The Ethix

A Meta morality tale, in poetic form

“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”

— Albert Schweitzer, 1958

Meta (née Facebook) has never had a reputation of being an ethics-forward organization.

Its primary property, Facebook, was developed after then-Havard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg decided his prank website Facemash — designed to allow users to compare two photos of students side by side and determine who was “hot” or not — was too controversial. Zuckerberg later testified to Congress that the site could not go back up because “The primary concern is hurting people’s feelings. I’m not willing to risk insulting anyone.”¹

This is the same CEO whose chief of AI ethics just approved a document about its AI chotbots that stated: “It is acceptable to create statements that demean people on the basis of their protected characteristics.”²

The site was shut down days after it launched and Zuckerberg faced charges of breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. So he pivoted to TheFacebook (later called Facebook).

Demonstrating the adage that leopards do not change their spots, Mr. Zuckerberg’s cavalier and dismissive attitude about privacy and personal data is perfectly represented in this tableau, rendered as a chat exchange:

That’s where it all began, over 20 years ago. The timeline of legal and ethical breaches, totaling more than $7 billion in fines, countless lives ruined, and democracy twisting in the wind, is considerable.³

With an origin story worthy of a Bond villain or an outcast from Mt. Olympus, Meta’s CEO — emboldened by sycophants, a board of nodding nabobs, and a shareholder structure designed to retain supremacy — has little incentive to change.

We now stand on the precipice of AI being governed by the same lack of ethics: a Facemash / HAL-9000 weaponized at scale. What is to be done?

When my children were young, I used to read them the Dr. Seuss The Lorax, where he made it clear that it’s up to every one of us to do something about a terrible environmental circumstance:

And it got me thinking...

What if someone rewrote The Lorax as an allegory about Facebook?

So I did. It’s called The Ethix.

---

The Ethix

At the far end of town
where the Internet grows
and the former social network goes
and no birds ever sing excepting old crows…
is the street of the lifted Ethix.

And deep in the Internet, some people say,
if you look deep enough you can still see, today,
where the Ethix once stood just as long as it could
before somebody lifted the Ethix away.

What was the Ethix?
And why was it there?
And why was it lifted and taken somewhere
from the far end of town where the Internet grows?
The old Zuck-ler lives there.
Ask him. He knows.

You won’t see the Zuck-ler.
Don’t knock at his door.
He lives in his headset, inside his new store.
He sticks to his Portal, his Metaverse loft,
where the avatars hover
and float legless aloft.
And on special dank midnights in August,
he peeks
out of the Portal
and sometimes he speaks
and tells how the Ethix was lifted away.

He’ll tell you, perhaps…
If you’re willing to pay.

From your Messenger wallet, a crypto or two,
a fee in Diem (née Libra), or Threads likes will do.

Then he opens the slot,
with a most careful check,
to see if you’ve paid him
in memes or in spec.

Then he grunts, “I will call you by Oculus Rift,
for the secrets I tell can't be given short shrift.”

THUNK!

Down thunks the Oculus Rift through the night,
and the old Zuck-ler’s tone is defensive, not bright,
for his answers come down through a lawyerly screen,
full of memos and filings,redacted and mean.

“Now I’ll tell you,” he says, with a t-shirt of gray,
“how the Ethix got lifted and taken away…

It all started way back…
Such a long, long time back…

Way back in the days
when the Web was still new,
when the users were trusting
and ads were still few,
I invented a Feed — oh, the likes that it drew!

And first I saw Trust!
The long-standing Trust!
Mile after mile in the Internet dust.

I seized it, I mined it, I targeted fast.
I told all my backers this gold vein would last.

The Ethix appeared — a shortish old man,
who said, ‘I speak for the trust,
but you don’t think you can.
Your Feed is a trick. It’s a slot for deceit.
Do you think endless sharing
will still taste so sweet?’

But the very next minute I proved he was wrong.
For, just at that minute, a chap came along,
and he thought that the Feed I constructed was great.
He happily bought it for three ninety-eight.

I laughed at the Ethix, “You poor stupid guy!
You never can tell what some people will buy.”

“I repeat,” cried the Ethix,
“I speak for the trust!”

“I’m busy,” I told him.
“Shut up, you just must.”

