Facebook's character

 The Wall Street Journal is running a series of articles about Facebook. A couple of days ago Jeff Horwitz described a secret elite of celebrities, politicians and other high-profile users that get special treatment. This made me wonder: if Facebook were a character in a play, how would one describe it?

The article, “Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt,” describes how privileged users are “rendered immune from enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.” An internal company review called its actions “a breach of trust.” A spokesperson denied that Facebook has misled its Oversight Board. Horwitz writes,

“Time and again, the documents show, in the U.S. and overseas, Facebook’s own researchers have identified the platform’s ill effects, in areas including teen mental health, political discourse and human trafficking. Time and again, despite congressional hearings, its own pledges and numerous media exposés, the company didn’t fix them.”

The bottom line is that Facebook’s problems are broadly known inside the company and when it speaks to lawmakers, regulators and its own Oversight Board, “it often provides misleading or partial answers, masking how much it knows.” 

At this scale, it’s not a matter of individuals; it’s the company as a whole. Since organizations have a life of their own, I’m trying to imagine what this entity is like. Here are some attributes that came to mind:

• Craven – it cares firstly about the opinions the rich and powerful have about it

• An easily quelled conscience – the researchers who documented these problems are ignored. Another article in the WSJ series quotes a former researcher as saying, “We’re standing directly between people and their bonuses” (“Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show”).

• Vain and insecure – the main goal is to prevent “PR fires.” According to Horwitz, “Facebook appeared more concerned with avoiding gaffes than mitigating high-profile abuse.”

• Duplicitous  Facebook’s 2019 internal review described an earlier blog post that defended its decision not to implement all the Oversight Board's recommendations as misleading.

• Oblivious – Facebook is constantly apologizing but not fixing deep problems. It’s the stuff of parody; here’s one from more than a decade ago.

Facebook comes across to me as weaselly rather than arrogant; it has the power to be a bully but doesn’t seem to have the courage. (With apologies to weasels, who in reality are brave and noble little animals.) The company is a furtive sneak rather than a loudmouthed scoundrel (Loki) or a charismatic liar (Reynard the Fox): Malvolio in Twelfth Night, perhaps, or Angelo in Measure for Measure. The question that’s now puzzling me: what (or who, in character terms) is it afraid of?

Stephen Fry as Malvolio in Twelfth Night