| Hi there, it's Naomi in Washington. A series of leaked Facebook documents are all anyone can talk about, but first… Today's top tech news: Last year, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg pledged a new era of transparency for the social network. No more would Facebook delicately skirt discussions about its controversial policy decisions, Zuckerberg told investors. "My goal for this next decade isn't to be liked, but to be understood," he said. "In order to be trusted, people need to know what you stand for." I couldn't help but think about Zuckerberg's statements on trust while reading the Wall Street Journal's latest series delving into Facebook's misleading handling of user-generated content. Drawn from internal sources and documents, the Journal's stories chronicle how the company often says one thing about its policies only to secretly be doing another. For instance, Facebook told its independent oversight board in June that a program designed to protect high-profile figures from having their posts mistakenly taken down only affected a "small number of decisions." Turns out, Facebook's programs in 2020 included at least 5.8 million users, some of them among the highest rungs of politics, popular culture and journalism, according to the Journal. Facebook employees said the system was specifically designed to avoid negative media attention. As the company unveiled its plans to create a kids' version of Instagram, executives repeatedly said research shows the effects of social media on young users' mental health were a mixed bag and that the platforms can play a positive role in their lives. The executives downplayed their own internal research found that a third of teen girls said they felt bad about their bodies because of Instagram, according to the newspaper. And when Facebook made a change to its news feed in 2018 to emphasize posts from friends and families, it concealed the fact that the change might also boost the platform's lackluster engagement numbers. It also didn't explain that one unfortunate byproduct of that change was that it made angry and more polarizing content more popular. It's not that other social media companies such as Google's YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter don't also perpetuate problems such as political polarization, poor mental health among young kids, or give special treatment to high-profile figures. Those platforms are rife with content moderation challenges of their own. It's just that Facebook seems to get caught being insincere about its problems and potential fixes far more often than other tech companies. Facebook's lack of honesty is what lands the company in hot water more than anything else. Zuckerberg was right to identify truth and clarity as the bedrock of trust. He has just been doing a poor job living up to that promise. —Naomi Nix This week's Bloomberg Businessweek cover story is an exclusive excerpt from the book The Contrarian, which chronicles the life and times of Peter Thiel. The excerpt includes a painfully awkward behind-the-scenes look at the meeting Thiel organized between Trump and CEOs of the largest tech companies in the world. The Elizabeth Holmes trial got more interesting on Wednesday Ray Dalio thinks "cash is trash," and made a cautious case for crypto A Federal Trade Commission study says tech giants have used "loopholes" to duck merger reviews | 
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