収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

My hold at the library came up, so I finally got to read Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir about her time at Facebook.

You should read it.

No matter how bad you might think Facebook/Meta and its leadership might be, it’s almost certainly worse. Even if you know all of the pieces – all of the events discussed in the book were covered by the press in various forms before her memoir dropped – her presentation really pulls it all together.

Wynn-Williams doesn’t come off real great either herself, mind you. Early on, I found myself reacting with combinations of “…how did you expect this to play out?” and “this is both psychotically abusive and incredibly compromising, you should’ve walked. I literally would’ve walked out right here, and I know, ’cause I’ve done it.” (Tho’ to be fair, there have been a couple of times when I didn’t. But mostly, I have.) The recountings alternated between funny and hard to read, but in a way most people would mostly find funny – I think.

That was before it actually got to any of the worst parts, though, the parts where it went from a combination of entertainingly naive, occasionally pathetic, and often appalling to frankly revolting and rather deeply grim but still compelling as the… honestly, as the evil… crystallised.

But, well.

No matter how badly Wynn-Williams might come across in this memoir, Facebook comes off much, much worse.

So much worse.

So you should read it. No one other than Meta have contested the contents. Even they refer to the contents as “out of date” and “previously reported,” which worlds away from “lies” – although they do insist some of her accusations of behaviour by upper-level executives are “false.”

That’s probably about the sexual harassment, but I think we all know better.

More, Zuckerberg tried very hard to silence her and stop the book’s publication. He did manage to stop her – via binding arbitration – from promoting her work. That includes stating “orally, in writing, or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta], its officers, directors, or employees.”

The book came out anyway, because the publisher was in the UK, and said they didn’t care what an American arbitrator had to say.

And that’s one of the reasons you should read it.

Because if you think there is anything redeemable within Meta… based on the uncontested facts of this book… you are wrong.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Now that Elon Musk’s experiment with Twitter has succeeded, Mark Zuckerberg is following suit with the MAGAfication of Meta – meaning Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. More, they’re pushing to take all of this hate parade out past the US and into other countries, as a fairly-openly-declared plan to boost fascist and near-fascist far-right movements across the globe.

I told everyone that Musk’s experiment would be repeated, and here it is, being repeated, exactly as I said it would be.

These are grim times. There are no longer good outcomes, there are only more and less bad ones – we’re most certainly doomed to miss some critical windows now.

It’s still worth fighting for the less bad outcomes, mind you. It’s still desperately important to do so, because the sort of nightmare unfolding in the LA fires right now will not be going away on its own, and there’s still a big difference between “oppression” and “pogroms.”

The question has now become how many disasters we can prevent, rather than can we stop them from happening at all.

So.

It may surprise you that unlike with Twitter – where the stakes were both obvious and even higher – I don’t really know what to tell you about Meta. Despite functionally designating LGBT people, immigrants, and women as fair game – while occasionally being downright petty about it – the situation overall is… a little less clear.

No, honestly. It is. Bear with me on this.

You see, the crux of the argument to leave Twitter – “X” – came down to two key factors:

First: X was an experiment to see whether you could take over a major social media site, turn it into a fascist disinformation and propaganda platform, and survive. While that hasn’t worked out – yet – in direct financial terms, it’s worked out in terms of getting Trump back into office, so has worked out in indirect power-and-money terms… which means it’s worked.

Second: Elon Musk was and is actively on the side of the fascists. He’s promoting them, having his algorithm promote them, paying them outright to be there, censoring left and critical voices throughout, and making it as clear as possible that his foot has been on the goddamn scale as hard as it could be. (Yes, he said repeatedly that wasn’t true. We call that “lying.”)

The first item is no longer applicable. His experiment worked. It gained him both money and power, even if “X” is still losing money had over fist as an individual company. (That, too, may be temporary; he’s asserted many times that ad boycotts should be illegal, that companies should be required to give him money, and as de facto Co-President, he may in fact see that happen.)

The second item is … less clear with Facebook/Insta/Threads. It’s quite possible that Fuckerberg (Suckerberg, Cuckerberg, there are so many variations) may plant his foot on the algorithmic pedal there, as well.

If he does – as Musk did with Twitter – then “stay and fight” becomes truly nonsensical and the only option is to leave. You can’t fight a propaganda war when the algorithm makes sure that no one is allowed to see you. All you’re doing at that point is raising money for your own oppressor.

But until that happens, “stay and fight” might be a valid option.

Is it?

I don’t know yet.

One of the reasons I don’t know yet is that unlike with “X”, the employees are reportedly generally up in arms about this. Will Suckerberg institute mass firings? Will he push out all the women, queers, and BIPOC like Musk did at Twitter?

Maybe. But Facebook is far, far larger than Twitter ever was, and far, far more complex. It will not be so easy as it was for Elon.

I don’t think we know enough to know what to do, yet. Certainly, protest. Certainly consider leaving. Certainly, see if you can pull your friends to other social media.

If you have group obligations keeping you there, it’s time to move them to another service if you can. I myself have managed to get one group which required my professional attention onto another platform; perhaps you can, as well.

Preparation for evac in these situations is always good.

But unlike with Twitter, even with all this vileness, I can’t say for sure that “stay and fight” isn’t a valid response. It might well be one.

Until it’s clear that Zuck’s putting the Bad Succ on Meta display algorithm, it might just be a legitimate option.

And it’s worth considering, because honestly, if I couldn’t get people to leave Literal New Daily Stormer, I don’t see how in hell we’ll get people to give up Instagram.

Particularly once TikTok is gone.

I imagine – as things unfold over the next few weeks – we’ll get a clearer view. I hope so, at least.

Until then, well… play it by ear – and by conscience, too, of course.

That may well be all we really have left.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.