I’m running a small free newsletter on @beehiiv.com and am pretty happy with it.

Read more in this week's Platformocracy, and consider subscribing. It's free, weekly, and increasingly snarky. 10/10

This whole scandal is about leaks. Clearly, someone in the company's Integrity team wants the world to know this isn’t right. Who wants to go on the record defending the indefensible? 9/10

Why hasn’t Meta made a senior Ads Integrity executive available to go on the record, explain the truth behind the leaks, and start to rebuild some trust? Maybe Meta execs are afraid Integrity leaders won’t stick to the corporate script. 8/10

The final sign that something is seriously wrong at Meta is the absence of Integrity executives from the story. Good corporate comms teams know that their best spokesperson on substantive issues is a company executive with direct knowledge. 7/10

The best corporate communications teams, like those at Apple and Google, are effective because they stay in the background. They quietly build up trust that pays off in better coverage when shit hits the fan. If they are quoted, it’s just attributed to “a spokesperson” or “the company.” 6/10

My best guess is that these are bad habits from his past political career as a press secretary. That’s a high-profile partisan role on the front lines. Stone may think his job is to fight like hell for Zuck, but he sounds like Sean Spicer being sent out to lie about inauguration crowd sizes. 5/10

Even if Stone is just cannon fodder, he messed up by making himself the story. His name is all over this, fanning the flames by criticizing reporters with combative language (“disingenuous,” “false dichotomy,” “misconstruing & misrepresenting”) without engaging in the substance of the leaks. 4/10

In this scenario, the company has sent Andy Stone out to spin a defense from a few threadbare data points while the big boys try to get out of the deep, deep hole they’ve dug themselves into. 3/10

I suspect the weak PR response is a cover-up / stalling tactic. Meta is in serious trouble. The last time they slashed revenue estimates by 10% was in 2022 when Apple changed iOS privacy settings. Now, we have to ask how much of their recovery was illusory -- just scam ads filling the iOS hole. 2/10

Twelve Monkeys Wearing AR Glasses

And professional certification requirements that include a code of ethics

Don’t play poker with Jawas

I need to introduce you to Wolverhampton Wanderers fandom.

The Invisible Ran

> feed grue with potato

Tough but fair

Thanks but I just realized I said "the subject" twice. Points off.

Are you plumbing the depths of the subject? Personally, I run hot and cold on the subject, because I find the material draining. Regardless, I hope your post receives an outpouring of interest.