Facebook Doesn’t Have to Be Terrible
This week, we talked about revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony—and whether this reckoning will finally change the social media giant….
GE: I’ll check that out. I will say that private messaging raises a different set of issues. There are certain, again, content-agnostic solutions out there that can address messaging apps, for example, limiting forwarding is a big deal. And that’s something that Facebook did in India, because chain WhatsApp messages were the source of a lot of dangerous viral content that was inciting people to violence. And the beauty of stuff like that also is it doesn’t require you to muck around and look inside people’s messages, or undermine end-to-end encrypted apps.
MC: Yeah.
GE: It is worth keeping in mind, though, that there’s a limit to … it would be bizarre for us to freak out and say that the post office really has to do something about people mailing letters that have misinformation, or the phone company really needs to crack down on people calling each other and saying things that aren’t true. So I do think we need to keep in mind that when people are communicating with each other, at a certain point, there’s a limit to how much the providers of the communications architecture could, or should, be expected to police what people are saying to each other.
MC: Yeah. And pushing too hard also brings up the very tricky subject of encryption and weakening encryption, or compromising encryption in some way, which we all understand to be very bad.
GE: Right. Or pushing people to improve their OPSEC. And it’s like, oh, shit, Facebook’s cracking down on us. I guess I’ll get Signal after all. It’s like, well, damn it. Now we can’t, now we’re really screwed. We can’t see what they’re doing.
MC: Lauren, what’s your recommendation.
LG: I have two recommendations this week. One is in honor of Gilad, who’s always going for something that is fun and simple.
GE: I’m always just treated so well when I’m here.
LG: I’ve been swiping right on dates, which is to say dates.
MC: Oh, like the food.
LG: Like the food, dates.
MC: For eating.
LG: They’re really good for eating. Yes, I’ve been on a Medjool date cake, they’re delicious, they’re high in potassium and fiber, and have a low glycemic index. And I’ve just been, I love them. I’m just snacking on them all the time now.
MC: What do you do with the pits?
LG: I put them in compost.
MC: Nice.
LG: Yeah.
GE: What app are you using for the Medjool dates?
LG: It’s a super, super secret date app.
GE: Invite only.
LG: Yeah. Yeah. It’s invite only, but if you have access to dates, I highly recommend them.
MC: I’m glad to hear you’re back on the scene.
GE: Yeah. Back on the date scene.
LG: Back on the date scene. The other recommendation I have is the Sway podcast, the New York Times sway podcast by Kara Swisher. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my friend and landlord, I’m saying that because I’ve listened to a couple episodes recently that are particularly good. She interviewed Monica Lewinsky last week, and they talked a lot about society’s collective internalized misogyny around the impeachment of Bill Clinton. And Monica is now working on new projects, including a Hulu series about the impeachment. And Beanie Feldstein, I think is how you say her name, is playing Monica. And Monica has a hand in the storytelling of this. And it’s a really raw and brutally honest interview that she does with Kara Swisher. And I think it’s really worth listening to.
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