I can definitely understand the initial appeal back in 2005. It was new technology, and it was easy to be optimistic about how the platform would bring people together and change the world in a very positive way. If you're a young, bright, and motivated individual that is tremendously appealing. After a few years you've achieved all of those goals, everyone loves you, and you have more money than you could ever spend in dozens of lifetimes.
So what do you do then? You drive it into the ground with pervasive and intentional privacy invasions, deliberate falsehoods and retractions, and take no responsibility for the destructive forces your platform has created. It becomes obvious to everyone that your creation has become a monster, but you keep working every day to expand the tracking and surveillance. You should have acknowledged these issues instead of downplaying your critics. You could have used your position to advocate for freedom and the preservation of rights. Even if you're a publicly traded company and you have an obligation to your shareholders to increase profit--even if it means fucking over everyone else--you still could have resigned. Nobody holds power over you after all. You've ignored all all possible exits to save yourself at this point. Your reputation is tarnished. You have to even wonder about what your legacy will look like in 30 years. Do you like the thought of being remembered as the person who lead to the tearing apart of the social fabric, the invasion of privacy, and increased polarization and mistrust? What did you even gain out of all this? Money? You already had plenty of that. Power? Plenty of that too. What is even motivating you are this point?
I think you're right that the lion analogy is very fitting for who we are dealing with. Those with a strong moral compass would not have acted this way, and we should expect an amoral predator to devour anything in its path without expecting reasoning and cognition behind its actions.
That was an eloquent rant, very entertaining. You're absolutely right about it too.
At what point have we gained enough power/money before we reach diminishing returns? Really interesting thought.
To be honest, if you had made a website that people submitted every detail of their lives willingly, wouldn't you do it too?
Do we blame the lion when it eats its prey?