The information revealed in the slides isn’t necessarily the most earth-shattering disclosures. As reported by The Verge, one slide showed data, seemingly from Apple, that shows the frequency of use of several different apps that have messaging features—including Apple’s Messages, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Snapchat—that suggested Messages dominated iOS when it comes to communications, not Meta’s offerings. Another slide, per The Verge, was titled “Snapchat in 2020: Competitors Are Succeeding and Not Just Meta Apps” and said apps other than Meta’s own are “thriving.”
But the fact that information made its way to public consumption was a pretty big “oops” on Meta’s part. The information was visible because of how the company redacted the documents, which it turned out was pretty easy to remove…which, of course, people did. That did not inspire confidence among the legal representation for companies, including Apple, Google, and Snapchat, that Meta was doing all it could to keep proprietary information protected. (Why they would want that information redacted is a different matter.)
In times like these, it’s hard not to wonder if this wasn’t the act of someone on the inside following the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.
More people should read it (it’s short) for inspiration on what skills they already possess (or can easily learn in advance) to fight fascism when the opportunity presents itself
Edit to add excerpt.
Where destruction is involved, the weapons of the citizen-saboteur are salt, nails, candles, pebbles, thread, or any other materials he might normally be expected to possess as a householder or as a worker in his particular occupation. His arsenal is the kitchen shelf, the trash pile, his own usual kit of tools and supplies. The targets of his sabotage are usually objects to which he has normal and inconspicuous access in everyday life.
A second type of simple sabotage requires no destructive tools whatsoever and produces physical damage, if any, by highly indirect means. It is based on universal opportunities to make faulty decisions, to adopt a noncooperative attitude, and to induce others to follow suit. Making a faulty decision may be simply a matter of placing tools in one spot instead of another. A non-cooperative attitude may involve nothing more than creating an unpleasant situation among one’s fellow workers, engaging in bickerings, or displaying surliness and stupidity.
Let me guess, the old “change the text background to black” redaction trick? A classic.
Another good one is black box markups in a PDF that never get flattened.
▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ whereupon the room exploded in agreement that Zuckerberg’s bloodstained hands delivered the killing stroke. “He’s still smiling. He can’t even hide it.” ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇the▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇The other broligarchs looked around Zuck’s bunker and couldn’t understand how it had gotten this bad. The expressions on their faces, one by one, changed to horror realizing that this is what they signed up for.
That picture… Just look how casually human he is!
