What strange times for Facebook, assailed from without and within. The tech giant refuses to come to heel on many fronts. Now it’s under attack from its hard-pressed online moderators, who necessarily must judge many stomach-churning postings.
Enough, it now seems, is enough. Several employees made their feelings plain on a Facebook employee website. “People have been pushed to a point where they feel their personhood, as well as their work, has been devalued because they are viewed as interchangeable parts in a machine.” Look, I understand the gripe, but “personhood”? It doesn’t appear in my trusty Chambers and long may it remain that way.
In light of Facebook’s launch of its cryptocurrency Libra, commentators of all stripes have been quick to pour scorn and doubt on the venture and its ilk. But even the most respected of these brethren can leave one feeling flummoxed. “The potential for a central bank digital currency to ‘disintermediate’ the banking sector has major implications for the provision of credit to the economy.” I did look it up, but am glad that the writer put it in inverted commas. Like personhood, it should be swiftly dispatched into the long grass.
Meanwhile, in my occasional series on alternative employment paths that my schools careers adviser might have recommended (that man’s failings grow by the week), I now learn, after the divorce of Jeff Bezos from his wife, MacKenzie, that I could have been a “celebrity crisis communications consultant”. Now how swanky does that sound. You put your oar into a high-profile bust-up and presumably charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for your services, regardless of the outcome. Just the ticket.
After the execrable words above, a hymn of praise. Weather forecasters will insist on talking of mist and murk, spits and spots. But what joy when you come across terms such as the following: “noctilucent clouds are heavenly electric-blue threads rippling across the sky at twilight”. What a blissful phrase, and almost enough to make one forget Facebook.
•Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
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