Amid a
barrage of public attacks on Apple from Facebook over privacy measures, Facebook employees have expressed their displeasure with the direction of the campaign in comments obtained by
BuzzFeed News.
Last week, Facebook
launched a campaign in print newspapers
explaining that it was "standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere," and created a website encouraging people to "
Speak Up for Small Businesses."
Facebook argues that Apple's privacy changes in iOS 14, which give users the
option to opt-out of ad tracking, will harm small businesses that see increased sales from personalized ads. However, some Facebook employees are reportedly complaining about what they perceived to be a self-serving campaign.
BuzzFeed News obtained internal comments from one of Facebook's private message boards and audio of a presentation to Facebook workers, revealing that there is discontentment among employees about the angle used to attack Apple's privacy changes. One Facebook engineer, in response to an internal post about the campaign from Facebook's advertising chief Dan Levy, said:
Ahead of an internal meeting to explain the rationale of the campaign against Apple, Facebook employees asked and voted up several questions that focused on the consequences of the campaign on Facebook's public image. The most popular questions asked reportedly all expressed skepticism or concern:
In response, Facebook vice president of product marketing Graham Mudd said that the company has been "really clear" that Apple's changes do "have a financial impact on us," in addition to small businesses:
Following the presentation, many Facebook employees were apparently unconvinced. Some did not understand how Apple's changes would negatively affect small businesses, while one highlighted that Apple's privacy changes also prevent "malicious actors" from tracking people:
The same employee launched a scathing attack on Levy's post, accompanied by a popular meme with the text "Are we the baddies?"
Other critics suggested that Facebook incentivizes opting-in to ad tracking in a positive campaign rather than attacking the notion of a choice to opt-in or out. Levy responded to criticisms explaining that the campaign was simply "not about our business model."
Other comments from employees highlighted that the spirited defense of small businesses was hypocritical because Facebook has repeatedly disabled the ad accounts of small business advertisers by mistake and increasingly uses automated customer support, leading to a plethora of public complaints from small businesses:
Facebook spokesperson Ashley Zandy responded to
BuzzFeed News, insisting that the stories of small businesses are Facebook's priority:
Following the launch of the campaign, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world,
called Facebook's criticisms of tracking-related privacy measures "laughable."
Article Link:
Facebook Employees Criticize Campaign Against Apple in Leaked Comments