Scandals of all stripes dominated the news, from Facebook's data leaks to Google's diversity war.It's been said before, but I'll say it again: 2018 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for Facebook. But before Cambridge Analytica, before Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, before we learned of Sheryl Sandberg's oppo research, before the data leaks and breaches, WIRED published an 8,000-word examination of how the company went from connecting the world to ripping it apart. That piece ends with editor in chief Nicholas Thompson and contributor Fred Vogelstein asking the persistent question that dogs the company: Is it a platform or publisher? After this year's cavalcade of scandals, the question has shifted to something more foundational to humanity: Is Facebook a friend or foe?
