Facebook’s hardware chief sites Lord of the Ring in internal memo, compares the platform with One Ring

Andrew Boz Bosworth said that Donald Trump got elected in the 2016 elections because he ran the single best digital ad campaign.

Andrew Bosworth also misspelt the name of the character Galadriel in the memo. (REUTERS)

Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth is a well respected figure in Silicon Valley. He is Facebook's hardware chief and is accredited with developing one of the platform's most noteworthy features -- the News Feed. Recently Boz, as he is lovingly called within the company, published a memo on Facebook's internal forum about Facebook's role in US elections, which contained reference to the Lord of the Rings.

"I find myself thinking of the Lord of the Rings at this moment. Specifically when Frodo offers the ring to Galadrial and she imagines using the power righteously, at first, but knows it will eventually corrupt her. As tempting as it is to use the tools available to us to change the outcome, I am confident we must never do that or we will become that which we fear," Bozworth wrote in his memo, which he also shared on his Facebook profile.

The Facebook executive, in his memo, compared Facebook with Sauron's One Ring. As The Verge points out, the executive not only misspells the name of the character Galadriel as 'Galadrial' but he also uses the reference erroneously.

JRR Tolkien in his series makes an important point: the power of the One Ring shouldn't be wielded by anyone, neither Galadriel nor Gandalf. If Facebook is the all-powerful One Ring, the best way to deal with it is to send it back to the place where it came from. Since that isn't possible, maybe a little oversight will help.

Facebook's hardware chief quoted Lord of the Rings in the company's internal memo, wherein he compared the company with Sauron's One Ring. He also misspelt the character Galadriel as 'Galadrial'.

Separately, he also discussed the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the 2016 US Presidential Elections. "So was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? I think the answer is yes, but not for the reasons anyone thinks. He didn't get elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge Analytica. He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad campaign I've ever seen from any advertiser," he wrote.