Facebook just promoted a guy who said it doesn’t matter if terrorist attacks were planned on the site

A Facebook executive and loyal member of Mark Zuckerberg’s inner circle, Andrew Bosworth, once said it didn’t matter if terror attacks were planned on the website. Yes, someone actually said that. And the scariest part of all this? He just got a promotion as the company’s head of technology. 

In a 2016 memo, Bosworth argued Facebook’s use to connect people was the right move even if “someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.” Again, someone actually said this, and the most alarming part is that it came from a Facebook executive.

But oh, it doesn’t stop there. Here’s the statement in its full context, according to The Telegraph: 

Mr. Bosworth said connecting people “can be bad if they make it negative” and added: “Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good.”

When the memo was made public by BuzzFeed in 2018, Boz tried walking back his statement by claiming, “I didn’t even agree with it when I wrote it.” Then why the fuck did you write it? Around the same time, Mark Zuckerberg had to bite the bullet and say he “disagreed strongly” with the statement. I mean, obviously. Who would agree with that statement?

Mind you; this is the guy Zuckerberg thinks should be running the head of technology at his company. Bosworth has been with the company since 2016 and is responsible for work on early versions of the News Feed and Messenger.

Bosworth replaces Mike Schroepfer, who had been at Facebook for 13 years, according to the company. His new role with the company will begin next year.

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