Why are you working on Facebook?

Question

From a layperson, outside ignorant perspective, FB seems to be in a difficult place. For quite some time now, the sentiment I&rsquo;ve seen among &ldquo;people in the know&rdquo; is that there are fundamental issues at facebook that are not being addressed, and having watched all of todays testimonial, a few things stand out as real issues. FB itself understands:The ML used to protect users on FB is only localized into 20 or so languages, not all the languages supported by FB.In the context of rabbit holeing, the ML used to protect users and the ML used to make money are at odds with each other, so the ML used to make money is weighted more heavily.When issues of the potential for creating a civil war in various regions across the world due to misinformation amplified by the first two issues, the CEO opted not to change course.A non-statistically insignificant number of teenagers attribute strong urges towards suicide due to an inability to protect them.In theory this all seems net negative, and so I ask this without value judgement, but out of genuine curiosity, why are you choosing to continue working on this product?

firstplacelast · Accepted Answer

Making the world a &ldquo;better&rdquo; place is overrated.I work for a small, non-VC funded, company where I contribute to products that have the potential to help people live longer, healthier lives. And I get paid pretty terribly compared to the COL of my area and compared to what I could make in other industries.It seems the vast majority of jobs we deem to &ldquo;make the world a better place&rdquo;, pay not great. Teachers, social workers, scientists, healthcare workers outside doc/nurse, non-profit work, etc.Give society what they want. They want to live in a bubble of misinformation, good for them. They want to be angry and incited into violence, good for them.From where I&rsquo;m sitting, if I help people live longer, I&rsquo;m shooting myself in the foot. I can barely afford a crappy condo, currently. If I have kids, their lives will be worse because I had some weird need to care about the mission of my work.If YOU think people need to work on problems and for companies that make the world a better place, then you should be working on how to incentivize working on these problems and disincentivizing working in companies that &ldquo;make the world worse.&rdquo; You&rsquo;re going to have to figure out how to get teachers paid as much as a banker, I wish you the best of luck.

Calvin02 · Answer

I don&rsquo;t work for Facebook.However, the issues are definitely more complex than media and politicians make it out to be.Misinformation: take this article from the EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/disentangling-disinfor...Teen users: TikTok, where majority of the teens are, was surprisingly missing from all the discussions. My TikTok feed is far more risqu&eacute; than my Instagram feed is.So on..This isn&rsquo;t as black or white as HN makes it out to be.

antasvara · Answer

Morals aren't necessarily a priority for everyone when choosing a career path/job. Perhaps there's an interesting product in development at Facebook that you enjoy working on. Maybe you want a specific type of work experience and Facebook was willing to offer it to you with great pay. It's possible a person could hope to change the culture from the inside. You could have past coworkers at Facebook that you enjoyed working with and would like to work with again.
If moral considerations are important to you, that's awesome! There would be no reason for you to work at Facebook. If ethical concerns are not your top priority and Facebook offered more money or a more interesting job, that's enough reason for a lot of people to work there.
Ultimately, everyone chooses how far they let their morals dictate their actions. We aren't all working for non-profits that provide essential services to those that need them, right?

beardyw · Answer

Let's be fair here. The vast majority of FB technology workers will be doing stuff they know or at least assume to be benign. If they are going to be accused of any guilt, it is by association. They are not cackling over code in a James Bond villain's lair. Leaving a job can cause massive upheavals in family life, if what you do is CSS or optimise DB access. Let's keep focus on the wrongs of the company and real decision makers.PS- I despise FB

tyrfing · Answer

"Potential for creating a civil war" isn't a hypothetical at all. It's already happened, social media was complicit in the violent overthrow of multiple governments, ending with 60,000 people dead. It's called the Arab Spring, and typically viewed as a positive thing.

rovr138 · Answer

The way this is worded seems to assume that anyone at Facebook is able to leave a job without any risk. No regard for the responsibilities they might have and on top of that, add all the interview prep, grinding leetcode, etc. they might have to go.It&rsquo;s not so easy sometimes.

gaws · Answer

Why? One word: Money.Facebook pays their engineers well, and the lifestyle from that salary is too good to give up.

EastOfTruth · Answer

probably because a lot of people care more about money then common sense

Why are you working on Facebook?

"Potential for creating a civil war" isn't a hypothetical at all. It's already happened, social media was complicit in the violent overthrow of multiple governments, ending with 60,000 people dead. It's called the Arab Spring, and typically viewed as a positive thing.

The way this is worded seems to assume that anyone at Facebook is able to leave a job without any risk. No regard for the responsibilities they might have and on top of that, add all the interview prep, grinding leetcode, etc. they might have to go.
It’s not so easy sometimes.

Why? One word: Money.
Facebook pays their engineers well, and the lifestyle from that salary is too good to give up.

probably because a lot of people care more about money then common sense