To the Editor:

Re “Delay, Deny, Deflect: How Facebook Leaders Leaned Out in Crisis” (front page, Nov. 15):

Perhaps we should add “Destroy” to the alliteration. Did we expect a generation of younger corporate owners and investors, having made their money so large and fast, to somehow live up to the values expressed in their TED Talking enthusiasms?

For all their world-changing identification, they are reproducing the social destruction so perfected by their corporate elders — that is, to brand themselves as do-gooders while working feverishly to prevent policy changes that would restrict, in any way, their ability to mine profits from ventures that are in direct conflict with their acclaimed values.

As long as corporate culture embraces growth through profit as the ultimate criterion for success, and our politicians take a share of the winnings as the price of their support, we will continue down this slide. Facebook, Google, Amazon — they are merely the most recent players in the big Monopoly game that is our financial culture, and I thank the journalists who have been tracking their double-dealing. At least we know who the players are in the game of destruction.

Liane Collins
San Francisco

To the Editor:

All this uproar over Facebook, a free service, and personal data collection is painfully naïve. Why isn’t outrage also being directed at companies that charge for services but still gather and share personal data completely unnecessary to their function? Many apps specifically require access to all data, including photos and contacts. Declining this intrusion boots you from access.

Privacy in the digital world is an antiquated concept. The government’s efforts to curb abuse are equally antiquated. No one is truly protecting us. Sadly, we all have culpability because we believe the illusion that free really is free and that the digital world makes life better without significant cost.

Chris Graillat
Sacramento

To the Editor:

I find this deeply troubling: “Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic.”

Mentioning George Soros has become a dog whistle to bigots. Not only is Facebook playing both sides against the middle, but it is itself contributing to anti-Semitism by these actions.

Martha Swartz
Leeds, Mass.

To the Editor:

I’m speechless at the chicanery. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg live in ivory towers. They played a big part in the current very dangerous erosion of American democracy and the rise of far-right extremism and got away with it for a while, blinded by their own giant egotism and financial success.

But they forgot the oldest cliché in the book, that power corrupts, and they apparently didn’t read their history lesson on the rise and fall of corrupt individuals. Most of all, they obviously thought they were powerful enough that they didn’t need to worry about journalists. The arrogance of that is beyond description. Ultimately nobody is above the law or beyond the reach of good investigative journalism. Bravo, New York Times!

Jennifer Stewart
Exeter, England

To the Editor:

Of course it is all about the money. Name one thing in America that isn’t. But from a grandma who uses seven Facebook groups to interact with other child caregivers, community organizations and pickleball players, I can say that the service it provides has brightened many a dark day. I hope advertisers can see the value in these “communities” and stay the course while encouraging transparency.

Deborah Rimmer Leser
Centreville, Va.

Source: Read Full Article