October 26, 2021
Move aside, Pandora Papers. The Facebook Papers have entered the building.
You’ve likely heard about bits and pieces of these documents over the past few weeks, most notably from a Wall Street Journal report showing that Facebook was aware that its services harmed teenage girls’ mental health. In recent days, more details about Facebook’s nefarious practices have emerged, thanks to whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked damning internal documents and testified before a Senate committee earlier this month.
Among the latest revelations:
• Facebook’s services have been used to spread anti-Muslim hatred in India, correlating with violence that left dozens dead.
• Famous people on the site get to play by their own rules, posting harassing content and incitements to violence while protected by the company’s secretive XCheck program.
• Facebook delayed its efforts to curtail vaccine misinformation, allowing doubt and confusion about vaccines’ efficacy to swirl in the crucial early months after their emergency use authorizations.
• The platform’s algorithm promotes low-quality, controversial news—the kind likely to make people hit the “angry” react button—over high-quality articles that users are apt to simply “like.”
• Facebook hasn’t sufficiently invested in non-English-speaking content monitors, leaving countries like Ethiopia at high risk of experiencing violence instigated on the platform.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
—Abigail Weinberg
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