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Comment by wmichelin | Hacker News Reader

Facebook is not your average workplace. If your platform is profiting off of active political misinformation, you have an obligation to not only discuss these issues, but solve them. If you determine that you can't solve them, it's time to stop accepting the money.

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Most employees at Facebook are doing nothing of the sort. They are working on databases and internal tools and changing the color of buttons. If you work on an integrity team then yes, you'll have to discuss such issues, but most employees don't.

But they are. Everyone at the company is complicit.

Lets say you're a delivery driver for a pizza parlor that is famous for the level of rat poison in its sauce. Do you continue to knowingly deliver the poison pizzas because you're not the one making the sauce? Afterall, who's going to deliver the poisonous pizzas?

Come on. This is right up there with, "I was just following orders."

One of the things I love about startups is feeling like my input is partially responsible for the mission, culture, and direction of the company. I can't imagine doing work for a company that was doing something and not feeling like I'm making a contribution to that goal.

Maybe you're right and developers at FB don't see that they have any responsibility or input towards what FB does with the tech they build, but I hope not. It would be horrible to be that detached from the outcome of your work.

That feels disturbingly close to a "just following orders" defense. Just because you're in the basement keeping the boiler running, it doesn't mean you can ignore what goes on upstairs. If what they're doing upstairs is unethical, it's unethical for you to keep the lights on for them.

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