When Mark Zuckerberg told his top execs to ‘learn’ how Apple, Google and Snap are not doing right on social issues and still ‘getting away’

An old, confidential internal communication sent by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the company’s top leadership has surfaced online. In the email, sent on September 15, 2021, the Meta CEO questioned whether the company should overhaul its strategy on internal safety research, arguing that industry rivals like Apple, Google’s YouTube and Snap (parent company of Snapchat) conduct far less investigation into societal harm and escape harsh public fallout as a result. The message, sent under the subject line “Social issue research and analytics – privileged and confidential”, shows Zuckerberg privately evaluating whether Meta’s aggressive self-examination was actively backfiring against the business.