A few years later, as Facebook’s power grew, its tactics for detecting and paralyzing competitors would come under intense scrutiny. Facebook’s strategy for giving people what they wanted would be accused of addicting the world to the digital equivalent of junk food. Its data collection would spark further panic over privacy. But for now, with the stock down in an era before the public reckoning, Facebook was singularly focused on demonstrating that it could create a viable long-term business, even on mobile phones, proving all the haters wrong.
