> We're all aware, presumably, of cases where the corporate hierarchy demands action when the data suggests acting at all is harmful.

True in most cases - but probably not FB. According to Investopedia [0], Zuckerberg owns 57.9% of voting shares as of 2020-12-09. Board pressure has a lot less sway when the chairman & CEO holds such a majority.

[0]: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/082216/top-9-...

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EDIT: fixed date

So Zuckerberg pressured people to 'do something about this'.

That something, to my mind, is “brand privacy invasive tracking as bringing you free/cheap shit.”

It worked for the last decade. They’re doubling down, unaware the dotcom 2.0 bubble is not bursting but being left behind.

Apple shipping a SOC that can do it all will trickle into Dells thinking, driven by backlash against privacy invasive grifting we can do cloud work at home.

Concerns over screen time will lead to decoupling from screens. More IOT and voice controls and other input alternatives like smart sensors.

Facebook is not a laptop, or an operating system. It’s AIM. We moved on from AIM but kept computing. The tech industry hasn’t matured. It grifted on last generations addiction to TV.

More imaginative applications are yet to come.

> So Zuckerberg pressured people to 'do something about this'.

From which logically follows "This is something, therefore we must do it."

Yeah, the actual audience for the ad might just be "Facebook executives", and no one else, for all practical purposes.

It would be interesting to know whether any metrics (NPS, perhaps?) are even being tracked that the campaign is intended to influence, or if this marks a regression to the "half of my ad budget is wasted, I just don't know which half" days of yore.

I'm not sure why 100% confidence matters, but yes, many explanations are possible. Even simultaneously. E.g., the initial impetus might be higher-ups pressuring for action. But then somebody runs the numbers on what the potential long-term revenue impact is and sees the number is very large, far larger than the handful of millions they spend on their usual PR disaster cleanup.

But, then, outside observers cannot distinguish which of these scenarios we are in, and we cannot conclude that FB is doing this because 'the numbers say so.'

We can't ever be sure of anything in this complex and murky world. Especially given we're trying to understand it with 3 pounds of meat. But the clock ticks on.