Either Quit Facebook, or Don’t.

Put up or shut up time, people. Me included.

Will Leitch
GEN
Published in
4 min readOct 25, 2021

--

As someone who profoundly enjoys watching Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg just truly and unequivocally eat it, I’m having a very fun week. There have been so many stories resulting from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony and leaks that you need a Google Doc to sift through all of them. It’s impossible not to be appalled by Zuckerberg’s and Facebook’s callous disregard for the anti-democratic and poisonous rhetoric their platform clearly openly encourages, and every document you read further cements how truly amoral and destructive the company and its algorithm is. Here’s a great bit from Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day newsletter that sums it up well:

The leaks have confirmed a lot of things that many reporters and researchers have been claiming for years. Facebook knowingly promotes right-wing content and conspiracy theories over non-politicized content. They have done little-to-nothing to moderate content in countries like India, Egypt, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Myanmar. They have facilitated ethnic cleansing and human trafficking and played a central role in organizing the January 6 insurrection. The only nice thing to come out of this is that apparently there aren’t any young people on the site anymore.

--

--

Will Leitch
GEN
Writer for

Author seven books, including “How Lucky” "The Time Has Come" and "Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride." NYMag/MLB. Founder Deadspin. https://williamfleitch.substack.com