Saying that there are not good times for Meta begins to be a timeless expression, a bit in the style of the popular “No matter when you read this” meme. It is becoming more and more evident that the name change, from Facebook to Meta, wanted to act as a kind of firewall that would prevent the bad image of the social network from “splashing” the rest of the company’s products and services. What does not seem so clear is that the technique has been effective, since in the bad news in which Facebook was mentioned before, now both brands share the limelight.
Perhaps the most logical thing would have been not to make the change precisely at this time, just when the statements of former employees of the company have taken it to its lowest point, in terms of its image, since the controversy exploded by Cambridge Analytica. In my case, and surely also in that of many other people, from time to time I have consideredHow hard it must be to work in the company’s public relations department. Whatever the people who work for it, get paid, there is no doubt that we are talking about a salary that is more than deserved.
At least, yes, it must be recognized that Meta in this regard acts better than Tesla, which at one point decided to close said department and, since then, the company’s communication depends fundamentally on Elon Musk’s tweets and little else.
Be that as it may, and as I said before, it must be a singularly complex job, even more so if the revelations that are seeing the light are as shocking for you as for the general public, if you think that the wear and tear to which you are subjected does not compensate or, simply if you feel too uncomfortable to continue. And although there is no official explanation for it, it seems quite likely that it is at least one of these reasons what has pushed John Pinette, head of public relations of Meta until last Friday, to leave the position.
The news was revealed by The Wall Street Journal, which had access to a message sent by Pinette to Meta workers. In it he reported that it was his last day in the company, salida that was confirmed shortly after by the technological. The position, at least temporarily, will be assumed by Chris Norton, vice president of international communications. Pinette came to Meta, then Facebook, in 2019, bringing more than 20 years of corporate communications experience from the technology sector, including previous positions at Google and Microsoft.
Meta’s reputation crisis, which has several fronts open today, is the result of some frankly questionable policies and decisions, such as its (now on hiatus) plans to create an Instagram for children while the company was aware of its negative effects on adolescents, or laxity when taking measures to prevent the dissemination of hoaxes on the social network. Only a few weeks ago we learned of a survey in which Facebook / Meta had been chosen as the worst technology of the year. It doesn’t seem like a tasteful dish to anyone, does it?
