A Facebook executive once said the company’s drive to connect people online is a good thing even if “someone dies in a terrorist attack” planned through the website.
Andrew Bosworth wrote in the 2016 internal memo that the firm’s “ugly truth” was that it believed in improving connections between people whatever the consequences.
The memo was made public by Buzzfeed News and was swiftly dismissed as not representing the company’s views by senior figures, including Mr Bosworth himself.
However it has raised fresh questions about how seriously Facebook takes its responsibilities after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Mr Bosworth was vice president at the time he circulated the memo. He co-invented Facebook’s News Feed and currently heads up its virtual reality efforts.
The 18 June 2016 memo read: “So we connect more people. That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack co-ordinated on our tools.
My statement on the recent Buzzfeed story containing a post I wrote in 2016 pic.twitter.com/lmzDMcrjv5
— Boz (@boztank) March 29, 2018
“And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.”
It later went on: “That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it.”
Mr Bosworth, known as “Boz”, said after the memo became public that he “didn’t agree” with the sentiments at the time and posted them to provoke new thinking among the company’s staff.
He said: “It was intended to be provocative. This was one of the most unpopular things I’ve ever written internally and the ensuing debate helped shape our tools for the better.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and CEO, said: "Boz is a talented leader who says many provocative things. "This was one that most people at Facebook including myself disagreed with strongly. We’ve never believed the ends justify the means."
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