Internal Facebook memo from longtime exec Andrew Bosworth says he “desperately” wants Trump to lose in 2020, but Facebook should not tilt the scales against him

In an internal memo, Andrew Bosworth said he “desperately” wanted the president to lose.

New York Times 2020-01-08

Discussion

Vox Peter Kafka on x
Facebook is like sugar — too much is bad for you, says a top Facebook exec
@boztank Boz on x
I am traveling and have only intermittent access to the internet for the next week, so for more context on the recent stories about my internal post please check my Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/...
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
New: the NYT obtained a controversial internal memo by Facebook executive Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, in which he warned the company not to tilt the scales against Trump in 2020, comparing it to a scene from Lord of the Rings. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
Where I disagree with Boz is that I think limits on targeting for political and issue ads are neutral and fair in the long-run and conducive to healthier democracy. Same with a tightly drawn standard on false claims about opponents. Neither are an attack on Trump.
@jameeljaffer Jameel Jaffer on x
It's a huge indictment of our regulatory system—and maybe also of the First Amendment, as it's currently understood—that a tiny number of people in Silicon Valley could skew elections, and change the course of our democracy, just by tweaking a few algorithms. https://twitter.com/…
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
Bosworth, who ran FB's ads team in 2016, admitted (for the first time that we know of) that Facebook was responsible for Trump's election, but not because of Russia or misinformation. Instead, he said, Trump just ran an “unbelievable” ad campaign.
@timoreilly Tim O'Reilly on x
FWIW, this internal Facebook memo is very reflective of the kind of conversations that I've had with many FB insiders. It seems to be a pretty accurate reflection on what really happened and why, far different from much of the overheated media coverage https://www.nytimes.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
heres an internal memo from a Facebook exec warning insiders not to alter the company's political advertising policy in the face of increased pressure (w @kevinroose @sheeraf) https://www.nytimes.com/...
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
The whole post is here. It touches on a lot: Cambridge Analytica, the media, Russian interference, polarization and misinformation. Boz also compares Facebook to sugar, rather than nicotine, saying that it is “delicious” but “benefits from moderation.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@brianmcc Brian McCullough on x
Totally, totally random thought on this... why do we always hear from Boz? Why do his things always get leaked? Is someone positioning themselves for the big job? https://www.techmeme.com/...
@mattgreenfield Matthew Greenfield on x
It seems incredibly irresponsible to publish this self-exculpatory Facebook propaganda without analyzing its dubious assertions. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jbenton Joshua Benton on x
The word “earned” here is doing so so so much work https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Facebook exec @boztank : “Cambridge Analytica is one of the more acute cases I can think of where the details are almost all wrong...” “In practical terms, Cambridge Analytica is a total non-event...” What say you @carolecadwalla @chrisinsilico? https://www.nytimes.com/...
@dylanmatt Dylan Matthews on x
This is ... not what the veil of ignorance is @boztank https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
This is why Facebook is a clear & present danger to society. The breathtaking audacity of this senior executive who refuses ever to answer my qs. Facebook was found to have acted illegally - not just in US, but UK, Canada, Brazil As exposed by Cambridge Analytica “non-event” http…
@jimmyeatcarbs James Barnes on x
A few thoughts: “He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign I've ever seen from any advertiser.” I was there & regardless of feelings on Trump, his ad game was strong. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@danbarker Dan Barker on x
This is so useful from @boztank, a Facebook VP, on why he thinks Facebook actually helped Donald Trump win the election, & the reality of Cambridge Analytica. There is a small error, but the rest is gold. Do read. (link to full Facebook post from here: https://twitter.com/...) ht…
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Here he is. Here's the full post. @boztank's previous greatest hit, you may remember, was when he said: “Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.” And then: “It is literally just what we do. We connect people. Period.” https://www.facebook.com/... https:…
@dangillmor Dan Gillmor on x
It is very, very, very difficult to believe that authors of memos of this kind — who work for companies that help people spread information promiscuously — are surprised when the documents get leaked. https://twitter.com/...
