The evolution of Facebook

Events unfolded in rapid succession, between Wednesday September 7 and Friday September 9: during a discussion on Facebook about photographs that had changed the course of wars, Norwegian writer Tom Egeland the iconic image of Kim Phuc, the so-called napalm girl, taken in 1972 during the Vietnam War by Nick Ut, which won the photographer the Pulitzer prize. The photograph was one of seven, and no one would deny its relevance in that discussion.

Relevant or not, Facebook decided to delete the image claiming it violated its policy whereby “any photographs of people displaying fully nude genitalia or buttocks, or fully nude female breasts, will be removed”.

When the Norwegian author protested the move, posting the photograph again and accusing Mark Zuckerberg of abusing his authority and being anti-democratic, his account was suspended.

The Norwegian daily Aftenposten, the largest in the country, entered the fray on Egeland’s side, publishing the photograph along with a protest letter by the writer, prompting Facebook to remove the publication from the social network along with that of Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, who also published the picture. The Norwegian newspaper decided to make the issue front page news, publishing an editorial in which editor Espen Egil Hansen, wrote:

“Even though I am editor-in-chief of Norway’s largest newspaper, I have to realize that you are restricting my room for exercising my editorial responsibility. I think you are abusing your power, and I find it hard to believe that you have thought it through thoroughly.”

Finally, Facebook decided to walk back, restoring both the photograph and Egeland’s account saying it was reviewing its policies, but not before being subjected to an avalanche of criticism, with countless accounts all the world posting the photograph.

The issue, not the first of its kind, illustrates what Facebook has become: the largest news publisher in the world, the site where the greatest number of people find their news, and where cases like this can generate the most controversy. What started out as a social network to keep in touch with friends and family is now the largest media outlet in the world. The measure of a news story’s impact is no longer if this or that newspaper publishes something, but is instead whether it is being read on Facebook. Like it or not, Mark Zuckerberg is now the editor of the largest media outlet in the world: it is not a “platform” or a “social network” any longer. For all media outlets, Facebook is fast becoming the largest source of web traffic, the be all and end all — and if it is not, then that’s probably because it’s doing something wrong.

To the credit of Facebook, it is able to make decisions quickly if a company with a horizontal management structure that can monitor what 1.7 billion around the world are doing in real time were not able to see such a snowball speeding up and getting bigger by the minute, it would have a serious problem.

But against the organization is the apparent inability to understand its own evolution and what that requires. The number of times that Facebook has been involved in such issues over the last year has grown steadily, whether related to politics, its choice of trending topics or its level of automation: this is an issue that will only keep growing.

Three or four rules of supposed universal applicability are not going to be enough. And neither will an algorithm. We’re talking here about extremely delicate, complex decisions, with many nuances and elements involved, and in a completely multicultural environment.

Either the company begins to be aware of what it has evolved into creates structures similar to those of a grown up media organization — some kind of editorial board or an internationally respected rapid response agency able to take such decisions — or it suffer serious damage to its image and reputation, as well as constant accusations of bias.

It’s certainly a complex issue: the company is no longer managing what though it was, but what has now become. Like it or not.

(En español, aquí)