Facebook has two big problems. Solving one might make the other worse.

Why the company's pivot to privacy could have major unintended consequences

Mark Zuckerberg.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Wikimedia Commons, BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images, REUTERS/Stephanie Keith, Danler/iStock)

It's almost a cliché in Silicon Valley now. "The pivot" — turning a company around to focus on a new goal or message — is something every young firm seems to go through. But when the company in question is Facebook, a pivot is no joke. With what is possibly history's largest customer base, changes at Facebook affect people across the globe.

So it seems worth poking at what happened this week, when Facebook presented a new vision for itself as a company focused on privacy.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.