Action speak louder than words, or at least that use to be the case. With our ever-increasing, social media-induced addiction to dopamine hits, however, it seems that words are now taking precedence over actions and people's characters are judged more on what they say than what they do.
Forget the selfless soul toiling in the shadows their entire life in service of others and never once trying to get credit for it, instead merely devoting their existence to a higher purpose, simply because it's the right thing to do. These people are out there and I suspect more numerous than we can imagine. They just don't shout it over rooftops in a pointless quest for recognition. They know that they'll be ultimately judged by what's carved into their headstone and that it will not up to them.
On the other hand, there isn't a day where we don't hear empty statements, designed to make the ones who utter them feel better about themselves, in a pathologically narcissistic display of obliviousness. It's even more worrying when it comes from faceless corporate entities that say one thing in an effort to spin public opinion in their favour, while they have a documented history of harming the very people they're claiming to support. A quick web search will show you the extent of the damage on the matter.
The truth is, corporate entities aren't physical persons and shouldn't be judged like one. They will never have a headstone where platitudes can be carved out to describe them. But the people within those organizations will, and it's important to ask oneself what they will be remembered for. Will it be the titular epitaph or will it be something that one could be proud of?
It's important to clarify that the message being exemplified above itself isn't objectionable. Anyone celebrating diversity and encouraging people to be themselves should be praised, whether it's the LGBT+ crowd or any other. But it's difficult to ignore the messenger's past and the corresponding harm they've done, without ever having had to answer for it. Ironically, all of this is accentuated by the fact that this was advertised on a competing platform, which adds insult to injury.
Instead, Facebook as well as all the other empty-gesturers should follow the example of the selfless souls mentioned in the second paragraph. They will only ever atone for their past misdeeds by doing the hard work of trying to repair what they've broken and if they can't, then support other people who might need help. They have the deep pockets to do a lot of good in the world, but as far as I can tell "Move slow and fix things" still ain't their creed. Until it is, the cognitive dissonance will continue to eat at them and no amount of spin will ever make things right.
The truth is, if they ever tried anything like that, they wouldn't need spin doctors to manipulate how they're perceived in the court of public opinion. People would spontaneously do it for them. But they're too concerned about that very public opinion to realize that there is something beyond that's valuable to them in the long term.
All of this takes effort and Facebook has broken the cardinal rule of drug pushers: don't get high on your own product. No wonder they can't see past the need to get their next highly rewarding but ultimately destructive quick fix - pun intended.