Facebook PR: Lean In, Reframe, and Output Word Salad

February 28, 2020

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Defends Her Company and Her Reputation in Wide-Ranging Interview” is an interesting example of corporate PR, “running for office” preparation, and really heartfelt, super sincere explanations.

A techno journalist of significant stature wrote a book about Facebook. Allegedly the effort involved hundreds of interviews with Facebookers past and present. DarkCyber has not read Facebook: The Inside Story. DarkCyber does not use Facebook to locate “friends”—although one of our deceased dogs has a Facebook page.

This interview with an NBC journalist appears to be a little bit about the book, a little bit about Facebook; for example:

“I wish so much that the world could see the Mark I know,” Sandberg said. “Mark is an enormously, enormously talented guy. He has a great product sense. … People think he doesn’t understand people. That’s just clearly wrong.

Right, clearly wrong. Facebook is suing NSO Group. Facebook is suing a partner OneAudience. Facebook is using legal weapons to demonstrate how Facebook “understands people.” Right. DarkCyber thinks it recalls a bit of an issue with Cambridge Analytica, a zippy researcher, and a whistle blower with a keen fashion sense. But maybe that was a hallucination. People do have them. People also reshape facts into confections of delight.

We noted this statement from the NBC story:

Sandberg also offered her most robust defense to date of Facebook’s business model and its vast collection of personal data, which she said was necessary to offer users a better content and advertising experience. “There is growing concern, which is based on a lack of understanding, that we are using people’s information in a bad way. We are selling it. We are giving it away. We are violating it. None of that’s true. We do not sell data,” she said. “Here’s what we do: We take your information and we show you personalized ads … [to give you] a much better experience.”

Yep, experience.

Lean in. Be sincere. Deliver factoids. Let the lawyers do their work.

Mr. Zuckerberg understands people. Right.

Stephen E Arnold, February 28, 2020

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