Is Facebook the future of corporate responsibility?
Greetings,
Do you remember Frances Haugen? She, and her allegations are already fading away, but she was the insider who gave us evidence Facebook consciously prioritized profit over teen suicide. In some ways she didn’t tell us anything new. Instead, she did something even more important these days… she confirmed what we all suspected. ‘Everyone’ has ‘known’ that Facebook is a damaging juggernaut that needs to be reined in, but we all make too many conclusions without enough facts. Haugen told us all we were right, and laid out why. And now I’m not sure what should be… or even could be… done about it.
Facebook joins a long line of corporations trading dollars for lives. We were all pretty darn sure cigarettes were linked to cancer well before the tobacco companies’ knowledge came to light. Scientists (and as a result, rational people) have long thought Big Oil understood the scientific link between fossil fuels and Climate Change, so it wasn’t a surprise to find they’ve been cynically lying about it for decades. Pretty much every suspected the Health Insurance companies were/are colluding to prevent Single Payer, the lack of which kills 260,00 Americans every year. It took Wendell Potter blowing the whistle from the inside to make it undeniable.
If Facebook is a problem, it’s only one facet of the whole problematic Internet. In the heady days of the 80’s the Net promised nothing but good, and social media was just one more benefit. After all, what could be wrong with knowing more about Aunt Edna’s alternative health remedies or Uncle Ernie’s insights on politics? As the Net has grown we’ve found the ugly dark side. As with the internal combustion engine and atomic energy, no one understood the downsides for years or decades after the technologies were created. Once the downsides were understood, the need for regulation became apparent. Facebook and the rest of the Net might not have needed regulation when they started but they do now, and now they’ve helped neutered the government implemented to do it.
Constitutional government, at least in America, is explicitly intended to secure the rights of life, liberty, and happiness for the governed, from threats both foreign and domestic. That doesn’t just mean governing people, but also companies and other entities. (Even more so since the fine folks at the SCOTUS told us corporations were people too.) Yet the government, OUR government, seems powerless to intervene. Why? Well, Facebook spent $19.6 MILLION, by itself, on lobbying in 2020. They were hardly alone, with just the five Big Tech companies combining for $61.09 million (outstripping defense and telecom). And now, shockingly, Congress just can’t find the stomach to intervene in Big Tech. Faced with that spigot of cash, it’s tragically unsurprising they see teen girls and the many other casualties of the Internet as disposable.
Tom Dwyer Automotive Services is hardly Facebook, but I can’t help drawing parallels to my own company. I can’t imagine a situation where I knew our company was endangering our clients yet chose to not to act! We know auto travel as a whole is dangerous already, so we take our role incredibly seriously and design our policies and procedures to make sure our clients are as safe as they can be. On the rare, rare occasion there’s a violation the people responsible are held accountable. As politically vocal as our shop is, we don’t spend a dime trying to lobby for looser restrictions, lower wages, or lower taxes. Instead, we advocate for sensible restrictions when needed, living wages, and appropriate taxes, especially on wealth. I think there is a proper role for companies in politics, and for politics in companies, but Facebook’s example isn’t it. Our shop is politically active, but even the people who think they know ‘my politics’ are wrong. I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat; I don’t play ‘team’ politics at all, and I (or my company) might come down on any side of any particular issue. The proper role is a delicate balance, and we’re running our “Business Or Politics?” article this month to talk about it in greater depth. We put a lot of thought and consideration into it and I hope you take a few minutes to read it.
As a company changes from a sole-proprietorship to a small corporation to a global behemoth, the personal responsibility and obligations of the owners change as well. Yet I think some standards should apply no matter the size, and the safety of the customers seems non-negotiable. While most of the public would agree with me on this, but the handful of corporations who have bought our government think otherwise. As long as America operates on the Golden Rule instead of the Constitution then the situation will continue, because ‘he with the gold makes the rules’. Don’t know about you, but it’s not the way I think things should be run.
Make a great day,
Digging Deeper…
OpenSecrets.org– The BEST Way To Follow The Money In Politics!
Like whistleblower Frances Haugen, these Facebook employees warned about the company’s problems for years. No one listened, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg in Washington Post, Oct 2021
Why whistleblower Frances Haugen is Facebook’s worst nightmare, Clare Duffy in CNN Business, Oct 2021
What Does Facebook Mean When It Says It Supports “InternetRegulations”?, Aaron Sankin on TheMarkup, Sep 2021
Views of Big Tech Worsen; Public Wants More Regulation, Megan Brenan at Gallup, Feb 2021
Fast facts on Americans’ views about social media as Facebook faces legal challenge, Monica Anderson at Pew Research Center, Dec 2020
Facebook Says It Supports Internet Regulation. Here’s an Ambitious Proposal That Might Actually Make a Difference, Tom Wheeler in TIME, Apr 2021
Facebook and Amazon Unleash Spending, Vault Atop U.S. Lobbying, Ilya Banares on Bloomberg, Mar 2021
Yes, it’s time to act against Facebook – just don’t put the government in charge, Jared Schroeder in USA Today, Oct 2021
Facebook spent more on lobbying than any other Big Tech company in 2020, Lauren Feiner at CNBC.com, Jan 2021
Facebook’s Commitment To Safety, Facebook, Aug 2020
Facebook shields millions of VIP users from standard moderation protocols, per report, Salvador Rodriguez on CNBC, Sep 2021
Facebook Plans to End Hands-Off Approach to Politicians’ Posts, Mike Isaac in NYTimes, Jun 2021
Facebook Will Not Fix Itself, Roger McNamee in TIME, Oct 7
Leak shows Facebook’s business model needs regulating, says MEP, Natasha Lomas in TechCrunch, Oct 2021
Facebook’s Response to the Oversight Board’s First Set of Recommendations, Nick Clegg on Facebook, Feb 2021
Facebook plans to change its name as Mark Zuckerberg tries to distance the company from ‘intense scrutiny’, John Wright on RawStory, Oct 2021
Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation, Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, Oct 2021
Here are 4 key points from the Facebook whistleblower’s testimony on Capitol Hill, Bobby Allyn on NPR, Oct 2021
Mark Zuckerberg ‘personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica’, David Badash on Raw Story, Oct 2021
Facebook Harms Its Users Because That’s Where Its Profits Are, Branko Marcetic in Jacobin, Oct 2021
More than 26 000 Americans die each year because of lack of health insurance, Janice Hopkins Tanne in British Medical Journal, Apr 2008
“Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says – but it funded deniers for 27 more years”, Suzanne Goldenberg in The Guardian, Jul 2015
“Understanding ExxonKnew”. Exxon-Mobil website- In case you couldn’t ‘understand’ it without their help, Exxon helpfully takes an entire website to dump on the campaign, without ever denying the written records of their knowledge
Inventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics, Allan Brandt in the American Journal of Public Health, Jan 2012
Tobacco manufacturers’ defence against plaintiffs’ claims of cancer causation: throwing mud at the wall and hoping some of it will stick, Milberger et al in Tobacco Control, Dec 2006
Hey, What’s That Chalk Mark On My Tire? Charles Letherwood in Your Car Matters, Dec 2016
News To Make You Furious- Citizens United Turns 10! Charles Letherwood in Your Car Matters, Jan 2020
If Corporations Are People, They Should Act Like It, Kent Greenfield in The Atlantic, Feb 2015
