FACEBOOK has endured one of the most punishing stretches of corporate coverage in recent memory, exposing its immense power and blithe disregard for its deleterious impacts.

But none of it really matters.

One overarching theme of the coverage, prompted by the meting out of tens of thousands of pages of internal documents by whistleblower and former employee Frances Haugen, is that Facebook's business priorities trump user privacy and safety. Facebook, Haugen told the Senate this month, knows how to remedy many of its problems "but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people".