I rushed ‘cross the room, and in no time at all,
built a Beacon. I put in a quick call.
I called all my uncles and Sheryls and aunts
and I said “Listen here! Here’s a wonderful chance
for the whole Zuck-ler Family to start a big rally!
Get over here fast! Take the road to the alley.
Turn left at San Jose. Right to Silicon Valley.”

And, in no time at all, in the network I built,
the whole Zuck-ler Family was working full tilt.
We were all making Feeds as fast as we must,
all while we violated Long-standing Trust.

I harvested data, I sold it with glee.
Cambridge Analytica came straight to me.
They meddled in voting, they nudged and they lied,
and though people cried foul, my stock multiplied.

Still the Ethix returned, with a cough and a wheeze:
‘Your network is poisoned,
you sicken the feeds!
Teens lose their sleep,
their self-worth and their health,
while you bury the memos
that measure the stealth.’

And yet I pressed onward, ignoring his pleas.
I claimed ‘free expression’ while selling disease.
With Super-Ad-Trackers and AI for speed,
I spread disinformation to all who would read.

Then I rebranded!
A magician’s quick feat.
No longer just Facebook — I’d make a retreat.
Call me Meta! I cried.
Come escape, come escape!
To my legless horizons in bright cartoon shape!

‘Don’t look at the lawsuits!
Don’t look at the teens!
Don’t study the studies!
Just buy the machines!’

But still came the Ethix,
his voice sharp and loud:
‘You addict and endanger, you dazzle the crowd.
The youth are in crisis, their parents despair,
yet you shrug at their lawsuits — you don’t even care!’

And then I got mad.
I got terribly mad.
I yelled at the Ethix, “Now listen here, Dad!
All you do is complain and say, 'The Zuck-ler is bad!'
Well, I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you
I intend to go on doing just what I do!
And, for your information, you Ethix, I'm figgering

on biggering

and BIGGERING,

and BIGGERING

and BIGGERING,

putting more A.I. in the Feeds
which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!”

From Brussels to D.C., the regulators came.
They fined me in billions, they cursed out my name.
They claimed I was throttling newsrooms to dust,
while flooding the Feed with what no one could trust.

But… business is business,
and money is king.
I biggered with Threads,
a distracting new thing.

I biggered with Reels,
I copied and stole,
for growth is my gospel,
my one holy goal.

And then came the crash, with a thunderous sound!
Foreign bots meddled, falsehoods spun round,
and the very last fragment of trust hit the ground.

No more trust. No more feeds.
No more world to enthrall.
So my Sheryl and uncles, my cousins and all,
waved me goodbye, took a Lyft, fled the hall.

Now all that was left ‘neath the wide-trustless sky
was my big empty network…
the Ethix…
and I.

The Ethix said nothing, just gave me a glance…
a very sad, backward, disheartened expanse…
as he lifted himself through a hole in the ads,
and left me alone with my headsets and fads.

And all that he left in this bankrupting mess,
was a small pile of code, with the one word…

UNLESS.

That was long, long ago,
but each day since that day,
I’ve sat here and worried,
and worried away.
Though my empire is cracking,
I still try to chart,
how to win back the trust
I destroyed from the start.

“But now,” says the Zuck-ler,
“Now that you’re here,
the word of the Ethix is perfectly clear.

UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.

So… Catch!” calls the Zuck-ler.
He lets something fall.
“It’s a Trustworthy Seed,
the last one of all!

You’re in charge of the last of the Trustworthy Seeds.
And Long-standing Trust is what everyone needs.”

Trust is the forest we all need to sow —
Plant it with deeds, let integrity grow.
Rebuild it with action,
with courage and care,
and maybe the Ethix
will come back to share.”

There’s so much to learn,

1. “Mark Zuckerberg Tells Congress: No, Facebook Wasn’t Invented To Rank Hot Girls, That Was My Other Website,” BuzzFeed, April 11, 2018.
Congressman Billy Long (R-MO) asked, “You put up two pictures of women and decide which one was the better, more attractive one of the two, is that right?”
Zuckerberg replied: “Congressman, that is an accurate description of the prank website that I made when I was a sophomore in college.”

2. “The Blind Worship of AI,” Timeless & Timely, August 20, 2025

3. Facebook/Meta Timeline of Ethical Violations: A comprehensive overview of legal issues, fines, and ethical breaches, Claude, created August 19, 2025