44 newyork| november25–december8, 2019to your daughter? What if she starts doing
things you’re unhappy about?
It’s really hard for me to answer the hypo-
thetical, potentially 12 years from now. I
don’tknow. Letmegetthere.ButI don’t
actuallyespouseany crazy,contrarianviews
onsocialmediadifferentthanany other
parent.I’dworry aboutmy kid’s safety.I’d
worryaboutherwell-being.I’d worry about
herconfidence.
I’ve heard yousayyouwere veryproac-
tiveinthebeginningaboutkickingpeople
offwhoweretrolling.
Yeah,weweren’t thefirstsocial-media
product.I hadworkedat Odeo,which
becameTwitter.Anyonecancreate a photo-
sharingapp;noteveryonecancreatea
community. If youcanprotect that asset—if
youcanhelpnurtureandgrowit—andyour
productdoesn’t suck,youhavecreated
somethingmuchmorevaluablethana
greatproduct witha terriblecommunity.
Ourfirst valueat Instagramwasalways
communityfirst.It gotchanged,bytheway,
whenweleft.^9
Whatisitnow?
I don’t know, butit wasremoved.
Someofthosepolicingdecisionsfos-
tereda feelingofconspiracy.Alotofpeo-
plethink,Oh,my postsare beinghidden.
Or,I’mnotbeingshown,because I’minap-
propriate,or,I’msayingsomethingpoliti-
cal,or,There’s a nippleinmy post.
I thinkI understandwhat washappen-
ing.I don’t haveproof, buttherewerelotsof
systemswhere,yes,iftherewasclearly
nudity, it wouldgetflaggedbythecommu-
nity. It wouldbereviewedbya humanand
thentakendown.Therewassomeauto-
maticstuffhappeningif it wasvery clear.
Therewerea lotofbugsinthesystemin
termsofranking.I rememberpostingwith
somehashtags,andtheywouldn’t showup
onthehashtagpages.I waslike,“Team,
what’s goingon?”Aftera day ofdebugging,
theyrealizedthespamfilterhadacciden-
tallylabeledmespambecauseof,I don’t
know,it mighthavebeensomethinglike I
puta URLinmybio.I thinkwhat happens
atscale,youdon’t reallyseetheedge cases.
Thenit leadstopeoplethinkingthey’reget-
tingshadowbannedandit’ s a buginthe
software.I’mprettyconfidentthosewere
mostoftheissues.
Whybannudity?^10
Apple’svery clear. If youhavenudity in
yourapp,you’renotallowedintheApp
Store,butI thinkweprobablyalsowould
havedecidedtohavesimilarstandards,
evenif it wasn’t intheAppStore.
Istheresomethingimportantabout
keepin ity out?To cutoutthewhole
porns
Yeah,if your14-year-old’sgoingtoInsta-gramandparentsaresaying,“Wow,there’s
a lotof pornonInstagram,”you’renotgoing
tobecomfortable,right?
ButthereispornonInstagram.
Theremightbe,butsayingthere’s a lot
is a very differentthing.
It’s beeninterestingtowatchmyteens
showmethingshappeningonInstagram
thatvery muchreflecttherealworldbut
havebecomeweirdlyvirtualized,like drug
dealingorinvitationstosecretpartiesor
otherthingsthathigh-schoolershave
alwaysdone.Instagramhasbegunto
reflectthenegative sidesoftherealworld.
You couldhaveall thesameconversa-
tionsabouttheinternet.Thedifferenceis
wetriedveryhardto makea lotof thisstuff
not happen.I thinkhadwe not,it wouldbe
ina much worsestate today.Butthat
doesn’tmeanthere’snothing.It’sa con-
stantfight.
ThenarrativearoundSiliconValleyin
themediahasbecomemorecynical.Have
youfeltthatchange?
