them to knock it off.

So Facebook renamed it (sloppily too) and put it up on the app store again until they got caught again.

Kids, users, other companies, they don't care.

How can a PR person even craft a response like "hey we did wrong but we're sure we won't ... well yeah we probabbly will do that again, maybe immediately"

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#26

Post by spinningslate »

farisjarrah wrote: post #20
drewrv wrote: post #15

It still amazes me that the line of reasoning they publicly went with, around their decision not to fact check political advertisements, is that no one company should have that amount of power. The logical conclusion of their own argument is that Facebook should be broken up.

While I agree Facebook is doing a bad job with regards to political advertising, I am actually really glad facebook isnt stepping in and deciding whats truthful or not. Does anyone really think that we should give Facebook any power over our political system or give them the power to be the gatekeepers of what political ads we see? I think facebook should do what twitter did and just totally get out of the political…

I think that's GP's point. The problem isn't that FB has declined taking executive power over deciding what's truth. The problem is that FB has too much influence. So the answer isn't to pressurize FB into taking even more power: the answer is to reduce its dominance.

Of course, that requires a political system motivated by doing the right thing for the country's citizens. As opposed to being controlled (sorry, lobbied) by monopolistic corporations and, in particular, where few politicians dare take a stance against FB for fear of the misinformation campaign that would inevitably ensue. On Facebook.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#27

Post by webdva »

muglug wrote: post #3

Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. They make a product that billions consume, but that many people think is doing damage to the environment (even though many of those critics still consume the product). That's why their PR machine is now switching to these slightly astroturfy campaigns. The next step is an advert along the lines of "They call it pollution. We call it…

> Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. They make a product that billions consume, but that many people think is doing damage to the environment (even though many of those critics still consume the product).

I like that analogy or narrative. The aesthetic value of the analogy is appealing to me.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#28

Post by MBCook »

throwaway122378 wrote: post #19

Facebook’s PR isn’t broken, Facebook’s just doing some really bad stuff

Are you disagreeing with the argument in the article? Or is this just a comment on FB in general.

I agree they’re doing bad stuff but I think the argument in the article makes a very good point about how they used to be good at handling PR for their evil and getting away with it and now they seem to have lost that touch.

I doubt the level of evil has changed dramatically in the last 18mo but the PR reactions have.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#30

Post by wffurr »

ar_lan wrote: post #23

The beginning of this article really plays out like the author is just against Zuckerberg simply talking to people with conservative viewpoints. Being willing (and encouraging) others to listen to other viewpoints should not be considered a PR issue.

I didn't get that at all. What the author was against was Zuckerberg's defensive, belittling tone in his post "explaining" why he's meeting with people with conservative viewpoints.
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