I've resisted becoming a member of Facebook (FB) because I didn't want a billionaire monetizing my personal information, as well as information about anyone identified as one of my "friends".
After reading this book by a former high-level FB executive, I realize that deciding whether or not to engage with FB presents a much more profound ethical question than I'd imagined. And I suspect that anyone who reads Sarah Wynn-Williams' expose' of Zuckerberg and his top management team will find it hard to continue supporting what is clearly a morally corrupt corporation.
The book describes in detail the many instances in which FB had ethical choices to make, and they always took the low road, doing whatever it took to maximize FB's revenue.
From helping advertisers target teenage girls whose posts included key words like "depression" or "body image", to offering China complete control over FB users' data, to ignoring the military junta in Myanmar's use of FB to spread false information, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Muslims, FB's top management repeatedly made the wrong choice.
While the Chinese ultimately declined Zuckerberg's offer and blocked FB, other authoritarian regimes around the world (including the U.S.) gladly accepted FB's help in altering election outcomes.
In 2016. the Trump campaign paid FB tens of millions for ads that FB employees, embedded in the campaign office, helped design to identify and target independent voters—either to encourage them to vote for him, or to discourage others not to vote at all.
This powerful book also describes instances in which FB management ignored the law and its own policies by allowing sexual harassment within the corporation to go unpunished. One of the highest profile (alleged) perpetrators was Joel Kaplan, who Zuckerberg nonethess appointed as his "President of Global Affairs".
So much for accountability.
When asked why people continue to support Zuckerberg by sharing their personal information on FB, my friends answer that it is about "connection".
Indeed, when FB first appeared, it was sold as a way to connect with old friends & lovers, and to stay in touch with family, sharing highlights of our lives.
And that was its focus, until Zuckerberg decided that maximizing advertising dollars should be FB's core mission. Every decision made after that change of direction was done at the expense of putting FB members and innocent bystanders at risk of emotional and physical harm.
Over time, FB changed from a site that connected a user to close friends and family, to one full of "friends" with only nebulous links to them, and that uses an algorithm to push misinformation to its users.
But if "connection" is the reason people continue to stay engaged with a corrupt international corporation, it raises the question of what people did before FB came along.
Easy.
People would pick up the phone, meet for lunch, write letters, travel long distances to connect with close friends and family, and make whatever other efforts necessary to stay in touch with people truly important to them (not just their FB "friends").
These approaches are still feasible, especially when you consider the internet's ability to find and link people with long lost friends & family.
There are also reputable alternatives to FB, the most recent of which, Bluesky, is amassing new members at a rate four times faster than FB.
So, if like me, you find FB's actions at best distasteful, and at worst, criminal, remember that there are many other ways to stay connected with the people you care about.