Comment by metaemployee

I've worked at Meta for over 5 years now. Pardon me with the burner account, I realize there is a lot of hate for Meta (and before that for Microsoft when I worked there) and I don't need the grief that comes with personal attacks.

When I was given an offer to join Meta, I was very much conflicted. This was not long after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and I worried about what type of company I was joining. After going through a string of startups that ran out of runway, I needed something more stable for my family. I had interviewed at Amazon and would have been happy to go back to Microsoft - but Meta made me an offer and I decided to try it.

I worked in a product team and in part dealt with ensuring we wouldn't have issues like with CA again. Later I dealt with ensuring we complied with the FTC order.

I've worked with multiple VPs, numerous directors and managers across the company. My particular role literally had me working across the company.

Despite my initial fears, I never saw anyone do anything but take seriously protecting user data and complying with all the policy, laws and regulations that were required. We often went above and beyond.

I honestly have a hard time understanding this compared to some of the stories I read in the press. Can I say for sure Meta never did anything that was described? No I can't. Every company has great, good, ok and bad people. But from all the leaders I worked with I never saw anything but people being moral and respecting privacy. I'm sure I'll be flamed for this, but it's what I saw and I believe.

One example is - when I joined Meta I received a work phone and they paid for my mobile service. Initially I carried two phones, a work and personal phone out of paranoia that Meta might be snooping on my work phone. Shortly after I started and saw things first hand -- I gave up my personal phone. I trusted my employer would act responsibly. But I've seen many meta employees choose to carry two phones, some for control, some to manage work/life balance... I don't understand it but everyone makes up their own mind.

I was at Microsoft and in Windows in the old days when everyone in the industry was afraid of Microsoft. This was before chrome and the early days of the internet. We'd read press stories about how Microsoft had this grand strategy that was evident in how multiple products were strategizing towards an outcome. We joked amonst the employees we WISH we were that organized. If we were the borg, it was pure chaos.

If you've worked at a large tech company, I expect you can understand that even if there was an evil leader (and I don't believe Zuck is at all evil) he still couldn't make the entire company act in the way they do. Meta's culture is absolutely about moving fast, building compelling features and connecting the world. I honestly believe Zuck cares about what he says.

I've seen Zuck at company Q&As stand up and take on the hardest questions -- employees standing up and vigorously arguing against certain people having their accounts not banned or reinstated. And Zuck doesn't dodge. He speaks from his values and perspective. I may not always agree with him but I respect his position and that he's willing to be so transparent.

Sorry if I don't respond to follow ups, I'm on a cellular tethered connection and my password manager failed to save the password on this account so once this incognito browser is closed I'll lose access to this account.

Anyway flame away. I'm not a shill, I'm just yet another tech worker and I do have morals and I see a different version of the stories that you see.

One last thing. While I have tremendous respect for the press and I worry about this moment in history where the fourth estate is under attack... I've also seen plenty of press stories about things at Microsoft and Meta which I've known the true story inside. I'd never talk to the press, but I've seen them get it very wrong or attribute motives to the company which we absolutely don't have. Most of the time we just fucked up, not intentionally but someone didn't catch something. I actually believe more things in the world can be explained not to necessarily incompetence but the challenges of large companies... And I understand the media is motivated to write stories that people will be outraged at and read. But I'll give them a pass because just like my time at Meta and Microsoft, I think they are just doing their best with what they can do...