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  • October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
  • Case
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Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:30
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Abstract

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated content. These two issues coalesced in the aftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election, after Facebook’s role in the spread of political misinformation and the leak of Facebook user data to political consulting firms began to receive significant media coverage. In 2019, Facebook announced it was shifting to a “digital living room” model that would focus more on private, encrypted conversations and less on sharing viral content. Several important questions remained. Would the digital living room ease users’ privacy concerns? Would Facebook still be able to effectively curate content? Would its advertising model still work? Or were financial success and good governance mutually exclusive? This case explores the parameters of governing an internet-based platform.

Keywords

Platform; Governance; Privacy; Internet and the Web; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Web Services Industry

Citation

Yoffie, David, and Daniel Fisher. "Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance." Harvard Business School Case 720-400, October 2019. (Revised January 2020.)
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About The Author

David B. Yoffie

Strategy
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Related Work

    • December 2019
    • Faculty Research

    Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

    By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
    • October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
    • Faculty Research

    Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance

    By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
Related Work
  • Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
  • Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
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