Silicon Valley’s Open Culture Era Comes to an End

The tech giants exported their open work cultures to the world. But now, after the Facebook leaks, the concept is headed to its grave.

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As Facebook’s employees watched their conversations and research flood the internet via Frances Haugen’s leak, they commiserated in an internal group called “Let’s Fix Facebook.” The company’s radically transparent internal culture, some said, had exposed Facebook to scandal. They asked whether “Be Open” should remain one of its foundational principles. Someone proposed an alternative: “Don’t Leak.”

Though Silicon Valley companies had been slowly backing away from the prized open cultures that made documents, calendars, and conversations available to their employees, Haugen’s leak effectively brought this era to an end. Google had already given up on its culture of radical openness. Amazon and Netflix recently fired employees whose voices they’d asked to hear. Apple, already a closed culture, just quashed an uprising of its own. Facebook was the lone holdout. But after Haugen canvassed its internal forums and leaked thousands of documents, the company…