Facebook is currently facing a crisis after the publication of the Facebook Papers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reportedly became increasingly isolated in his own company.
The Facebook Papers are internal documents leaked by former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen. The contents of the document were reviewed and reported by 17 US media outlets, including The Washington Post.
The document contains a series of information that corners Facebook. One of them is accusations that Facebook allows misinformation and malicious content to spread to promote profit.
In writing about the Facebook Papers, The Washington Post also interviewed former employees to find out about Zuckerberg's current condition and leadership. The former employee said Zuckerberg is now more aloof.
Zuckerberg apparently only discusses company policies with a handful of people in his inner circle called the 'Small Team' and a larger group called the 'M-Team' or 'Mark's Team' containing the company's top brass. Facebook denies reports that Zuckerberg is increasingly alienated.
The Washington Post report also reveals Zuckerberg's leadership style based on information from former Facebook employees and data from the Facebook Papers. They found that Facebook tightly controls information about Zuckerberg, as well as controls the information that reaches him.
The former employee told The Washington Post that Zuckerberg's influence on Facebook is greater than publicly known.
"Zuckerberg's spirit haunts everything the company does. It's driven entirely by him," said former Facebook Vice President of Partnership and Marketing Brian Boland, as quoted by Business Insider, Wednesday (27/10/2021).
Zuckerberg is also personally involved in the company's decision-making. For example, Zuckerberg personally decided that Facebook should comply with the Vietnamese government's order to censor criticism from dissidents, said three people familiar with the decision.
Not only high-level decisions, Zuckerberg is also involved in things that are quite trivial. Two sources in The Washington Post said Zuckerberg directly designed the color scheme and layout of the 'I got vaccinated' frame that users can use for their profile photos.
