10/29/2021   Before going Meta, Mark Zuckerberg must fix Facebook, Steven Levy, WIRED

10/28/2021   Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company, by Jason Koebler, Vice

The future Zuckerberg went on to pitch was a delusional fever dream cribbed most obviously from dystopian science fiction and misleading or outright fabricated virtual reality product pitches from the last decade. 

The Facebook Papers: 17 News Organizations shared the leaked and damning secret company documents.

10/25/2021   The Facebook Papers and their fallout, By The New York Times

10/24/2021   Inside the Big Facebook Leak, by Ben Smith, The New York Times

In a time of mega-leaks, journalists’ sources have become power players. Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager who shared company documents, led a meticulous media rollout.

10/1/2021    Facebook Struggles to Quell Uproar Over Instagram’s Effect on Teens, by Mike Isaac, Sheera Frenkel and Ryan Mac, The New York Times

The social network has been all hands on deck as it grapples with revelations that it knew the harmful effects its Instagram photo-sharing app was having on teenagers.

Associated Press

10/28/2021   America 'on fire': Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate, by Amanda Seitz, Associated Press

10/26/2021   Facebook froze as anti-vaccine comments swarmed users, by DAVID KLEPPER and AMANDA SEITZ, AP

10/25/2021   People or profit? Facebook papers show deep conflict within, by BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP

10/25/2021   Apple once threatened Facebook ban over Mideast maid abuse, by JON GAMBRELL and JIM GOMEZ, AP

10/25/2021   Facebook’s language gaps weaken screening of hate, terrorism, by By Isabel Debre and Fares Akram, AP

10/25/2021   EXPLAINER: Just what are ‘The Facebook Papers,’ anyway? by The Associated Press

10/24/2021   Facebook dithered in curbing divisive user content in India, by Sheikh Saaliq and Krutika Pathi, AP

10/23/2021   Amid the Capitol riot, Facebook faced its own insurrection, by Alan Suderman and Joshua Goodman, AP

10/10/2021   How one Facebook worker unfriended the giant social network, by Adam Geller and Matt O'Brien, AP 

 

POLITICO

10/25/2021   Facebook looking for its voice at a ‘watershed moment’ By EMILY BIRNBAUM, Politico, 07:55 PM EDT

10/25/2021   Facebook documents offer a treasure trove for Washington’s antitrust war, By LEAH NYLEN, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:06 AM EDT Updated 10/25/2021 08:47 AM EDT

10/25/2021   Facebook did little to moderate posts in the world’s most violent countries, By MARK SCOTT, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:01 AM EDT

10/25/2021   How Facebook users wield multiple accounts to spread toxic politics, By JULIA ARCIGA and SUSANNAH LUTHI, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:01 AM EDT

10/25/2021   ‘This is NOT normal’: Facebook employees vent their anguish, By JOHN HENDEL, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:01 AM EDT

10/25/2021   Facebook staff complained for years about their lobbyists’ power, By EMILY BIRNBAUM, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:01 AM EDT Updated 10/25/2021 11:35 AM EDT

10/25/2021   Inside Facebook’s struggle to contain insurrectionists’ posts, By ALEXANDRA S. LEVINE, Politico, 10/25/2021 07:01 AM EDT

 

TheFacebookFilesHeaderWSJournal

 

_01 Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt

By Jeff Horwitz

_02 Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Many Teen Girls, Company Documents Show
By Georgia Wells, Jeff Horwitz and Deepa Seetharaman

_03 Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.
By Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz

_04 Facebook Employees Flag Drug Cartels and Human Traffickers. The Company’s Response Is Weak, Documents Show.
By Justin Scheck, Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz

_05 How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated
By Sam Schechner, Jeff Horwitz and Emily Glazer

_06 Facebook’s Effort to Attract Preteens Goes Beyond Instagram Kids, Documents Show
By Georgia Wells and Jeff Horwitz

_07 Facebook’s Documents About Instagram and Teens, Published
By Wall Street Journal Staff

_08 Is Sheryl Sandberg’s Power Shrinking? Ten Years of Facebook Data Offers Clues
By Stephanie Stamm, John West and Deepa Seetharaman

_09 The Facebook Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, Says She Wants to Fix the Company, Not Harm It
By Jeff Horwitz

_10 Facebook Says AI Will Clean Up the Platform. Its Own Engineers Have Doubts.
By Deepa Seetharaman, Jeff Horwitz and Justin Scheck

_11 How Many Users Does Facebook Have? The Company Struggles to Figure It Out
By Sam Schechner and Jeff Horwitz

_12 Facebook Increasingly Suppresses Political Movements It Deems Dangerous
By Jeff Horwitz and Justin Scheck

_13 Facebook Services Are Used to Spread Religious Hatred in India, Internal Documents Show
By Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz

_14 Facebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making
By Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz

 

 

10/22/2021   People Aren’t Meant to Talk This Much, By Ian Bogost, The Atlantic

Your social life has a biological limit: 150. That’s the number—Dunbar’s number, proposed by the British psychologist Robin Dunbar three decades ago—of people with whom you can have meaningful relationships.

 

What makes a relationship meaningful? Dunbar gave The New York Times a shorthand answer: “those people you know well enough to greet without feeling awkward if you ran into them in an airport lounge”—a take that may accidentally reveal the substantial spoils of having produced a predominant psychological theory.

7/30/2021   The Metaverse Has Always Been a Dystopian Idea, by Brian Merchant, Motherboard/Vice

Silicon Valley CEOs keep hailing its imminent arrival as they hawk digital goods, but the metaverse was a dystopian idea from its inception.

6/29/2021   The Metaverse Primer, Parts 1-9, by Matthew Ball

5/5/2021   The Trump Decision Shows Facebook Can’t Hide Behind Its Fake Court, by David Gilbert, Vice News

1/26/2021   Landlords Want to Make Virtual Reality Just as Hellish as Real Life, by Josh Gabert-Doyon, Motherboard/Vice

With property values declining due to the pandemic, some real estate moguls are investing in virtual spaces they can fully control.


 

12/15/2020   FACEBOOK IS A DOOMSDAY MACHINE, by Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic

The architecture of the modern web poses grave threats to humanity. It’s not too late to save ourselves.

 

Anyone who is serious about mitigating the damage done to humankind by the social web should, of course, consider quitting Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and any other algorithmically distorted informational environments that manipulate people.

 

1/13/2020   The Metaverse: What It Is, Where to Find it, Who Will Build It, and Fortnite, by Matthew Ball