@profcarroll David Carroll on x
Did Boz unintentionally make the most techbro argument ever for breaking up Facebook? #bozmemo https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
I still think it's interesting how many of the problems of the last few years grew out of tech platforms doing what so many vocal outside advocates wanted: being open, allowing anonymity, giving developers freedom and letting users ‘choose’, trying not to be walled gardens.
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Social platforms' problems with bad actors remind me a lot of Microsoft's problems with security: they built systems that presumed openness because being closed was evil, and then discovered that being open to the lamb was also being open to the wolf.
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Lots of interesting strands. Cambridge Analytica was a scam and a fraud with no actual effect but that's not the point; CA grew out of a platform that achieved little but was created because ‘Facebook is too closed!’; criticism can be right even if it gets all the details wrong h…
@moonalice Roger McNamee on x
Memo from FB's Boz sheds light on company's culture. It is not just that FB people do not seem to understand the notion that “with great power comes great responsibility” ... they often miss the connection btw their actions and downstream consequences. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@juddlegum Judd Legum on x
@boztank The internal message was first reported by the NYT but then @boztank posted the whole message publicly. According to the NYT, many other Facebook employees objected to the company's current policy of allowing politicians, including Trump, to lie in ads https://www.nytime…
@andrewmarantz Andrew Marantz on x
Whoa. There's quite a distance between “Making the world more open and connected” and “If I want to eat sugar and die an early death that is a valid position” https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Hot take: stop letting Zuckerberg's proxy influence these convos. Instead ask Bosworth why FB hired and put under NDA the guy who committed what Facebook itself called a fraud in selling Facebook data to Cambridge Analytica. And why he reported to work in Bosworth's AR/VR dept. h…
@jonschweppe Jon Schweppe on x
On the one hand, it's scary they're having these conversations... should the ring of power even be within their grasp? Shouldn't we incinerate it at Mount Doom (#Rewrite230)? On the other hand, thank goodness there is some sanity at Facebook! Can't be said for most of #BigTech. h…
@oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x
In internal memo, Facebook exec says he is reminded of a Lord of the Rings moment when he thinks about how scales could be tilted to “avoid the same result” as 2016 election: “She imagines using the power righteously...but knows it will eventually corrupt” https://www.nytimes.com…
@anandwrites Anand Giridharadas on x
No company should have such massive tilting power, utterly unregulated, to begin with. https://twitter.com/...
@wiczipedia Nina Jankowicz on x
There's a lot to parse in this memo, but this seems particularly... short-sighted? Willfully ignorant? I can't wrap my head around how these sentences are written in succession. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@alecmuffett Alec Muffett on x
@boztank The linked-to Facebook post is well-written and worth reading, especially by those who are reflexively critical of Facebook. https://twitter.com/...
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
If Boz's theory is true, that seeing viewpoints offensive to one's own leads to retrenchment rather than connection and understanding, then Facebook itself is unintentionally doing what nefarious third parties spent lots of time and energy on in 2016: Dividing people.
@sriramk Sriram Krishnan on x
I love this from Boz for many reasons. The entire post is worth a read. https://twitter.com/...
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Boz cites internal research showing Facebook users see content from 26% more sources than elsewhere. “What happens when you see 26% more content from people you don't agree with? Does it help you empathize with them...? Nope. It makes you dislike them even more.”
@sheeraf Sheera Frenkel on x
One thing that was really interesting in reporting on this new @boztank post, was the internal reactions within Facebook to what he wrote. Some if it made it into the story, but since we published I've heard from many other Facebook employees. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x
IF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/2Bpu1ipKkB
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
The newest Boz memo tracks with what Facebook insiders have been saying internally for months: That Cambridge Analytica was a “snake oil” company that was in the right place and had a loud megaphone. Also interesting to see Boz give FB outright credit for the election of Trump. h…
@katienotopoulos Katie Notopoulos on x
