[ad_1]
This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection past columns.
We expect a lot from tech companies that are rich, smart and powerful, but they are not immune to mismanagement. And even when it fails, it can be jarring for the employees of these companies and devastating for the people who stay after the mistakes.
A Wall Street Magazine article (subscription required) yesterday, Facebook detailed ways to essentially allow influential people to break company rules. In one example cited in the article, Facebook initially allowed football star Neymar to post nude photos of a woman without her permission, despite its rules against such behavior.
It’s been clear for a while that Facebook gives. preferential treatment with some high profile people, including Donald Trump. What The Journal’s news shows is that Facebook’s use of children’s gloves for VIPs is a systemic practice that affects millions of people, that Facebook mismanaged the enforcement of this policy, and that special treatment resisted attempts to eliminate it within Facebook.
Anyone who has ever worked at a large organization has probably felt what was going on with Facebook: The company devised a sensible plan for influential users that was clumsy when implemented—and then the company was unwilling or incapable of fixing what completely. gone wrong.
Stories like Facebook’s failed VIP system, Amazon’s chaotic management of warehouse workers and Apple’s repeated false starts in the making of a car It shows that even superstar companies can suffer from bureaucratic swamps and complex decision-making processes that affect many large corporations.
What’s different about tech giants is that these companies seem to believe in their own superior capabilities – and so do most of the public. This makes their missteps more glaring and perhaps makes companies more reluctant to admit their mistakes.
The core idea of Facebook’s VIP policy – a second look at decisions affecting high-profile accounts – makes sense.
The company knows that its computer systems and employees make mistakes in crushing billions of Facebook and Instagram posts every day. Facebook’s computers could delete a harmless photo from a child’s birthday party because the system could misinterpret it as sexual images that violate company rules.
It’s not a bad idea to take another look at influential people’s posts; unfortunately, the policy was not executed very well. According to The Journal, many teams “choose not to enforce the rules at all with high-profile accounts,” as Facebook doesn’t use enough moderators or other resources to review all posts. Understood? VIPs were exempted from the company’s rules less for malicious intent than negligence.
The magazine reported that Facebook has known for years that it is unfair and unwise to allow high-profile people to work under a different, looser rulebook, but the number of people de facto impunity continues to rise. The article said that at least 45 teams on Facebook started adding names to the VIP list last year until it reached at least 5.8 million people.
I will admit that at Facebook’s scale of billions of users, none of its policies or practices will be perfect. Facebook and its former head of civil integrity He said the company made changes to fix some issues on the VIP list. But The Journal’s reports ultimately point to a more fundamental error: A large organization exhibited blatant mismanagement and could not or would not fully resolve its problems.
It’s not shocking when Congress or the cable company is incompetent. But we see billion-dollar and big-brained tech giants as private, all-seeing, and smarter than anyone. This feels all the more surprising when the tech giants the worker spoils his salary and does not accept it, as Google does, or trying to sell food for years, as Amazon does.
Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon have seemingly invincible power, but growing wealth That doesn’t stop these giants from being ridiculously incompetent at times, either.
Before you go …
hug this
This wallaby named Pocket wants to remind you that: eat your leafy green vegetables.
We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else you would like us to discover. You can contact us at ontech@nytimes.com.
If you have not yet received this newsletter in your inbox, please register here. You can also read History in technology columns.
[ad_2]
Source link