Can You Forget How You Feel About Meta?
'Pervert glasses.' Thousands of lawsuits. Mark Zuckerberg wants to sweep it all away with a new bid on AI.
By Mia Sato, Victoria Song, Hayden Field, and Lauren Feiner
In 2021, as a whistleblower emerged with dramatic allegations that Facebook was harming children, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a rebuttal on Facebook. "We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It's difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives," he wrote in a note to Meta staff, which he reposted publicly. "At the most basic level, I think most of us just don't recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted."
Away from the stream of often inane public replies, one reader didn't like what they saw. According to exhibits later released as part of a series of lawsuits, Zuckerberg spoke with the unidentified person privately on WhatsApp, and the figure urged Zuckerberg — a parent himself — to make child safety even more central in his messaging. "i am not saying facebook is duplicitous and evil," they wrote. "i am saying the opposite, you have heard the chorus and will PERSONALLY make this issue over adolescents your issue."
In the privacy of the conversation, Zuckerberg was candid. "I care deeply about this and we'll continue focusing on being industry-leading with young people," he responded, "but I'm not going to say it's my personal main focus when I have a number of other areas I'm more focused on like building the metaverse."
Zuckerberg later reiterated that "I personally care about this." But he appeared ambivalent, nudging his conversation partner away from older concerns and toward his vision for the future. "How do you think this fits with our focus on promoting building the metaverse as the next major opportunity?" he asked. "That's not at odds with safety, but it's a much different and more innovation-focused message." Weeks later, Zuckerberg made a huge announcement: The company was changing its name to ...
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via The Verge