So what to talk about? I know, let'stalk about Facebook. By now most of you have heard about the data breach, whichby the way,
Facebook said it wasn't a breach.
There are only three things toremember in a crisis: one: acknowledge the issue. So far Facebook refuses to acknowledge the issue. Two: the top guy or gal has to take responsibility. It appears that both Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg have retreated to thecaves of Kandahar, as Sheryl Sandberg is writing a book entitled Lean Out: Leadership and How to Avoid It When It Matters Most. And finally three: overcorrect.
The role model here is Tylenol thatcleared the shelves of every bottle regardless of the cost to shareholder value. Thus far Facebook has refused to do anything that might endanger earnings or shareholder value. And where is the board here? DonaldGraham is on the board. You know the Washington Post where democracy dies in the dark? Well Mr. Graham, democracy is dying in the full light of day here.
Where the hell is the board of directors?
This is the perfect storm of bad thingsfor our commonwealth. The company clearly has no intention of doing anything substantive to change what has gone on here.
Where the most innovative act of 2016 was the Russians taking a Trojan horse that we paid for, the most innovative thing in the world, Facebook, and detonating it in our own face. Washington, will they step in? Absolutely not with the White House, theHouse and the Senate controlled by Republicans and Republicans being that party of Trump and Trump perceiving the weaponization of this platform and Cambridge Analytica as good for him. There will be absolutely nothing resembling leadership or action other than sanctimonious indignance coming out of DC.
Where might we see some progress? A red state attorney general who sees thefastest blue line path from the AG's house to the governor's mansion by making a populist argument against Facebook. Where we're most likely to seereal change here? Brussels. Europe registers a fraction ofthe upside, with all of the downside. They are about to go gangster on Facebook. What about consumers? Deinstall Facebook is not trending. Consumers talk a big game but at the end of the day they want thatlittle black dress for $9.99 or they want to share their fabulous lives with their friends on their Instagram feeds. Don't expect anything from the consumerhere.
And what about advertisers? Advertisers don't have the option. Thisis a duopoly they cannot disarm unilaterally. P&G, Unilever, Ford would love to come out against Facebook and stop advertising as they're good people with a lot of veterans serving in their company. However they're not going todisarm unilaterally. If they were to announce in their earnings that their e-commerce sales have slowed because they refuse to advertise on Facebook they would be commended for taking a stand and their stock price would decline dramatically.
This is the danger of power corrupting companies. When we allow two companies to control two-thirds of all digital marketing, that is the duopoly of Facebook and Google, we end up in a situation where monopoly abuse is rampant. The only solution is they need to be broken up. What would happen if Facebook was Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp andMessenger? One of the companies would decide as an independent company serving its own shareholders that a pretty decent value proposition to advertisers would be to say we've put in place the security measures and safeguards such that we can't be weaponized by a foreign government.
In other words, we are not badfor America, advertise with us. That sounds like a pretty decent line to get advertisers. Unfortunately neither Google nor Facebook needs to make that assurance because advertisers have no choice. So it's easy to complain. What should Facebook do? Facebook should enter into a contractwith America: one: they will stop all political advertising immediately until they figure out how to safeguard political ads. Two: they should immediately shut down Kids Messenger until they have more research, peer-reviewed academic research, on the impact on the developing brain of socialmedia. Three: they should separate the chairman and CEO roles and appoint a chairman that stakeholders are assured and trust, understand the tension betweencivic responsibility and shareholder value.
So some predictions. What will come from Washington? Nothing.What will come from Facebook? Delay and obfuscation. What will come from advertisers? An inability to disarm unilaterally. What will come from consumers? Absolutely nothing. Democracy is dying one like at a timehere in the full light of day. Facebook employees, you are complicit. We'll see you next week. So it's 24 hours later and Mr. Zuckerberg addressed the issue and from a shareholder and communication standpoint, I thought he was really strong. He managed to say I'm sorry several times which is important to take responsibility for the issue and then outlined a series of steps which created the appearance that they're actually doing something.
However any real forensic analysis of what they're actually doing is going to show that they are doing absolutely nothing. Mr. Zuckerberg has effectively shown up to a fire of his own making with a squirt gun. "Hey it's not our fault the nanny was smoking pot while we weren't home." Yeah it's your fault and you're not really doing anything. Mr. Zuckerberg, this isn't a monster out of your control.
If you went to know about worst thing about facebook
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