Framework
When faced with the question of whether to work for an ethically complicated company, my thoughts align with the idea that the real issue is not whether “something bad is happening there” but rather “how close does the stink get to my office.” Responsibility isn’t absolute, otherwise we’d have to hold every single person in the classroom responsible. Instead, I think it’s about distance and proximity to harm.
Meta’s Ethical Issues
As the Facebook Papers underline, Meta has reshaped the media industry by owning distribution and curation. Instead of users relying on homepages, reputation, and brand loyalty, our feeds have become the gatekeeper. While making information more accessible, this has turned the economic incentives for journalism upside-down and made us extremely vulnerable to misinformation on both sides. The pending acquisition of TikTok USA by Larry Ellison and Oracle has only made the issue worse. Now seemingly all major media companies are owned by a five different people with each with their own individual incentives rather than the mission of providing truth and knowledge to the public.
Why I Would Still Work There
Despite these issues, I would accept a Job at Meta. For me, at the start of my career as a lowly software engineer or product manager, it depends less on the company as a monolith and more on the specific team I would join. Meta is home to world-changing opportunities at the cunning edge of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and networking. Working there would allow me to grow as an engineer or PM while preparing me to eventually pursue my personal passion of building sustainable energy software. By building skills at Meta, I could better equip myself to later create my own ventures that embody ethical responsibility from the start.
Lessons From the Inside
Working at Meta would also provide unique exposure into how not to structure my own future company. Seeing firsthand how conflicts arise and how managers fail to ethically represent customers and employees would be important in shaping a more conscientious approach when I lead my own teams.
