Facebook Reaps $1 Trillion Reward for Grow-At-Any-Cost Culture

Facebook Inc.’s critics have long pleaded with the company to revise its data-mining business model, tweak its algorithm to prevent misinformation and hate speech from going viral, and stop its practice of copying and acquiring competitors. But its investors have consistently delivered a different message: Keep up the good work. Facebook’s stock price has climbed relentlessly, and on June 28 the company became the fastest to reach a $1 trillion market value, just 17 years after its founding and nine years after it went public.

The news that triggered the milestone was a judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit from the ...