HEARSAY CULTURE RADIO
Almost from its inception, Facebook has been subject to intense scrutiny as a groundbreaking, but sphinx-like, corporate entity. Although CEO Mark Zuckerberg naturally received the most attention, many lesser-known and unknown individuals played critical roles in Facebook’s launch, idealistic early days, and its predominant current focus on growth and profits — and they often operated at odds with each other.
However, until Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz connected with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, most of these individuals, along with their efforts and conflicts, were unknown. On this episode of Hearsay Culture Radio, Dave chats with Jeff about his 2023 book Broken Code, in which Jeff lays out the Kremlinology of Facebook since 2012. In the discussion, we discuss the “teams” at odds with each other inside Facebook, Facebook’s current challenges, and how a reporter handles whistleblowers who reveal information at great personal risk. Importantly, we also acknowledge and reflect on the horrific sentencing of Jeff’s colleague, Evan Gershkovich, in a Russian sham trial earlier this month. #istandwithevan
“In fine tuning the platform for extreme virality, they created something that was pretty much impossible to oversee.” — Jeff Horwitz
“For the whole world of mere stunts and scoops and trading and self-advertisement is spiritually a world utterly dead; although it is very noisy. It is, in the very precise and literal meaning of the phrase, a howling wilderness.” — Selected Essays
Lead Photo by Efe Kurnaz on Unsplash
