📡 The one with the Facebook Files

Pulse #150 — less is more.

Hey, Pulse readers! It’s so good to be back!

After taking the last couple of weeks trying to figure out how I can bring more value to you, I’ve decided to test a new format focusing on the idea that less is more. How?

Well, instead of a list of things for you to read, I decided to reduce the breadth and increase the depth. But this is just the beginning.

who doesn’t like quality, right?

Oh, and by the way, it was lovely meeting you all! I think we’ll keep the threads coming, but not instead of Pulse. Nothing’s more important than the community.

— Behrouz

something to listen to while reading → Woodland by Evelyn Stein.

---

If you’re new here, please subscribe and get Pulse delivered to your inbox. If you’re not, share Pulse with a friend or two.

---

In Today’s Issue

• This Week in the News

• Article: The Facebook Files

• Podcast: Where Happiness Hides

• Tweet: The Great Migration

• Tool: TinyTextGenerator

• And a gift for you.

---

This Week in the News

• US National Transportation Saftey Board (NTSB) official says Tesla should address “basic safety issues” before expanding full self-driving [link]

• TikTok parent ByteDance adds time limit for kids under 14 on its video app in China [link]

• Binance in the US, Amazon’s after review fraud, and a new Clubhouse feature [link]

• The Facebook Files, Telegram’s growing problems, and tech giants against Kremlin [link]

• Apple’s A15 benchmark, Chinese movie star disappears, and insider trading on NFTs [link]

• Apple’s iPhone 13 event roundup, some hacker problems, and new emojis [link]

• iPhone 13 Day, Facebook’s VIP users, and Mailchimp acquired for $12 Billion [link]

• iPhone 13, China’s crackdown on tech, and Mozilla’s win against Microsoft [link]

---

One Article

The Facebook Files

Credit: Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

In a series of exposés called ‘The Facebook Files,’ Jeff Horwitz and a few of his colleagues in Wall Street Journal explored the leaked internal research at Facebook. They show how the company [obviously] knows about the scale of its adverse effects in acute detail but choose to either downplay or simply ignore them.

Here’s a summary of the pieces published so far:

1. Facebook says its rules apply to all; leaked documents show that they don’t.

   “We are not actually doing what we say we do publicly.”

   I think, on some level, we all knew about the double standards and “whitelists,” but the scale of this is mindblowing.

   Almost 6 million “whitelisted” users not being subjected to content moderation just because it can cause bad PR for the company is quite interesting.

2. Facebook knows about the harmful effects of Instagram on its users’ mental health, especially teen girls, and downplays it without doing [almost] anything about it

   “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.”

   The fact that Facebook knows in details that what Instagram, its super popular product, does to teenagers’ mental health, but double downs on engagement is not shocking — but embarrassing.

3. Facebook tried to make its platform a healthier place, but it backfired

   Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes.

   Even though it was soon realised that the change to increase meaningful social interactions (MSI) is causing more divide and polarisation on the plafrom, Zucks decided not to fix that as it was helping the platfrom recover from a decrease in engagement.

4. Facebook employees flag drug cartels and human traffickers; companies response was weak and insufficient.

   Human traffickers in the Middle East, armed groups’ violance agains ethnic minorities in Ethiopia, organ sellers, and other groups were known to Facebook, but platforms effort in combating these were minimal, even when Facebook employees sent alerts to their bosses…

5. How Facebook hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s bid to get America vaccinated

   Antivaxers did a lot more than the plafrom on the platform! Even with Mr Zuckerberg’s push to promote COVID19 vaccines.

In addition to the articles on WSJ, this article on The Washington Post, called ‘Facebook keeps researching its own harms — and burying the findings’ by Will Oremus does a really good job explaining the files as well.

I think the problem with Facebook is much bigger than just algorithmic tweaks and tougher moderation. The main issue with Facebook, for me, is the lack of transparency and the way they handle things.

The fact that Mark Zuckerberg does not provide a clear picture of what Facebook does, even in a congressional hearing, has a lot to say about the company’s practices. Growth at all costs and engagement at all costs seem to be avery normal approach in Facebook’s senior management.

---

One Podcast

Where Happiness Hides — Hidden Brain

We all think we know what will make us happy: more money. A better job. Love. But psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky says happiness doesn’t necessarily work like that.

Happiness matters, so why it often slips through our fingers? How can we savour it and stretch it out?

Hidden Brain is one of my favourite shows, and this episode is a great one to listen to. who doesn’t wanna be happy!?

listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

---

One Tweet

The Great Migration

Naval@naval

Bitcoin is an exit from the Fed. DeFi is an exit from Wall Street. Social media is an exit from mass media. Homeschooling is an exit from industrial education. Remote work is an exit from 9-5. Creator economy is an exit from employment. Individuals are leaving institutions.

2:55 AM · Jan 3, 2021

---

15K Reposts · 62.9K Likes

this is not the first time you’ve seen one of Naval’s tweets in Pulse; and it won’t be the last either. but this one paints a picture that if you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening on the internet — or Pulse for that matter — you’ll be able to clearly see.

---

One Tool

TinyTextGenerator

are you into writing ᵗᶦⁿʸ ᵖᶦᵉᶜᵉˢ ᵒᶠ ᵗᵉˣᵗ or maybe sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs or ₛᵤᵦₛ𝒸ᵣᵢₚₜₛ? well, the enjoy TinyTextGenerator!

and if you want more tools, keep an eye on this.

---

🕺 One gift for you.

it’s the 4th most liked TikTok!

---

And that’s all for the 150th Pulse. It’s not easy changing stuff. While writing this, all I could think about was if you’ll be okay with the new format. I hope you are. And if you’re a fan of one of the old sections, let me know either in the comments or on Twitter @perspectiveix, and I’ll try to help you have access to [almost] the same sort of stuff.

the only constant is change.

Stay curious.