> - can a company which makes money as an advertising platform and data broker really protect the privacy of its users when that is directly at odds with its fu

> - can a company which makes money as an advertising platform and data broker really protect the privacy of its users when that is directly at odds with its fundamental mission? Good question; but I'm not sure that's one that Facebook could answer themselves. I do think there are ways to protect identity from wide distribution while still allowing the type of ad targeting that Facebook does; but I also think that the cat is largely out of the bag at this point. Facebook is far from the only DMP out there and most people outside of HN couldn't name a single one of them, so you could argue that Facebook has more incentive than most to be a good steward of that data because of the very public nature of their service. > - is there value for Facebook in figuring out how to remove fake news or content from terrorists or dead users from its platform vis-a-vis continuing on with business-as-usual? Yes; the next phase in the information revolution is going to be centered around trust. If Facebook becomes widely associated with "fake news" in the public zeitgeist, that's bad. If Facebook becomes censored by governments because it is seen to be facilitating communication between terrorists, that's bad. I think Facebook has recognized that some form of content governance is inevitable. But given the nature of partisan politics around the world, I'm not so sure we want to hand that content governance off to partisan governments either. > - is there actually any room for someone within the organization at Facebook to ask questions like this without violating implicit or explicit company norms about how Facebook is discussed, internally or publicly? For question 1, I don't think so -- but only because any answer they would come up with would be inherently biased. For question 2, I think that's the exact conversation that the original post is trying to start. And yes, I think that there is a ton of value to the customer in providing a more curated content discovery experience. Whether it's of value to society remains to be seen.