Facebook’s trust problem isn’t about being understood

The Verge ^ | Jan 31, 2020 | Casey Newton

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One of the most common and beloved tropes on a reality show comes when a contestant announces, often with a melodramatic flourish, that they are “not here to make friends.” It’s an ingenious and endlessly useful phrase — one that is both recognizably true (the contestant’s only real goal is victory) and terrifying in its implications... they'll do whatever it takes to become become the bachelorette.

I thought of the phrase on Wednesday while reading Mark Zuckerberg’s comments, during Facebook’s quarterly earnings call, about his new goal for the 2020s. He said (emphasis mine):

“We’re also focused on communicating more clearly what we stand for. One critique of our approach for much of the last decade was that, because we wanted to be liked, we didn’t always communicate our views as clearly because we were worried about offending people. So this led to some positive but shallow sentiments towards us and towards the company. And my goal for this next decade isn’t to be liked, but to be understood, because in order to be trusted, people need to know what you stand for.”

What views did Facebook express unclearly because it didn’t want to offend us? Zuckerberg didn’t say, but I have my guesses. That people like personalized ads more than they value their data privacy, maybe. Or that it’s more important to preserve a wide arena for free speech than it is to prevent certain kinds of harms. These are views that would offend many if a Facebook executive said them out loud, and yet also the company acts as if it holds these things to be true. A fun question to ponder after reading these remarks is on which subjects Zuckerberg will now be willing to offend us.

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[Fiddlstix]

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[Bommer]

And my goal for this next decade isn’t to be liked, but to be understood, because in order to be trusted, people need to know what you stand for.”

The irony is rich since it's all worthless board of Sally Fields want a be's that can brag "Look at my likes!"

To Phuckerberg all I can say is

[Boogieman]

“in order to be trusted, people need to know what you stand for”

We know what you stand for, Zuckerberg, and that’s WHY we don’t trust you.

[cgbg]

We understand Facebook—the spook for the Deep State.

That is why we know Facebook is Evil.