Blocked on Facebook With Nowhere to Turn

Hey all, it’s Sarah Frier. When Facebook executives want people to feel warm and fuzzy about the company’s impact on the world, they point to anecdotes about the small businesses that have grown on the platform.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has binders full of such examples. During the third-quarter earnings call she told the story of a magnetic eyelash company that used ads on Facebook and Instagram to thrive. And Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg mentioned small businesses three times in his prepared Congressional testimony defending Facebook’s market dominance this summer, saying he was proud that the company was becoming a lifeline for mom-and-pops during Covid-19.