Why Meta might be the most evil company on the Internet
The scale and frequency of their wrongdoing is staggering - and that's just in the last 6 months!
First up, let me caveat what's about to come by stating up front, loud and clear that I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe there's some shady cabal of lizard people deciding our fate from a lair tucked away in the side of a mountain. I do however believe that the current billionaire class are a bunch of out of touch undiagnosed sociopaths making decisions that impact billions of people's lives with no idea how those billions actually live and work or what they actually need. And I don't think they care.
I think billionaire’s believe their accrual of money is evidence that they are somehow smarter than everyone else when actually all they did was make one good decision based on very narrow knowledge several decades ago that they think makes them an authority on how the world should be run now.
And for me the worst of the lot is not Musk, at least he popularised electric cars and made the patents available free for anyone to use. No, for me, it's Zuckerberg and here's why...
Facebook Begins
It all begins with his oft-forgotten origin story, which was to build a tool to rate the women on his campus for hotness. It was called The Facebook and since then it has been involved in more scandals than a Conservative MP caught in a honey trap by a Sunday tabloid!
CNN Business kept a running tally of what they call 'Facebook's Bottomless Pit of Scandals' but it only runs up to 2019 - presumably they just didn't have the resources to keep covering it. Being in a similar boat myself I am just going to look at the last six months of scandals afflicting Meta, which now incorporates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp and it’s a lot. Ready? Let’s go!
November 2024:
Study finds Instagram actively encourages self-harm amongst teenagers
Danish researchers decided to test Meta’s claim that it had significantly improved its processes for removing harmful content. Guess what? It didn’t. In fact, they found that Instagram's algorithm actively recruited vulnerable teenagers who showed an interest in self-harm content. 🥳
January 2025:
Meta scrambles to delete AI accounts
In in December 2024 Connor Hayes, Meta’s VP of Product for Generative AI told the FT:
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do… They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform … That’s where we see all of this going.”
A couple weeks later users started to notice a bunch of new Facebook profiles posting slop and telling lies. Profiles like Liv the ‘Proud Black queer momma of 2 & truth teller’ who was one of scores of fake profiles that appropriated cultures to foster “engagement” designed to drive more ad revenue.
Needless to say Mr. Hayes promptly regretted his comments and set about deleting these monstrosities ASAP.
Facebook and Instagram get rid of fact checkers
Not content with lying bots, Facebook decided humans on their platform can post any old bullshit no matter what harm it may cause, allegedly in the name of free speech but actually in another desperate attempt to save its flagging engagement rates by fostering rage bait and conspiracy theories. Somewhat predictably this led to some iconic memes being spread across Zuck’s own platforms lol.
March 2025
Meta Tries to Bury a Tell-All Book
In March Meta - which just two months earlier had removed fact-checkers from Facebook in the name of free speech - successfully convinced an arbitrator to silence the author of a tell-all book about the company. Sarah Wynn-Williams was the former global director of public policy at Facebook and had been in the room when some of the most egregious decisions were made. Her book, ‘Careless People: A story of where I used to work’ is on sale but she’s not allowed to promote it so allow me. 👇
April 2025
Meta AI Staffers Deemed More Than 7 Million Books to Have No “Economic Value”
Apparently AI is going to unleash an age of abundance that will generate so much wealth no one need ever work again. Also, the poor AI companies cannot possibly pay copyright holders to use their material because it’s just not economically viable. WELL, WHICH IS IT?!?!?!
Meta admits "entirely optional" AI feature in WhatsApp cannot be turned off
Why is this a problem? Well, first, they lied. Second they are forcing a technology upon users that users didn’t ask for. And finally, it’s clearly an attempted incursion into WhatsApp, which is supposed to be private but is clearly too tempting for Zuck not to raid for those really juicy tidbits that we daren’t even post on Facebook or Instagram.
I wonder how long it will be before you message your friends about going out for a drink and Meta AI starts suggesting the cool, crisp taste of a Heineken draft, just 150 yards from your current location? 🤔
Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users—Even Children
I just can’t with this one, click the link if you really want to know.
Meta tightens privacy policy around Ray-Ban glasses to boost AI training (not in a good way)
Just before month-end on April 29th Meta sent an email out to owners of its Meta AI smart glasses outlining two key changes. First, “Meta AI with camera use is always enabled on your glasses unless you turn off ‘Hey Meta,” the email said.
