Great report, good statement by Apple on Facebook’s deceptive advocacy. Happy to back it up on behalf of publishers. “We need the world to see those arguments for what they are: a brazen attempt to maintain the privacy-invasive status quo.” https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1339347604249980929

Nails the biz model here and what is most concerning to Facebook. Their CFO has warned in earnings going back a year. @MikeIsaac @jacknicas

I actually don’t agree with these analysts. Why do we have to rely on an anonymous analysts btw? We know from UK regulators that a majority of Facebook’s data is collected in a manner which will soon be blocked. No one on earnings has even probed which is why they’re not useful.

Lastly, I do think this is a false dichotomy setting it up as free vs pay. In a world without tracking across separate companies’ apps, advertising very much still exists and may even improve for the companies who aren’t having their data strip-mined (see states vs Facebook).

I’m going to have to do this. @donie @MikeIsaac @jacknicas @JohnPaczkowski @JaneLytv @mkarolian here are Facebook CFO warnings. None about small biz but instead more *headwinds* ahead due to Apple and regulatory improvements to privacy. First noticeable warning Q4 2019 earnings.

Then again 3x in Q2 2020 earnings. Q1 was mostly focused on macro trends as Covid had hit and everyone wanted Facebook’s take forgetting about Facebook’s risks from privacy changed by Apple.

And again last quarter earnings. A lot more explicit and attempting to pin it to defending small business. In short, they are full of crap. They’re doing this because there is real risk to Facebook’s business. No one knows how much. Or at least FB hasn’t been clear.