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Early FB users demanded privacy but _actually_ wanted an information asymmetry over their friends. Each user wants both…
Control over how they specifically are perceived. "Who can see what?"
Power to internet stalk their friends way more than they'd ever admit
Facebook's user need doublethink (privacy, but also voyeurism) translates into a similar product subtext: feel private, but actually minimize user-on-user privacy while providing plausible deniability. Quell outrage with opt-in privacy tools, but default everyone into no privacy
2006 Facebook employees could view anyone's profile + see stats like who viewed their profile Q. How do you create a company culture that embraces FB's privacy-voyeurism user doublethink? A. Let employees be God-tier voyeurs. Indulge their desires. Let em see user's true naturepic.twitter.com/oe58aOyvdE
2009 HBR case study: 70% social networks = viewing pics / profiles. Breakdown (largest % first):
• Men looking at women they don't know
• Men → women they do
• Women → women they know
"Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views." 
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/understanding-users-of-social-networks …pic.twitter.com/WIBFqNAEvU
Hypothetical: Imagine an alt universe where FB's founder took privacy seriously. All else is equal. Product decision: By default, can users view pics of friends-of-friends? Effectively, can dudes stalk pics of women they don't know? Choose wisely. Huge impact on engagement!
Hypothetical #2: Imagine a world w/ a less arrogant Zuck who viewed FaceMash (viral Harvard student hot-or-not, publicly denounced) as crossing the line. FB knew people were freaked out by the news feed. Tons of outrage post-launch. What would well-adjusted Zuck have done?pic.twitter.com/7rzaZTSk5z
Many success stories have uncomfortable truths buried in their origin. We reduce them to factoids. Haters use them as weapons. Our _serious_ mental models forget them. Forgetting taboo makes us all less effective. I'll be writing about this, starting with Facebook. Stay tuned!
They wanted information.. Symmetry, right?
Nah. For example, Alice wants Bob to only know what she wants Bob to know but Alice would also like to learn a bit more about Bob than Bob may want her to know.
I think that's definitely true, though they want these two things at different moments. I want to save money and i want to win easy money. This is why we build structures around gambling.
Yup. Understanding the doublethink is critical to understanding Facebook’s product success though
Definitely, but also critical to understand how that that success does not incentivise them to distinguish between reflective autonomy, and spontaneous choice in an adverse choice environment
(ps. Don't see myself as arguing with you here, i think you framed the problem very nicely)
Interesting thread and wasn’t aware of this background. I remember when gaming the ‘message read’ feature was the casual assym play
all I remember about early FB is you used to be able to search for Male Interested In: Men in like 2007 and then suddenly you couldn't and I got a lot less embarrassing
There's a similar phenomenon in regards to Linkedin stalking, no?
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