What did leaking this memo actually accomplish? If you are someone who wants tech companies to be accountable for their impact on society you should welcome these internal conversations. All that the leak will do is make them less likely.
Facebook surrendered it's right to discuss such things privately when it's willfully kept lax policies on sharing users data. Stuff like this should leak earlier so we can talk about it before, rather than after, awful things happen.
You inspire this sort of debate by thought exercise and ask about actual application - you couch the conversation to direct your staff to stronger ethics.
If this conversation were at Uber, in their self driving car division the consequences of this would be human life. The way to have that conversation, with context would be to couch it in the "trolly problem" - because that would keep the framing.
Ethics, the word is ethics - Facebook is clearly lacking them. Were "dumb fucks" according to FB's chief - and the fish rots from the head down.
And the staff's response "find the leakers" -- funny how many groups of people I find despicable seem to chant this.
It was a case of starting a debate by voicing an extreme opinion.
The memo is exactly and clearly telling employees what to think and do. No questions allowed.
It's an "emperor's new clothes" situation where we all get to play the role of the child.
I think you could write about the ideas contained in Boz's memo in such a way that if the memo leaked you still wouldn't look like huge bleeps.
It's not the conversations that are getting them into trouble. If it were just this memo, then nobody would care.
Their action are getting them into trouble. Leaking memos like this merely offers a window into their souls.
Perhaps it could have been worded differently (better?), but I did appreciate the solid direction that was given by the memo. All too often, leadership is unable to give clear guidance because they are too wishy-washy about what the goals actually are, perhaps not even knowing what the goals should be besides making money.
I find these surreal cult-like conversations a lot more off-putting than Facebook's data practices. Those I can understand, these conversations (and the words of these well meaning employees more than those of big bad Boz) make me feel like I need to take a shower. To me, this shows the very worst of intellectually dishonest to the point of delusion, modern day North American culture, and it disgusts me.
It showed that FB says one thing in public and then does the opposite in private.