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A Tangled Web

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A Tangled Web

Deception got us here. The truth provides some light.

Scott Monty
Sep 17, 2021
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A Tangled Web

www.timelesstimely.com

The Death of Messalina by Francesco Solimena, c. 1704 (Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0)
 

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“Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”
— Sir Walter Scott, 1806


This has not been a good week for Facebook’s communications team.

The company that has consistently used a strategy of delay, deny, and deflect is on the ropes as its own internal documents show how the company, aware of problems within and without — including teen suicide, human trafficking, and subversion of democracy — ignored the warning signs.

And worse: they hid the truth from the public.

 

This week, The Wall Street Journal released a series of investigative articles, drip-drip-dripping like water torture, with a single article being released each day.

The culmination, “The Facebook Files,” is a damning collection of pieces that indicate not only how intricately Facebook is woven into our lives, but how toxic it has become. In some ways, it was like putting a microphone up to human behavior, exposing or amplifying what was already there.

But worse than exposing us for who we are, it has exposed Facebook leadership for who they are: driven by profit, eager to err on the side of higher engagement rather than integrity.

Twitter avatar for @ScottMonty
Scott Monty @ScottMonty
A quick 🧵about the latest #ethics challenge at Facebook. “In short, they have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”
2:30 PM ∙ Sep 15, 2021
54Likes26Retweets
 

Sown by so many doubts, conspiracy theorists, and other easily-distributed misinformation, there is a dearth of trust across much of society today. And not just with Facebook; the media, government, corporations…no one has a lock on mistrust.

Rather than subjecting you to more content by me, here’s my assignment for you: Go read The Facebook Files from the WSJ. It’s well worth the price of a digital subscription.

But just in case you don’t want to subject your already groaning wallet to more stress, here are free links to the series, courtesy of my own WSJ subscription:

  1. Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt

  2. Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Many Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

  3. Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.

  4. Facebook Employees Flag Drug Cartels and Human Traffickers. The Company’s Response Is Weak, Documents Show.

  5. How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated

  6. Facebook Efforts to Attract Preteens Go Beyond Instagram, Documents Show

The bottom line is we need to deal in truth. Not my truth or your truth. The truth. Because that’s all that binds us together.

Timeless & Timely
Why Does Truth Matter, Anyway?
We seem to be in a post-truth society. Maybe a good story is better…
Read more
2 years ago · 4 likes · Scott Monty

Unraveling that tangled web that has become such a Gordian knot is going to take the brute force of Alexander’s sword.

Isn’t it easier to deal in the truth in the first place?


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Timeless

“Slaveholders pride themselves upon being honorable men; but if you were to hear the enormous lies they tell their slaves, you would have small respect for their veracity.” — Harriet Tubman, c. 1828

I.

Why People Lie at Work — and what to do about it. (Harvard Business Review)

 

II.

Secret sinning is no sinning at all. Molière on the glory of not getting caught. (Lapham’s Quarterly)

 

III.

It can be difficult to go your own way. Particularly when the winds around you are blowing in a different direction. But you’ll be rewarded for doing the right thing. Authenticity Takes Courage. (Timeless & Timely)

 

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Timely

“Not for any profit, but for the honor of honesty itself.” — Cicero, 45 BC

I.

FTI, a global consulting firm, helped design, staff and run organizations and websites funded by energy companies that can appear to represent grass-roots support for fossil-fuel initiatives. Tactics included creating fake Facebook profiles to help FTI keep tabs on activists, and a document that laid out techniques to influence public discourse. (The New York Times)

The Derailleur seizes on a seemingly innocuous section Of the otherwise negative narrative and 
attempts to pull the comment thread into a discursive discussion around that detailed non-issue 
The Drunken Conspiracy Theorist Uncle agrees With the Negative Commenter but conflates Other 
unrelated and offensive issues into it, lumping it all together into an unpalatable whole 
The Semantic Nitpicker asks an endless series of questions seeking clarification or pointing out minor 
flaws in the way the argument is constructed. This can be played both friendly and oppositionally, but by 
different stacks Of kids. 
The Skeptical Capitalist accuses the Negative Commenter Of being in the employ Of a competitor to the 
maligned entity and cites possible economic motivations explaining behind the Negative 
attempt to manipulate perception 
The patronizing Voice Of Reason very calmly explains away any points raised in a manner suggestive of 
patting the head of a small child or a puppy 
The Confused Time Traveller always says that this is Old news, and that the issue has already been 
addressed and solved time ago 
The Concern Hipster (new archetype l) says that the issue raised by Negative Commenter is not as 
important as another issue they feel very passionately about and continues trying to raise the focus to 
broader and more abstract issues that are seemingly more important 
The Dog Typing On A Keyboard chimes in with very poor grammar, spelling and punctuation and posts 
frequently to clutter up the thread and make it hard to read

II.

The House Oversight Committee has widened its probe into the oil and gas industry’s role in spreading disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming, calling on top executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as the lobby groups American Petroleum Institute and the United States Chamber of Commerce, to testify before Congress. (The New York Times)

 

III.

Odds are that when you see your doctor, you’d like to have confidence in their abilities. And their integrity. Online cheating charges upend Dartmouth medical school. (The New York Times)

 

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Recommended Listening / Reading

“The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.” — Fred Rogers

🎧 As a companion to The Facebook Files, our suggestion is to listen to the episodes of The Journal that go into deeper conversations with the journalists behind the investigation. The most important stories, explained through the lens of business. A podcast about money, business, and power. Hosted by Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson.

The Journal.

No book assignment this week, as The Facebook Files is reading enough. This is a series that will undoubtedly appear on the Pulitzer Prize nominations, if not on the list of winners for 2021.

 

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.

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A Tangled Web

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