I don’t knowthat it’s changed.I just think
peoplehavecometorealize
whatis true.Therewasa while
whereeveryonethoughtit was
allaboutsolvingtheworld’s
problemsandit wasallmis-
siondriven.Thereisa lotof
that,buttheideathat there’s
nosense ofcapitalism, no
senseofwinningatallcosts,wouldbemis-
guided.Peoplehavecometorealizethat
SiliconValley is just like everyotherlarge
centerofbusinessintheworld.It ’s an
industry, andit hasitscast of characters.It’s
notallphilanthropy.
Do youthinkthemediagetsanything
wrongaboutBigTech?
That’sa reallyhardquestion.Obviously,
try, if you’renotliter-
leavesitselfopento
somemisinterpretation.ButI don’t thinkitis broadly misinterpreted. Sometimes
you’re so close to the work that you don’t see
that you’re acting in a certain way. And
when people call you on it, it makes no
sense,butit makes sense to everyone else. I
thinkthat’s a healthy tension.
There’sthis mantra in Silicon Valley—
andyouhave definitely espoused it—of
“failingyourway to success.” Do you think
thathasa different message now with all
thesebigcompanies like WeWork actually
failingafterbeing extremely overvalued?
Well,thecompanies haven’t failed. Valu-
ationis a very tricky thing.It’sallfake until
it’ s real.Failingyourway tosuccessdoesn’t
meanex cess—aprivatejet anda hottubin
youroffice.I just thinktheacceptanceof
failureis oneofthemagicalthingsabout
SiliconValley. Youcanhaveanidea,think
it’ s goingtowork,try it,it doesn’t work,and
you’renotblacklistedfromthat industry.
That doesn’t meanthat if youabuseyour
users,oryouhidethingsfrompeople,that
that’s okay. That’sthebadtypeoffailure.
I’ msadeverytimeI seea Theranosora
WeWorkstory.It putsa badnametoan
industry witha lotofearnest peoplewho
areworkingtirelesslytocreatethenext
thingyouwilllove.
Doyouthinkthemainthingpeople
wantinSiliconValleyistocreatethenext
thingpeoplelove,ordoyouthinkit’s to
justgetasrichaspossible?
I don’t meet anyonewhostartsa conver-
sationwith“I wanttobeasrichaspossible.”
I wouldnotbeabletorecruitpeopleif the
pitchwas“Let’sgetasrichaspossible.” It
doesn’t workthat way. Dopeoplewanttobe
verysuccessful?Ofcourse.They’rehumans.
It ’s a very type-A-drivenculture,meaning
peoplewantmore.They wantgrowth.
Moreismore.ButI don’t knowa lotof
peoplewhoge t intothegamebecausethe
probabilityis solowthat they’regoingtobe
a Gatesora Bezos—
Or a you?
I’m not like Gates and
Bezos. They’rea different
order of magnitude. How
couldyoupossiblyge t intothe
gamewiththe expectation
thatthat’sgoingtohappento
you?Ofcourse,evenif you’renotBezos,
beingpartofAmazonearlyis probablya
pretty gooddeal.
Youstilllive inSanFrancisco?
I do,yeah.SamehouseI’velivedinsince
thebeginningofInstagram.
How hasthatchanged inthepast
decade?
It ’s gottena lotmoreexpensive.I’veseen
neighborhoodsthatusedtobekindof rustic
andfullofnonwhitetechpeoplechange
dramatically.I guessyou’d callit gentrifica- PHOTOGRAPHS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, ROBFIEHN (KOONS); @VIBRANTANDPURE (UNICORN); @FRANCISCUS (POPE)pr egnancyfoot;DiplousesFaceApptoagehimself;betweenthem,ChrissyTeigenandJohnLegendhave38 millionfollowers,thoughshehas15 millionmore;Jennifer Aniston finally joins Instagram with a6 Be yoncéroutinelymakes
ne wswithheraccount;h e r 2 017
pregnancyannouncementwas
th e year’smost-likedpost.discover which Old Master they most resemble; even a mogul like
Rihanna
will post duck-face selfies.
2019
A stock photo of an egg
becomes the most-liked photo on Instagram now with 53.9 million likes, a viral stunt by a British ad agency;
Jessica Simpson
posts her swollen
7 Now there are countless
influencers, including
@lilmiquela, who
is computer-generated.▲▲