What I appreciate here is the true heart of a poster: loves to post, can't stop posting, will never log off. I relate https://twitter.com/...
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
The only way to insure free elections is to convince Republicans in Congress to see election integrity as a bipartisan national security issue. As I have pointed out repeatedly, 2020 might also see foreign interference from very anti-GOP forces. https://www.lawfareblog.com/ ...
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
Big scoop by the NY Times. I'm still waiting for them to publish any of their own internal memos on their missteps in 2016, including widely amplifying the stories the GRU seeded via selective leaking of hacked documents. https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/ ...
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
Ahh, Boz. Boz never changes. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
Bosworth, who donated to Clinton in 2016, said that FB's current policies “very well may lead to” Trump's re-election, but that they should stay regardless. “As tempting as it is to use the tools available to us to change the outcome, I am confident we must never do that.”
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
thing about “Boz” is that he's a...polarizing?....figure inside of facebook long-timer, college TA of Zuckerberg's, very opinionated, VP level of power a lot of insiders disagree with him (and fight openly on internal message boards). But a lot of FBers also believe he's right
@levynews Ari Levy on x
Boz: my post wasn't for public consumption, which is why i published it on my internal feed at a company where absolutely everything leaks.
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Gotta wonder if a little red light goes off at someone's desk when @boztank cracks his knuckles and hits publish https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@nytimesbusiness @nytimesbusiness on x
Citing the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, a Facebook executive warned in a memo that any attempt to use the social network against President Trump's re-election campaign would backfire. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@qjurecic @qjurecic on x
you keep Rawls out of this https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/ihtOZ96JD4
@sheeraf Sheera Frenkel on x
NEW: The NYT has published an internal memo by longtime FB executive @Boz, in which he warns Facebook not to tip the scals towards Trump in 2020. Come for the discussion about FB's role in democracy, stay for the Lord of the Rings comparison: https://www.nytimes.com/...
@tomgara Tom Gara on x
Interesting lines here from a top FB exec on the Cambridge Analytica story: “one of the more acute cases I can think of where the details are almost all wrong but I think the scrutiny is broadly right.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
Reading what my newsroom colleagues have highlighted here, there's a good case to be made for FB to be way more public about what it does and it would be less of a PR disaster than it is at present https://twitter.com/...
@mollymckew Molly McKew on x
Social media titans think this is all just a game of d&d and we are so screwed. https://twitter.com/...
@lexnfx Alexei Oreskovic on x
Why does Boz keep writing memos?
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth on Facebook staff tending to dismiss reports from media. https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/EPKkdOMrjl
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
There is a heated debate inside FB about whether the company should exempt politicians from its rules. The group of employees who wrote to Zuckerberg last year are on one side, and Boz (who wrote the notorious “growth is good” memo in 2016) is on the other.
@emilybell Emily Bell on x
He must be going to see my mother...the only place I have been recently with genuinely intermittent access to the internet https://twitter.com/...
@telenardo Tim L on x
“In practical terms, Cambridge Analytica is a total non-event. They were snake oil salespeople. The tools they used didn't work, and the scale they used them at wasn't meaningful. Every claim they made about themselves is garbage. Data of the kind they had isn't that valuable...”…
@sivavaid Siva Vaidhyanathan on x
He's making us use Facebook again. Yeesh. https://twitter.com/...
@kentbye Kent Bye VoicesOfVR on x
Glad to see @boztank post the full context of his memo leaked to the NYT. Still lots to disagree about, but it's an elaboration of the arguments that form their philosophical grounding. I wish Facebook engaged in more candid conversations on other topics like biometric privacy. h…
@brian_armstrong Brian Armstrong on x
Well written 👏👏👏 Who knew, candid internal memos can work even better than PR scrubbed external memos! https://twitter.com/...

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Internal Facebook memo from longtime exec Andrew Bosworth says he “desperately” wants Trump to lose in 2020, but Facebook should not tilt the scales against him

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