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Facebook's PR feels broken

themargins.substack.com

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Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#31

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

I’d argue that’s an improvement, their previous PR regime sounded like the Soviet information ministry.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#32

Post by notadoc »

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.

Seems more analogous to a tobacco company. Some people think it's bad and they use it anyway.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#33

Post by wffurr »

I was wholly unsurprised to see that last tweet coming from someone on the Hillary 2008 campaign. It reads just like the kind of defensive use women as human shields to deflect criticism attitude that came from the campaign when faced with a real primary challenge both in 2008 and 2016.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#34

Post by root_axis »

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.

How does breaking up Facebook change anything in this context? Unless you're suggesting that the government seize and shut down the facebook domain and brand in addition to breaking up Facebook.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#35

Post by cjbest »

This part really struck me:

> It feels like finance in 2009.

> One one side, you had smart, ambitious people who ended up there simply because you were told to go. On the other, you had the classic Gordon Gekko-ish types reciting Liar’s Poker anecdotes ad nauseam.

> Enter the crisis and everyone was equally tarred as the bad guys. The former have slowly made their way out (mostly over to tech), while the latter remain[...]

It does feel like the tide of public opinion might be turning from "too uncritical" to "too critical".

At least, as somebody who spends too much time on both Hacker News and Twitter, this seems believable to me.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#36

Post by xwowsersx »

> Those last two lines. We all know that style of communication. Sardonic. Snarky. Sneering. Derisive. Whatever you want to call it, that mocking tone captures a dangerous combination of insecurity and arrogance. It feels like when Trump ends a tweet with SAD!. You read that and just think, what a dick.

I get that's it's kind of sarcastic, but I don't really think "what a dick". It's not great for someone in his position to be sarcastic like that, but I think more "he must be hounded by people who are ready to burn him at the stake for having lunch with certain people so.."

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#37

Post by cjbest »

MBCook wrote: post #28
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.

Yup.

> something noticeably changed. They got combative. They got sloppy.

An interesting take, whatever you think of the underlying merits of the company and the complaints against it.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#38

Post by Seenso »

OnlineGladiator wrote: post #17
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.

> The logical conclusion of their own argument is that Facebook should be broken up. Luckily you don't need logic when you can just throw money at lobbying. Sadly, this is incredibly effective in the US today.

> Luckily you don't need logic when you can just throw money at lobbying. Sadly, this is incredibly effective in the US today.

Even if that's true, it might not work for Facebook. The politicians that Facebook would need to lobby may feel personally threatened by Facebook's power over the electoral process. Penny-ante campaign contributions and a few face to face meetings probably aren't enough to overcome that.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#39

Post by arrosenberg »

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…

Disagree. Since they have chosen to platform those ads, they should at least be held to the same standards as networks and not show ads that are provably false. It would be better if they didn't platform them, or better yet, they didn't have that much potential influence in the first place.

Re: Facebook's PR feels broken

#40

Post by cjbest »

cjbest wrote: post #37
MBCook wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yup. > something noticeably changed. They got combative. They got sloppy. An interesting take, whatever you think of the underlying merits of the company and the complaints against it.

In fact, unless you think that the company was better before and is worse now, it should be striking how much the narrative has changed without any underlying change.
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