3 ways #Facebook pulled from Big Tobacco's addictive playbook: 1. Like adding sugar and menthol to cigarettes, Facebook added status updates, photo tagging, and likes, making status and reputation primary. 2. Big Tobacco’s bronchodilators (allowing cigarette smoke to cover more surface area of the lungs) is like Facebook allowing misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news to flourish. 3. Tobacco companies added ammonia to cigarettes to increase the speed of nicotine to the brain, like Facebook’s extreme, incendiary content— shocking images, graphic videos, and headlines that incite outrage— sowing tribalism and division. Tim Kendall, Facebook's first Director of Monetization testified before the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee this week claiming to have intentionally made the product as addictive as cigarettes. "These algorithms have brought out the worst in us. They’ve literally rewired our brains so that we’re detached from reality and immersed in tribalism. This is not by accident. It’s an algorithmically optimized playbook to maximize user attention -- and profits." Link to his full comments below. …see more