Marck Zuckerberg defended Facebook after Frances Hauguen said: “We make money from advertising” | He said there was a “false narrative” about the harmful effects of social media

For the second day in a row, the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, came to defend his company after the double criticism he received for the blackout last Monday and the statements of a former employee who spoke to the US Congress about the “harmful effect” that the social network has on children and young people.

“It’s disheartening to see the work taken out of context and used to construct a false narrative” and what was said “This is not true”, retorted the mega-businessman in a letter to his employees just hours after the new scandal that has erupted in recent hours.

The letter was published in his personal account on his own social network, bears his signature and is much more detailed than the brief explanation he gave yesterday about the power outage for nearly seven hours of Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and Messenger last Monday.

“We make money with advertising”

In the text, Zuckerberg defended his company against the comments of Francoise Hauguen, the computer technique that leaked the firm’s documentation, and the one before lawmakers said Facebook’s privileges were profitable at the expense of security. His statements sparked a series of criticisms which, moreover, escalated after the publication in The Wall Street Journal of a report that captures Instagram’s “toxicity” to teenage girls.

“It’s just not true,” said the business owner, denying the allegations one by one. Regarding hauguen’s complaint, he said, “We make money from advertising, and customers tell us repeatedly that they don’t want their ads to be close to harmful or irritating content. And I don’t know of any tech company that claims to create products that make people angry or depressed.“.

He claimed to be “particularly focused” on complaints about the relationship between Facebook and children, said he was “proud” of the work done to help young people in distress and called for an update of the regulations of the sector.

“At what age can adolescents use Internet services? How should Internet services verify the ages of people? And how to balance the intimacy of adolescents while giving parents visibility on their activity?

On Instagram review

“If we wanted to ignore research, why did we create a cutting edge research program to understand these important topics in the first place? If we didn’t mind tackling harmful content, then why would we hire so many dedicated people? than any other company in our space, even bigger ones than us? He retorted.

It has also arrived at the crossroads of responsibilities entrusted to social networks in the dissemination of information and data that polarize societies. “If we were as responsible for the polarization of society as some claim, then why are we seeing increasing polarization in the United States? while it remains stable or decreases in many countries with the massive use of social networks around the world? He asks himself.

Regarding the investigation published in the American press, he declared: “We have a cutting edge research program so that we can identify important issues and work on them. It’s disheartening to see the work taken out of context and used to build a false narrative that we don’t care about. “

“If we attack organizations that are trying to study their impact on the world, we are effectively sending the message that it is safer not to look at all, in case you find something that could harm you,” because “this is the conclusion that other companies seem to have reached”. “I think this leads to a place that would be a lot worse for the company. Although it may be easier for us to follow this path, we will continue to investigate because it is the right thing to do», He concluded.