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Comment by georgespencer | Hacker News Reader

Not much surprises me about Facebook any more. The leadership is tone deaf.

It seems their corporate motto, instead of the old Google, "Don't be evil" is "Be as evil as possible."

It's weird isn't it? I went through a period (personally) where I felt super misunderstood by people around me, and after a while I realised it was me who was miscalibrated. I get the impression that FB feels the same, but without the capacity for self-reflection or desire to change. A shame because the Facebook platforms could be, if not a force for good, at the very least neutral. Instead it seems like every single thing they do is insidious.

Facebook is creating a more Open and Connected World. This little privacy incursions are the tax that you pay, as part of the social contract, to help bring the greatness of Facebook to others.

^ This is what Mark Zuckerberg tells government and journalists.

And you know what? If you are a Facebook user, he's right! Only non-users and people dragged onto the platform only to communicate with friends/family/partners who insist in Facebook-only communication, have a right to complain.

It's not only the leadership. The engineering side is also complicit in this to some degree.

Being tone-deaf would imply they're unable to understand other people's issues. Facebook actively seeks to track all of us for their financial gain, against the wishes of many of us.

Facebook is actively malicious.

I'm baffled that, even with the horrible rep Facebook has, they somehow decided to put "from Facebook" splash screens into both WhatsApp and Instagram. Why? What possible benefit could it have? Most people already know who owns the services but now anybody who opens the app is faced with it. If anything, it should just make people reluctant to use the apps, surely.

Many people don't realize that WhatsApp and Instagram are the same thing as Facebook. Facebook's brand is somewhat tarnished, and they want to polish it up with Instagram and WhatsApp (which have been less impacted by the bad press).

I'd say most, at least not until the sticker appeared.

What possible benefit could it have?

Perhaps stock price/awareness?

The same way that lots of companies put their ticker symbol in their advertising, or the way local television news programs will put its parent company's ticker symbol in the closing graphics.

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