Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 3,200-word plan to pivot to privacy.
It’s almost a year to the day since Christopher Wylie blew the whistle on Facebook’s giant Cambridge Analytica data breach, sparking a plague of scandals over how Facebook handles user information.
In that time, #DeleteFacebook has trended, Facebook’s days of double-digit user growth were declared dead, and the firm’s own research showed diminishing trust levels.
Something had to give.
Facebook has been signalling a pivot to privacy for months, but on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg slammed the reset button in a thoughtful blueprint for the future.
In essence, Zuckerberg sets out a plan to split Facebook in two. To use his analogies, he wants to create:
Building and decorating the digital living room is one of Zuckerberg’s big priorities over the coming years, and it is why his blog provided the clearest articulation yet of why he wants to combine the back ends of WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram Direct Messaging. He explained:
“You can imagine many simple experiences like this — a person discovers a business on Instagram and easily transitions to their preferred messaging app for secure payments and customer support; another person wants to catch up with a friend and can send them a message that goes to their preferred app without having to think about where that person prefers to be reached; or you simply post a story from your day across both Facebook and Instagram and can get all the replies from your friends in one place.
