Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

You probably don’t know us, given that we have started fairly recently the pursuit of our mission. We believe that people can make the most of their lives when they feel protected. It turns out that the industry that should contribute the most to the fulfillment of this belief, is not doing it. Insurance, as we know it, is beyond outdated: it is broken. That is therefore what drives us every day — we want to build insurance that people would like to use, to protect everything they love (we even called the company ‘Lovys’).

But regardless of our focus on reinventing insurance, we are the first to admit that there are plenty of other ways for changing people’s lives. You, for instance, who claim to contribute to bringing the world closer together, have a great duty to that same world. And you’re absolutely right when you stated recently that this duty is not to judge politicians’ characters. But it is to avoid that politicians of any character promote falsehoods that might distort the democratic decisions and judgments of the users of your platform. Your duty is not to censure an opinion but to demote an untruth. Because people expect it. Because only then Facebook can have a relevant role in local and global democracies.

This week there will be elections in Great Britain, which will decide to a great extent the future of Europe. After your decision of not fighting fake ads — and thus not following also other social networks like Twitter that have banned ads with political content — you are condemned to allow the spread of information that is false. We, at Lovys, hate false information. We promise our customers every day to tell them the truth (even when talking to them through Facebook), which is why we want to set an example for all the companies investing money on Facebook.

We have been using your platforms as acquisition channels — which makes us, therefore, your client. Acquisition is, as it is for any startup, of the utmost importance for us. Yet more than acquiring new clients, we want to be a transparent company that also strives for greater transparency in the world. That is why we decided to suspend all our Facebook ads during the month of December, which is a very important one in what comes to sales. This is a small gesture that we will use to remind ourselves of our values and that we would love for it to be copied by others. It is a gesture that we hope not to repeat, let alone in a more radical way. Because we still believe that you will realize one day that the impact you have can be used for good.

Dear Mark, bringing the world together allowing the promotion of any values, putting aside truth and transparency, does not seem a good principle. We have all seen that same story a few decades ago. And remember that ‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.’ — even more with a social network at its service.

Sincerely

The Lovys team