A Facebook executive's memo that claimed the "horrible
truth" was that anything it did to grow was justified has been made
public, embarrassing the company.
The 2016 post said that this applied even if it meant people
might die as a result of bullying or terrorism.
Both the author and the company's chief executive, Mark
Zuckerberg, have denied they actually believe the sentiment.
But it risks overshadowing the firm's efforts to tackle an
earlier scandal.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny since it
acknowledged that it had received reports that a political consultancy -
Cambridge Analytica - had not destroyed data harvested from about 50 million of
its users years earlier.
The 18 June 2016 memo:
So we connect more people.
That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a
life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack
co-ordinated on our tools.
And still we connect people.
The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so
deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de
facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story
as far as we are concerned.
[...]
That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All
the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that
helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more
communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of
it.
The memo was first made public by the Buzzfeed news site,
and was written by Andrew Bosworth.
Mr Bosworth - who co-invented Facebook's News Feed - has
held high-level posts at the social network since 2006, and is currently in
charge of its virtual reality efforts.
Mr Bosworth has since tweeted that he "didn't
agree" with the post at the time he had posted it, but he had shared it
with staff to be "provocative."
"Having a debate around hard topics like these is a
critical part of our process and to do that effectively we have to be able to
consider even bad ideas," he added.
Mark Zuckerberg has issued his own statement.
"Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative
things," it said.
"This was one that most people at Facebook including
myself disagreed with strongly. We've never believed the ends justify the
means."
A follow-up report by the Verge revealed that dozens of
Facebook's employees have subsequently used its internal chat tools to discuss
concerns that such material had been leaked to the media.
Analysis
By Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent
What immediately struck me about this leaked memo was the
line about "all the questionable contact importing practices".
When I downloaded my Facebook data recently, it was the
presence of thousands of my phone contacts that startled me. But the company's
attitude seemed to be that this was normal and it was up to users to switch off
the function if they didn't like it.
What we now know is that in 2016 a very senior executive
thought this kind of data gathering was questionable.
So, why is it only now that the company is having a debate
about this and other dubious practices?
Until now, Facebook has not been leaky. Perhaps we will soon
get more insights from insiders as this adolescent business tries to grow up
and come to terms with its true nature.
Fact checking
The disclosure coincided with Facebook's latest efforts to
address the public and investors' concerns with its management.
Its shares are trading about 14% lower than they were before
the Cambridge Analytica scandal began, and several high profile figures have
advocated deleting Facebook accounts.
The company hosted a press conference on Thursday, at which
it said it had:
In previous days it had also announced a revamp of its
privacy settings, and said it would restrict the amount of data exchanged with
businesses that collect information on behalf of advertisers.
The latest controversy is likely, however, to provide added
ammunition for critics.
CNN reported earlier this week that Mr Zuckerberg had
decided to testify before Congress "within a matter of weeks" after
refusing a request to do so before UK MPs. However, the BBC has been unable to
independently verify this claim.
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