Second, Meta is taking after Amazon by no longer allowing glasses owners to opt out of having their voice recordings stored in the cloud. So just be aware, if you find yourself talking to someone wearing the least cool glasses Ray-Ban has ever designed, they could be recording you on video and audio for AI training purposes. 👍
May 2025
Facebook Allegedly Detected When Teen Girls Deleted Selfies So It Could Serve Them Beauty Ads
One of the revelations from the book Meta tried to ban was how Facebook tracked when adolescent girls deleted selfies, "so it can serve a beauty ad to them at that moment,” according to its author.
Other examples of Facebook's ad lechery are said to include the targeting of young mothers based on their emotional state, as well as emotional indexes mapped to racial groups, like a "Hispanic and African American Feeling Fantastic Over-index."
So, that’s nice. 😐
Meta’s new AI chatbot is yet another tool for harvesting data to potentially sell you stuff
Recent research shows we are as likely to share intimate information with a chatbot as we are with fellow humans. The personal nature of these interactions makes them a gold mine for a company whose revenue depends on knowing everything about you.
Just imagine confiding in a chatbot that you are lonely and it serves up a surreptitious ad for a dating app, or telling it that you are anxious so it suggests you “speak to your doctor about Zoloft”. AI is not benign, it’s a business and its model is to manipulate you.
“Unlike overt ads, recommendations mentioned in conversation carry the weight of trusted advice. And that advice would come from what many users will increasingly view as a digital ‘friend’.”
Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney
Meta forges ahead with facial recognition for its AI glasses
Meta originally scrapped the facial recognition feature for the first generation of its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses over ethical concerns but guess what? A new report from The Information claims that the Federal Trade Commission under the new Trump Administration has emboldened Meta to reboot its plans for the next generation of smart glasses. Yet another example of AI-powered tech creeping into your private life, whether you like it or not.🙄
Mark Zuckerberg says people can fill the need for friends with AI
And finally the straw that broke this camel’s back, Zuckerberg’s deluded, misanthropic, sociopathic idea that - and I quote - “the average American, I think, has fewer than three friends and the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it’s, like, 15.” He sees that as a market opportunity for AI companions. What could possibly go wrong?
Seriously, WTF?!
Has any company in the history of corporate American done so much so wrong in such a short space of time and gotten away with it? Zuckerberg is a ghoul who would happily have us sever or spy on all human connection in the service of his advertisers and shareholders. And I know we don't HAVE to use Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp but at this point they have essentially become utilities, most of us can't get by or do business without them.
Anyone with a car before Tesla HAD to use petrol but that doesn't mean they actively supported dictatorial regimes and human rights abuses in the Middle East, they just didn't have a choice. So what can we do but speak out, be vigilant against AI slop and call it out when we see it (as I do on LinkedIn, frequently), boycott advertisers that use his platforms, and be open to using alternatives (though Zuckerberg has a habit of buying up the competition as he did with IG and WhatsApp - what are the odds on him buying TikTok in the US, eh?).
One of the most subversive things you can do right now is invest in physical media; read books, listen to CD's and watch DVDs without WiFi, tracking or commercial interruption because nothing offends the broligarchy more than doing something they can’t track or monetise. Buy media direct from authors and musicians, local bookshops and record stores. Visit your local independent cinema. Support campaigning journalism that holds billionaires to account. Support local businesses that contribute to jobs and create prosperity in your area whilst denying Zuckerberg your data all at the same time.
To Do List
My recommendations for new things to read, watch, look at, listen to and do this week:
Obviously I am going recommend reading ‘Careless People’ by Sarah Wynn-Williams. I haven’t yet but I have a copy waiting for me in London to read on my holiday in June and I cannot wait to steep myself in that steaming hot tea 🍵
Singapore’s pre-eminent producer Leonard Soosay was on knob-twiddling duties for the debut EP by local, all-female rockers Taledrops and it shows. ‘Visions of A Dying Dream’ is an epically lush rock-opera that sounds like if My Chemical Romance soundtracked a Tim Burton movie - love it!
I finally made a start on the new series of Black Mirror on Netflix and so far episodes 1 & 3 are the standout. The first being a scathing comment on the exploitative relationship between tech platforms, advertisers and users. The third relying almost entirely on a solo performance by Paul Giamatti with occassional support from Patsy Ferran. It just goes to show what you can do with great writing and acting and not a lot else.
And finally the Straits Times announced today ‘Three Singapore artists earn posts at major international arts bodies’, further disproving the notion that Singapore lack creativity - which is always pleasing to the eye.
Right, that’ll do ya! Cheers, Nx
You are right, " AI is not benign, it’s a business and its model is to manipulate you."