Mark Zuckerberg's letter annotated: what he said and what he didn't
Alex Hern analyses the Facebook founder's 5,700-word mission statement on the goals of Facebook and highlights what he really meant and what he left out
On our journey to connect the world, we often discuss products we're building and updates on our business. Today I want to focus on the most important question of all: are we building the world we all want?
Mark Zuckerberg opens his missive with a grammatical ambiguity: who are "we"? Is this a letter to Facebook, or to the world? It can be read both ways. But regardless of the intended audience, there's a subtext to the opening paragraph which informs the whole 5,700-word letter: for an increasing number of people, the answer to Zuckerberg's question is "no". Zuckerberg wants for more than Facebook to be an insanely profitable mega-corporation. He wants the company to be seen as a force for good in the world, and right now, he's concerned that it isn't.
Continue reading...