For me, it's the almost complete lack of guilt or awareness that his company has caused pain and even death. Yes, FB and its acquisitions have brought many many good things to my life and to the lives of others. They have also brought a lot of pain to me and to others as well. No service only provides good. He doesn't seem to say this.
Instead of him trying to remind us "we do good things" I wish he would also say "and with any platform so large, we are going to make decisions that will hurt people. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our culture that we may not be aware of the pain we're causing to others and, while the research can help, sometimes we still miss it. Judging by the backlash of many people here, while many feel very grateful for FB, some may feel a lot of pain when thinking of our services and we want to do better and we need your help."
Something that expresses some hint of awareness that many people are being hurt and a desire to take the lead to try to fix it.
For me there's a useful distinction between guilt and shame. Guilt is where you fall short of your own standards and seek to rectify it. Shame is where you feel bad about falling short in the eyes of others.
Large corporations often perform shame, but they rarely behave as if key actors experience guilt. So they'll make reforms only as long as there's significant pushback.
If Zuckerberg actually cared, he would be writing letters like this even when the heat is off. He and they would have sincerely worked to fix these problems from early on.
I really appreciate this distinction. I've noticed that when I feel ashamed, I tend to hide from someone, whereas when I feel guilty I tend to feel driven to open up to apologize to them.
Instead of him trying to remind us "we do good things" I wish he would also say "and with any platform so large, we are going to make decisions that will hurt people. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our culture that we may not be aware of the pain we're causing to others and, while the research can help, sometimes we still miss it. Judging by the backlash of many people here, while many feel very grateful for FB, some may feel a lot of pain when thinking of our services and we want to do better and we need your help."
Something that expresses some hint of awareness that many people are being hurt and a desire to take the lead to try to fix it.