As you know, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a striking research at the end of September 2021. The article revealed that Instagram, in particular, is harmful to the mental health of adolescents. Of course, the results of these internal tests conducted by Facebook remained secret, and the WSJ was able to obtain these damning documents thanks to whistleblower Frances Haugen.
The WSJ source had remained anonymous until then, but 37-year-old data scientist He decided to speak on American TV on Sunday, October 3, 2021. During an exclusive 60-minute interview on the show (editor’s note: CBS’ star news magazine), he explains that Facebook has improved its algorithms to highlight hate speech: much more “profitable” and “interesting” than other less controversial topics.
Facebook prioritizes growth over security
The Harvard graduate cut his teeth specifically at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in its Civic Integrity department, a service that was supposed to prevent and combat disinformation during the 2019 American presidential election. But after the elections are completed Facebook terminates department and eliminates the parameters put in place to reduce the spread of disinformation.”“Prioritizing growth over security”he assures.
The suppression of Civil Integrity created an electric shock for him : “I no longer trusted their willingness to invest in things that really needed investment to prevent Facebook from becoming dangerous. There was clearly a conflict between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook.he said on CBS.
As he explained in an interview with CBS, Facebook’s lack of transparency and irresponsibility Who was it that pushed him to speak and explain these few things? 10,000 internal documents He took care to compile and group them over the years. We discovered that Facebook is aware of all the negative effects these services cause: promotion of hate speech, polarization of political debate, harm to young people’s mental healthetc.
Also read: Facebook lies in official reports – anti-vaccine articles are deliberately deleted
Facebook has a devastating impact in unstable countries
Thus, an internal document reveals: “Misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are extremely common among reposts.” Even worse, on another note, Facebook said:Evidence from a variety of sources showing that hate speech, divisive political rhetoric, and misinformation on Facebook and its family of apps are impacting communities around the world.”
According to that, Facebook’s influence on certain conflicts is undeniable. It specifically refers to: genocide in Myanmar Where Facebook is widely used by current military forces to track down Rohingyas. ““There’s a joke in Civic Integrity that to know the next countries in the world that will go into crisis, you have to look at who started connecting to Facebook two years ago.” He remembers Scott Pelley’s microphone.
There’s one point that keeps coming up in Frances Haugen’s argument: Facebook’s systematic desire to emphasize hate speech, disinformation, and political polarization at the center of the user experience. keep those ad revenues. ““Facebook realized that they changed the algorithm to make the platform safer, to make fewer people stay on the platform, to click on fewer ads, and for Facebook to make less profit.”.
New algorithms put hate at the center of the experience
As we said above, these Algorithmic changes made in 2018 this made it possible to highlight hateful content on the Facebook group’s various outlets. From this date onwards, interaction is king and Facebook ensures that the posts that get the most interaction are distilling fear and hatred among users. “It is easier to provoke people to anger than to other emotions.” he confesses.
Former collaborator during publication of Wall Street Journal’s “Facebook Files” 8 complaints about the social network to the competent federal authorities. It should also be Heard in the Senate on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 Regarding the statements made in the daily newspaper and on the CBS broadcast. Before the interview aired, Facebook VP Nick Clegg told CNN: These claims are “ridiculous” and they gaveIt’s a false comfort to assume that there must be a technological or technical explanation for America’s political problems.
Source : 60 minutes
