Facebook Reaps $1 Trillion Reward for Grow-At-Any-Cost Culture

Facebook Inc.’s critics have long pleaded with the company to revise its data-mining business model, tweak its algorithm to prevent misinformation and hate speech from going viral, and stop its practice of copying and acquiring competitors. But its investors have consistently delivered a different message: Keep up the good work. Facebook’s stock price has climbed relentlessly, and on June 28 the company became the fastest to reach a $1 trillion market value, just 17 years after its founding and nine years after it went public.

The news that triggered the milestone was a judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission scrutinizing Facebook’s monopoly power. The suit could be refiled, but, for now, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is celebrating. “I'm grateful to get to build things that so many people find meaningful in their lives,” he wrote on Facebook, receiving more than 300,000 “likes” and “hearts” from his followers.