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How do employees perceive Mark: do they love him, do they respect him, do they like him, do they fear him, or do they trust him? How, exactly, does the team perceive him? So, in the part of the company where I worked, I think there was a certain awareness that Mark was in charge, but it introduced some chaos. I'll give you an example. About three months before I joined, there was a situation in India. So, Modi is the Prime Minister of India. He began making comments about Muslims, calling them, for example, insects or rodents, using language that demeans human dignity. Modi. Yes, Modi, that's right. And this is actually the voiceover of such comments.
Public comments on Facebook. And they are considered harbingers of ethnic violence. When you start talking about an ethnic group in your country as pests, that's already the first step. He said this because of their enmity with Pakistan and possibly being part of the BJP. He is also a Hindu nationalist. I mean, that's a big part of his political power. When people study how ethnic violence arises, they first start with this kind of delegitimization language and then go further. So the conversation started: "Oh, interesting, he started doing that." What will Facebook do if he starts writing "kill Muslims"?
What should we do? This is a valid question. And so a working group was formed. Forty people spent six months trying to figure out at what point a national leader should not be allowed to post on Facebook. What is the threshold where you say, "Okay, we're not going to let him coordinate genocide on our platform," right? Where is this boundary? Because I think everyone would agree that there is a limit. Who knows, we can discuss where it goes, but calls to kill Muslims in India probably go beyond it. And, therefore, They all agreed. Did all 40 agree? So, after six months of talking to people in advertising, public policy, and government relations, there's literally a Facebook group on genocide. It's
called "social cohesion." All these different people, people with PhD degrees, are writing the proposal. They come to one final decision. They introduce him to Mark on Friday. He says, "I don't like it." "I can do better." He is going home. He writes his own politics. He comes out and announces it on Monday. How would that make you feel? What if you knew that 40 people discussed this, argued, consulted with people inside and outside the company, came up with something that everyone agreed on in 6 months, and your leader says: oh, no, no, I'll do better over the weekend. Was his decision better? Well, the problem with his solution was that it was impossible to implement. He said we would never censor a politician's voice. And the only
problem is that in some jurisdictions, the local dog catcher is an elected position. Are they considered politicians? I mean, this is an elected official. And how did he clarify this? Did he say whether it was a world leader, whether it was first or second tier? Official. That's all. Yes. And so the problem, and part of the reason why this policy wasn't proposed in the first place, was that the advertising team didn't know who these dog catchers were. Right? In the United States alone, hundreds of thousands of people hold elected office, right? What percentage of Facebook's 3.5 billion users are from India? Great question. I don't know. Because I would say, hey, we have to be
careful with customers and users in India, maybe that's the reason. I do n't know. So I know that only 11% of users spoke English when I left in 2021. In India? Only 11% of Facebook users spoke English? Yes. Then that's a big part of the deal. It must be India if that's the case. OK. So, in the group of 40 people you mentioned, is that a social cohesion group? One of the social cohesion groups And how did they react to Zuckerberg saying: I can write this better? My boss, he's the head of the public integrity department. I can't say exactly what the social cohesion group did, but I can say what my boss did. My
boss gathered all of us, 200-300 people, in a large conference room, like an auditorium, and showed us MRI scans of his spine. And this is my boss. Imagine sitting there and everyone knew this policy was being prepared. They knew it was a big deal throughout the organization. I didn't even work on this policy, but I knew it would come. So, when the news broke that Mark had written something of his own and announced it, it seemed to bring us all together, and my boss comes on stage and starts showing us an MRI of his spine. And we're all like: What's going on here? Is he going to quit? He tells how hard he worked until he hurt his back. You know how much he gave to this company, how much he sacrificed
, and how it demoralizes him. show it to you guys? How many people are in the room? There are about 200 people in the hall. Oh, so this is a heavyweight? Heavyweight. This.and he reports directly to Mark. He is one step lower. And, you know, he stands there and tells us how much he personally sacrificed for this mission, right? Like, he's showing us his spine. And we all think: oh my god, he's going to get released now. Well.this conversation can only have one ending. And at the last moment he is like: but no, we must fight on So people were really devastated that we had just been told that there was a risk of
human loss on a huge scale. And to be clear, within two years of that, there was an ethnic conflict in Ethiopia, fueled by social media, in which half a million people died. Handcrafted in five Italian factories with foot support technology, these may be the most comfortable shoes you've ever owned. Introducing the all-new FLB model in new chocolate Corazza leather. Built to move, durable, designed to impress. If you like this video and want to watch more like it, click here. And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.
