Sheryl Sandberg’s Legacy - The New York Times

It’s not clear how historical past will decide Sheryl Sandberg.

Sandberg, who mentioned on Wednesday that she was quitting Meta after 14 years as the corporate’s second in command, leaves behind a sophisticated skilled and private legacy.

She helped construct the corporate previously known as Facebook into one of many world’s most influential and rich corporations. Her writing and advocacy about ladies within the office and grief gave Sandberg affect on subjects that few different American executives touched.

But Sandberg was additionally partly answerable for Facebook’s failures throughout essential moments, notably when the corporate initially denied and deflected blame for Russia-backed trolls that have been abusing the location to inflame divisions amongst Americans forward of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. And whereas her 2013 e-book “Lean In” kicked off necessary conversations, a few of its concepts now really feel outdated.

As my colleagues wrote, “Sandberg is ending her tenure at Meta far from the reputational pinnacle she reached last decade.”

Several of America’s famous person tech corporations, together with Apple, Amazon, Google and Oracle, have lived by comparatively current transitions during which iconic founders have handed over energy to employed palms. Sandberg will not be the founding father of Facebook, in fact. But Facebook wouldn’t be what it’s at the moment — each good and unhealthy — with out the partnership between Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s additionally troublesome to think about her departure considerably altering Facebook. That means that Sandberg’s greatest affect might have been prior to now, and that she is now not as necessary at Facebook as both her supporters or her detractors imagine.

An architect of reworking digital promoting:

The 23-yr-previous Zuckerberg employed Sandberg in 2008 to determine learn how to construct Facebook into a big and lasting enterprise. On that rating, she succeeded past anybody’s desires. But that legacy is sophisticated, too.

Sandberg spearheaded a plan to construct from scratch a extra subtle system of promoting that was largely primarily based on what she had helped develop at Google. Ads on Facebook have been tied to individuals’s actions and pursuits on the location. As at Google, many advertisers purchased Facebook advertisements on-line relatively than by gross sales personnel, as had been typical for TV or newspaper advertisements. Later, Sandberg cultivated new programs for Facebook advertisers to pinpoint their potential prospects with much more precision.

Google and Facebook reworked product advertising and marketing from largely an artwork to a generally creepy science, and Sandberg is among the many architects of that change. She shares within the credit score (or blame) for creating two of probably the most profitable, and maybe least defensible, enterprise fashions in web historical past.

All the nervousness at the moment about apps snooping on individuals to glean each morsel of exercise to higher pitch us dishwashers — that’s partly Sandberg’s doing. So are Facebook and Google’s mixed $325 billion in annual promoting gross sales and people of all different on-line corporations that make cash from advertisements.

The sample of deny, deflect, defend.

Sandberg initially mentioned publicly that Facebook performed little position within the organizing of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. That wasn’t fairly true. As my colleagues Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang reported, individuals used Facebook to unfold misinformation about election fraud, which fueled anger among the many protesters. Some rioters used Facebook to brazenly talk about the logistics of the assault forward of time.

In their 2021 e-book, “An Ugly Truth,” Sheera and Cecilia wrote that to Sandberg’s detractors, her response was a part of a sample of attempting to protect the corporate’s repute or her personal relatively than do the suitable factor.

Sandberg was additionally amongst these answerable for Facebook’s delayed or insufficient initial response in 2018 about information experiences {that a} political consulting agency, Cambridge Analytica, was capable of harvest private info on many thousands and thousands of Facebook customers.

Tech journalists and others who pay shut consideration to Facebook regularly asked lately why Sandberg selected to remain on the firm. My colleague Mike Issac mentioned in at the moment’s DealBook e-newsletter that Sandberg misplaced affect as Zuckerberg assumed extra command over the corporate. Other executives took over duties that once were Sandberg’s, together with overseeing authorities coverage.

Sandberg might have as soon as believed that she might do much more good on the earth working at Facebook than she might exterior the corporate, but it surely was troublesome to inform if that was true anymore.

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Tip of the Week

How to report spam texts

Brian X. Chen, the patron know-how columnist for The New York Times, provides recommendation for changing into a part of the answer to the scourge of bogus textual content messages.

In a current column, I reported on the rising annoyance of textual content-message spam, which just lately outpaced the rise of robocalls.

The texts could be transport notices a couple of bundle that you just didn’t order, or pitches for questionable well being merchandise like weight-loss drugs. The hyperlinks inside these texts usually level you to a web site asking on your private info, together with your bank card quantity, which scammers might use for fraud.

There’s no signal of SMS spam slowing down. So among the best issues you are able to do is turn out to be a part of the answer: Forward the spam textual content to your cellphone provider.

That will assist the carriers study what cellphone numbers and language are being utilized in spam texts. That’s helpful info to assist the carriers enhance their know-how to cease these messages from ever reaching your cellphone.

Here’s learn how to ahead spam texts to the carriers:

On iPhones, faucet and maintain down on the message and faucet “More.” Then press the ahead button, which is the arrow on the underside-proper nook of the display. In the recipient subject, enter 7726 and hit ship.

On Android telephones, faucet and maintain down on the message. When a menu pops up, choose “Forward Message.” Enter 7726 within the recipient subject and hit ship.

Before we go …

A trial by TikTok: The jury delivered a verdict on Wednesday within the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. My colleague Amanda Hess just lately explored why the trial turned fodder for close to-steady fan commentary on TikTok and different apps, most of which portrayed Depp as a hero and Heard as a villain.
Will it make kids safer in colleges if extra of them carry telephones to school rooms? Experts told The Washington Post that they didn’t advocate it, partially as a result of they mentioned kids ought to focus their consideration throughout an emergency like a faculty taking pictures on academics and different educators, and a cellphone might make undesirable noises throughout a silent lockdown. (A subscription could also be required.)

The sound of nothing is outwardly an enormous enterprise: People who create Spotify audio mixes of simply static, ocean waves or different white noise are making as much as $18,000 a month, Bloomberg News reported. (A subscription could also be required.)