I've Heard Good Things

This is one of the most interesting discussions I’ve had in a long time. When your product/company is being credited as changing the world, do you champion that? Particularly when your company may not have the most flawless branding history and could use the good PR. Twitter is a great example of what that championing looks like. They take an extremely proactive stance on how their product plays a role in these types of revolutionary affairs (Iran ‘09 for example). 

I was pretty split on this issue (with strong opinions in both directions), until I had a conversation with a good friend from Turkey. She told me that Facebook could never take a side on an issue like this. She had a fairly simple argument too: We have no idea if what is happening in the Middle East, specifically what happened in Egypt, is a good thing. It looks incredible now, but we’re 40 days in. What happens if the military doesn’t hand power back over? What happens if a small faction of any radical ideology takes control of the nation? What happens if Egypt falls to civil unrest for a decade. Where is Facebook then? Did Facebook play a role in that?  It looks foolish to wave a blue flag of democracy and peace when the results were neither.

These are all ‘worst case scenarios’ - but she makes a direct and simple point. Promoting Facebook’s role in any sort of volatile situation is imprudent. To put one’s brand on the back of a situation changing rapidly, with so many variables and outcomes, is a sure way to lose it.