SALT LAKE CITY — A 2016 memo from a Facebook executive about what the company would do to keep growing has critics concerned about the social network's management.
The 2016 memo said that Facebook’s goal is to connect people no matter what, according to BBC.
“We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China some day. All of it,” vice president Andrew “Boz” Bosworth wrote, according to BuzzFeed News.
Bosworth said, "Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack co-ordinated on our tools. And still, we connect people."
Read part of the memo below that has people questioning the company’s motives:
“So we connect more people.
That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. **_Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack co-ordinated on our tools.__And still, we connect people.**_
The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.
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That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we will likely have to do in China someday_.** All of it.”_**
The memo comes about two weeks after controversial reports revealed that a company improperly obtained Facebook data on 50 million of the company’s users, according to the Associated Press. That company, Cambridge Analytica, had political ties to President Donald Trump’s election campaign, the AP reported.
In response, celebrities, executives and other Facebook users have started a movement to #DeleteFacebook.
Bosworth's memo highlights how “one senior executive — one of Zuckerberg’s longest-serving deputies — prioritized all-encompassing growth over all else, a view that has led to questionable data collection and manipulative treatment of its users,” according to BuzzFeed.
Bozworth tweeted that he didn’t agree with the post at the time he originally shared it.
"Having a debate around hard topics like these is a critical part of our process and to do that effectively we have to be able to consider even bad ideas," he said.
Zuckerberg said the memo does not reflect the vision of the company, according to Time magazine.
“We’ve never believed the ends justify the means,” Zuckerberg said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “We recognize that connecting people isn’t enough by itself. We also need to work to bring people closer together. We changed our whole mission and company focus to reflect this last year.”
In 2007, an interview with Zuckerberg revealed the Facebook founder’s plan for the future, which ultimately led to the recent controversy. Zuckerberg said his company would allow developers to create apps inside the platform, much in the same way Windows operating software does.
Fast-forward 10 years and that’s what led to the recent controversy. Cambridge Analytica bought its data from a researcher who had previously built a personality quiz app for Facebook.