For Facebook, there’s a lot riding on this year’s F8
CEO likely to take a more sober tone at annual gala
SAN FRANCISCO – Cheering crowds and fawning press coverage usually greet the annual shindig that spotlights Facebook’s latest gizmos and futuristic vision.
This year, not as much.
The artisan-brewed coffee and gourmet munchies, product demos and sudsy after-party will still flow at the two-day event in San Jose, starting Tuesday. But expect a more sober and less self-congratulatory tone — and possibly fewer dad jokes — from Mark Zuckerberg.
The Facebook CEO will try to strike a balance between tackling the hard questions bombarding his company and reassuring the hordes of hoodie-and-blue-jeans-sporting software developers who create apps for the giant social network that the fallout from Cambridge Analytica won’t wreck the businesses they’ve built there. And he’s seizing an occasion that for years has focused on Facebook’s ambitious plans for the future to push his new mantra: Take responsibility for the past but “keep moving forward.”
This isn’t the first time that Facebook has had to wrestle with controversy at its F8 festivities, from the spread of fake news to violent outbursts on video streaming service Facebook Live.
“In past keynotes, there’s been an acknowledgment of that and then a ‘Now, let’s get to the fun stuff,’ ” said Steven Levy, editor of tech industry news service Backchannel and author of an upcoming book on Facebook. “I don’t know how smoothly a pivot can be made this year.”
With the unauthorized leak of 87 million Facebook users’ data to Cambridge Analytica, Facebook’s ties to its 2.2 billion users around the globe have never been more frayed. And privacy concerns have spilled over into this year’s event.
“I can’t imagine it’s going to be business as usual this year with all these elephants stampeding around Facebook,” says eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “It doesn’t make sense thinking 10 to 15 years into the future when you have to confront the issues of today.”
Already shelved are plans to introduce Facebook’s new home product — connected speakers with digital-assistant and video-chat capabilities to compete with Google’s Home and Amazon’s Echo — until the company can review how the device handles people’s personal information and how people respond to it.
Instead, Facebook will roll out far less controversial product announcements from virtual reality arm Oculus and messaging service Messenger to the 5,000 software developers, media partners and advertisers attending this year’s F8. And the on-stage presentation from Zuckerberg customarily devoted to the next big thing will also zero in on steps being taken to fix what’s currently wrong with Facebook.
The goal: to convince consumers not only that Facebook gets it but that it’s doing something about it and to convince developers that changes, which hand over far less consumer data, are in their best long-term interests, too.
This tightrope act is the culmination of a long, difficult year for Zuckerberg, whose public relations tour of the nation ended on the hot seat in two congressional hearings.
In an early sign of trouble to come, he had to interrupt last year’s relentlessly upbeat F8 keynote to express his regrets for the gruesome video of a Cleveland grandfather’s slaying posted on Facebook, followed by the killer’s confession aired live on Facebook’s streaming service.
In the months since, consumer outrage has only grown as the giant social network has been dragged down by one damaging revelation after another, from waves of Russian interference to the proliferation of fabricated news, disinformation and hoaxes during the presidential election.
Zuckerberg’s pledge to spend 2018 fixing what ails Facebook gained in urgency with Cambridge Analytica, which woke him to how concerned people are about the company’s cavalier handling of their private information.
“Frankly, I just got that wrong,” Zuckerberg told technology news out-
The on-stage presentation from Mark Zuckerberg, which is usually devoted to the next big thing, will also zero in on steps being taken to fix what’s wrong with Facebook.
let Recode last month. “I was maybe too idealistic on the side of data portability, that it would create more good experiences. And it created some, but I think what the clear feedback was from our community was that people value privacy a lot more. And they would rather have their data locked down and be sure that nothing bad will ever happen to it than be able to easily take it and have social experiences in other places.”
Announcements in recent weeks are part of an orchestrated effort intended to cast Facebook as a newly converted champion of privacy and security to restore public confidence.
Facebook has begun to ratchet back how much access outside developers have to users’ private information, and it has begun auditing outside developers to make sure they did not cross the line.
According to a public filing, the changes plus increased enforcement “have adversely affected, or will adversely affect” relationships with developers that Facebook says are critical to user growth and user engagement as well as its financial results.
Last week, Facebook announced that apps would no longer be able to automatically post to Facebook profiles or RSVP to events for users, while some apps would lose their ability to start a Facebook Live broadcast on behalf of users. Facebook’s newfound religion is reflected in this year’s F8 schedule. Alongside breakout sessions on “How Stories Ads and Business Profiles Help Grow Your Business on Instagram” and “Create Meaningful Brand Experiences with Messenger” are new offerings such as “Engineering Secure Products at Facebook,” “Helping High Quality News Thrive on Facebook” and “Startups Rethinking Privacy.”