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Facebook vs. the World

About that Boz memo

Moving the Market: Andrew Bosworth, the high-ranking Facebook executive and close friend of Mark Zuckerberg, sent a lengthy memo to employees last week that offers a candid look at how Facebook leadership thinks about itself, its relationship with the media and its role in American elections.

• The big picture: The memo, which has elicited mixed responses among Facebook insiders, at least serves as evidence that Facebook takes its influence on politics and society seriously and that its leaders are thinking deeply about these issues.

Highlights from the memo, which was obtained by NYT's Kevin Roose, Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac:

• On the media: "Most of the criticisms that have come to light have been valid... The press often gets so many details wrong... [but] dismissing the whole because of flaws in parts is a mistake.... There is almost always some critical issue that motivated them to write which we need to understand."

• On 2016: "Was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? I think the answer is yes, but ... he didn’t get elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge Analytica. He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser. Period."

• On 2020 and political ads: "I’m no fan of Trump.... As tempting as it is to use the tools available to us to change the outcome, I am confident we must never do that. ... If we limit what information people have access to and what they can say then we have no democracy at all."

• On Facebook addiction: "People compare social media to nicotine. ... I think it is probably like sugar. Sugar is delicious... But like all things it benefits from moderation. ... At the end of the day we are forced to ask what responsibility individuals have for themselves."

Thought bubble: Despite being lampooned by Facebook's critics, the publication of the memo is arguably good for the company. Think about the message Boz is sending to the following constituencies:

• To the media: You are right to scrutinize us. It makes us better.

• To the anti-Trump crowd: I'm secretly in your camp! But we have a higher duty to the preservation of democracy and free speech.

• To the pro-Trump crowd: We're not going to screw you. Also, Trump is the absolute best at political advertising.

• To political campaigns: See how powerful our platform can be?

• To the public: We recognize our failures and we're trying really, really hard to do things right.

If anything, a candid memo like this from Facebook was overdue. Zuckerberg has said a lot of this publicly, in one way or another. But it feels far more genuine when it's said privately by someone else and then exposed in the pages of The New York Times.

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🇺🇸 Election 2020

Silicon Valley vs. Trump

Big in the Bay, big in the Beltway: "Mind the Gap, the secretive group quietly reshaping big-money politics in Silicon Valley, is aiming to spend as much as $140 million to boost Democrats in the 2020 election," Recode's Teddy Schleifer reports.

• The big picture: "If realized, a haul of that size would cement the group... as one of the most powerful forces in Democratic politics. And the group is accomplishing this all behind the scenes — without any prior public scrutiny."

The backstory: Mind the Gap, which is led by Stanford academics, was little known until Schleifer reported on it earlier this week. But it has "already raised at least $35 million in political contributions for voter registration efforts" and aspires to raise far more.

🏈 Coming Attractions 🏈

Political football: Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump have both spent roughly $10 million each to secure 60-second ad spots during next month’s Super Bowl.

• Right on time: The Super Bowl, which takes place on Feb. 2, comes just one day before the Iowa caucuses.

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Sonos vs. Google

Patrick Spence fights back

Dept. of last resorts: Sonos chief Patrick Spence has sued Google for allegedly copying its patented speaker technology and abusing its market power. He is also trying to ban the sale of Google devices in the U.S., NYT's Jack Nicas and Daisuke Wakabayashi report.

• The backstory: "In 2013, Sonos scored a coup when Google agreed to design its music service to work easily with Sonos’s home speakers. For the project, Sonos handed over the effective blueprints to its speakers."

• "It felt like a harmless move, Sonos executives said. Google was an internet company and didn’t make speakers. ... The executives now say they were naïve."

The big picture: "Sonos’s complaints go beyond patents and Google. Its legal action is the culmination of years of growing dependence on both Google and Amazon, which then used their leverage to squeeze the smaller company, Sonos executives said."

• Spence: “Google has been blatantly and knowingly copying our patented technology... Despite our repeated and extensive efforts over the last few years, Google has not shown any willingness to work with us on a mutually beneficial solution. We’re left with no choice but to litigate.”

Google reax: "We dispute these claims and will defend them vigorously."

Market Links

• Sundar Pichai unveils new plans for Google Assistant (VB)

• Zhang Yiming considers his TikTok contingency plans (Verge)

• Mitch McConnell backs bill to help news publishers (Bloomberg)

• Charlie Rose admits to "inappropriate" relationships (THR)

• Harvey Weinstein trial proceeds despite news charges (Variety)

NBC/Getty

The Ad Game

Steve Burke unveils ad effort

Talk of TV Land: "NBCUniversal says it is accelerating efforts to create a single ad technology and sales infrastructure for marketers to run media plans across its TV and digital properties, and across local, national and global markets," WSJ's Sahil Patel reports.

• "The efforts center on One Platform, which will combine existing and new tools for advertisers to plan, schedule, optimize and measure video ad campaigns. Previously, NBCUniversal had separate tools for traditional linear TV and digital advertising."

The big picture: "For decades, TV networks relied on broad demographics such as age and gender to sell ads. Now they are trying to update how they sell ads to better compete with digital media, which allows marketers to use data to find specific audiences."

NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.

🐖 What's next: Impossible pork is a thing at CES. Check it out.

See you tomorrow.