Amid a barrage of public attacks on Apple from Facebook over privacy controls, Facebook employees have expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the campaign in comments obtained by BuzzFeed News.
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Last week, Facebook launched a campaign in print newspapers explaining it “stood up against Apple for small businesses everywhere,” and created a website that encouraged people to “speak up for small businesses.”
Facebook states that Apple’s privacy changes in iOS 14, which allow users to opt out of ad tracking, will harm small businesses that sell more through personalized ads. However, some Facebook employees are reportedly complaining about what they consider to be a self-service campaign.
BuzzFeed News received internal comments from one of Facebook’s private message boards and audio from a presentation to Facebook employees, revealing employee dissatisfaction with the angle used to attack Apple’s privacy changes. A Facebook engineer said in response to an internal report on the campaign from Dan Levy, Facebook’s head of advertising:
It feels like we are trying to justify something bad by hiding behind people with a sympathetic message.
Prior to an internal meeting to explain the rationale of the campaign against Apple, Facebook employees asked several questions and agreed on the impact of the campaign on Facebook’s public image. The most popular questions were all reportedly skeptical or concerned:
We are not afraid that our attitude protects [small- and medium-sized businesses] will backfire because people instead see it as “Facebook protecting their own business”?
People want ‘privacy’, and Facebook who objects to this will be viewed with cynicism. Did we know this would be bad PR and decide to publish anyway?
How do we choose a message that looks less selfish?
In response, Graham Mudd, Facebook’s vice president of product marketing, said the company is “really clear” that Apple’s changes are “having a financial impact on us,” in addition to small businesses:
We try not to sweep that under the rug. We are, you know, a profitable big company, and we’ll get through this and customize our products and so on. But the real people who will be affected by this are small businesses, which is why we’ve made them the focus of the message.
After the presentation, many Facebook employees were apparently not convinced. Some didn’t understand how Apple’s changes would negatively affect small businesses, while someone stressed that Apple’s privacy changes also prevent “malicious actors” from following people:
We’re not going to … be the only ones people can track without their consent – any company can do that, even smaller startups and malicious actors.
The same collaborator launched a devastating attack on Levy’s post, accompanied by a popular meme that reads “Are we the baddies?”
All I hear again and again is’ this is bad for the companies’, and I would like someone at the top to explicitly say, ‘People are better off not knowing what we are doing, if we don’t have to explain to them, if they are not given a choice to join or opt out of our practices, if we cover it up behind interesting features as much as possible and then get them to accept covert tracking at the back as long as we downplay it . “
Other critics have suggested that Facebook is pushing the ad-tracking opt-in in a positive campaign rather than attacking the idea of an opt-in or out choice. Levy responded to criticism, explaining that the campaign was simply “not about our business model.”
That’s Apple’s marketing that convinces you to scapegoat us so they can decide how the internet should work – even outside of their devices. I am an optimist who works in technology because I believe technology can be a lever to democratize access and provide opportunities. Also for companies. And if you think this will stop personalized ads … well, I disagree.
Other employee comments highlighted that the feisty small business defense was hypocritical because Facebook has repeatedly accidentally disabled advertisers’ ad accounts for small businesses and is increasingly using automated customer support, sparking a plethora of public complaints from small businesses:
[They] stress that we’re probably not doing everything we can to “stand up for the small.” [businesses]”when we don’t provide human customer service to small advertisers.
Facebook spokesman Ashley Zandy responded BuzzFeed News, insisting that small business stories are Facebook’s priority:
Since the launch of this effort, we’ve heard from small businesses, literally around the world, who are concerned about how these changes could hurt their businesses. Because this is such a critical time for [small- and medium-sized businesses], we will continue to share those stories with the public and our employees.
Following the campaign’s launch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit advocating for civil liberties in the digital world, called Facebook’s criticism of tracking-related privacy measures “ laughable. ”