Facebook Portal+ and Facebook Portal. Note the user’s photo feed on display. Photo: Sam Rutherford/Gizmodo
Good news about Facebook can be hard to come by. They just released the Portal, a video phone that actually makes placing a video call as easy as talking to someone in the room. It should be massively popular. It can follow you around the room, zoom in on you, and ensure you have a natural, friendly video chat. It’s not a zoomed-in view of someone’s nose or chin, like your average FaceTime call. It should be a popular item, a technical marvel, a Christmas present to show your family you care. Instead, consumers and tech reviewers alike have called it creepy and are completely uninterested. This isn’t because people feel weird doing a video chat. No, it’s because of the company that’s selling it.
No one trusts Facebook.
And why should we? Facebook makes its money by collecting information on you. Sure, Facebook allows you to cover up the camera when it’s not in use, but what’s to stop them from doing voice recognition? Or taking occasional photos during a call to get an idea of your surroundings, using image and product recognition to figure out things you’re likely to buy? Facebook hasn’t actually been in the business of connecting people, they’re in the business of collecting information. Why would anyone be foolish enough to believe this Portal would be any different?
This is impossible to believe. Maybe they take a photo before you place a call? Facebook’s doing something.
Furthermore, Facebook has recently stomped out what little consumer trust was left. The platform has fueled violence, rape, and genocide in Myanmar. The company works tirelessly to cover up problems, rather than solve them. Hell, despite supporting anti-sex trafficking bills, a man used Facebook to sell his daughter as a child bride. You’d be a fool to trust Facebook at this point, let alone trust them enough to put a camera in your home.
Mark Zuckerberg wants to change that. That’s why he claims the company is now at war. The war, as it seems, is with itself.
Civil War at Facebook
Believe it or not, Facebook’s internal “war” isn’t the result of The New York Times recent coverage of Facebook’s deceptive tactics. More likely, it’s the compounding result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the ongoing Russian influence on the platform, and the UN implicating Facebook in the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. The latest bad press is only gasoline on a raging fire.
In June, Mark Zuckerberg gathered around 50 of his highest ranking managers to discuss how he’d run Facebook. Zuckerberg, in effect, declared himself the wartime chancellor of Facebook. Whereas executives could usually lead their teams as they see fit and discuss decisions openly with other teams, deliberating on the best course of action, Zuckerberg would instead put his foot down and make more rapid decisions. This, he believes, can keep the company moving towards a better moral standing, growing without alienating users.
Zuckerberg wants to improve trust in Facebook, and he’s come to the conclusion that Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook, may not have handled previous scandals appropriately. She allowed the first reports on Russian intrusions to omit details, including the fact that they were Russian. She also sided with conservatives, allowing hate speech from Donald Trump to stay on the network. Out of everyone at Facebook, she is the most likely highest ranking Facebook official who signed the deal with Definers.
While Sandberg was initially seen as a foil to Zuckerberg’s immaturity, she’s now leading the company towards a path that allowed far-right users to warp the company’s moral compass. People have lost faith in the network due to both Zuckerberg’s and Sandberg’s actions. Rather than admit fault entirely, Mark Zuckerberg has largely blamed Sheryl Sandberg.
Can Facebook Fix their Image?
First impressions are important. Whether you’re preparing for a job interview, hanging out with new friends, or trying to flirt with someone at a bar, the first impression you make matters. To older millennials, Facebook was new when they were in high school and college. It was fresh, fun, and more engaging than AIM to stay in touch with people. But that first impression has soured. Now, even those people who were hopeful about Facebook and included it as a part of their socializing are turning their backs on it.
To the younger generation and younger millenials, Facebook has always been creepy. When they found Facebook, it was already a data hog with little privacy and scandals. They’ll remember Facebook as something that was never to be trusted.
Can Facebook repair its image? Yes. Facebook could make huge leaps towards improving their security, privacy, stamping out hate speech, and protecting people. They could likely still do this while selling user data, anonymizing a large portion of it and detatching identity from its ad targeting. Facebook could also transition into more cool products like the Portal, to help people stay connected. But this would take some serious changes at Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg would truly have to go to war. And I just don’t believe the company has change in its heart.
Facebook will likely never regain the public’s trust, and that’s not a good long term business goal. Zuckerberg better go to war, because his company won’t survive if he doesn’t.
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