I believe Facebook, overall, is a net negative. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have its own positives.

Sticking to the "net positive / net negative" terms, imagine Facebook contributes a number of positive / negative points to the world. Now the sum can be a net negative, but that doesn't mean some line items aren't positives.

Where do you work? Is your company flawless? Are you a contributor to every single one of its misdeeds merely because you work there? This isn't an easy thing to answer for everyone. I think it's certainly a question more Facebook employees should ask themselves though.

That is what net means, there will be positives and negatives which contribute to the net. For the record I agree with you, I think Facebook is overall negative but not by much, there are very strong positives.

I never thought I'd see the day that someone explained the meaning of the word net to me on HN.