Woman who leaked internal Facebook documents revealed her identity

A few weeks ago, an investigation was released which revealed that Facebook was aware of the negative effects that company-owned Instagram is having on teens. This information has been ratified by the very person who leaked thousands of pages of internal research and documents from Mark Zuckerberg’s social network.

Francoise Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa, working for companies like Google and Pinterest, revealed all the details during the interview that the social network was “significantly worse” That all that I had seen before

“Facebook has proven time and time again that prefer profit to safety. He subsidizes, he pays for his profits with our security, ”he said. Adding: “The version of Facebook that exists today is destroying our societies and causing ethnic violence around the world.

About a month ago, Haugen filed at least eight complaints with the Security and Trade Commission, claiming that the company is hiding the investigation of its shortcomings from investors and the public. For its part, Facebook denied this information, calling many claims “misleading”.

“Every day, our teams must balance protecting the ability of billions of people to speak out openly with the need to keep our platform safe,” social network source Lena Pietsch told CNN Business.

The Facebook algorithm, misleading

Haugen told 60 Minutes that Facebook’s algorithm intentionally choose content that users don’t like because it generates the most participation. And that, in the end, ends up turning into more money.

“An internal investigation shows that aggressive content, which generates hate, which ends up polarizing, causes users to express more emotions,” Haugen said.

“Facebook has realized that if it changes the algorithm to be more secure, people will spend less time on social media, click less ads and earn less money,” he said. .

Haugen started working in Facebook’s Civic Integrity Unit in 2019. As she herself said in the interview, she was in charge of fight against political disinformation On the platform.

“Facebook realized that if they changed the algorithm to make it safer, people spend less time on the siteThey will click on fewer ads and earn less money, ”he said.

He also said that during the 2020 US presidential election, the company realized the danger posed by such content and activated security systems. Civic integrity (Civic integrity) to reduce it.

However, this security methodology did not hold up after Joe Biden’s triumph last November. “As soon as the elections were over, they either deactivated them or restored the settings from before, to prioritize growth over security, and that really seems to me to be a betrayal of democracy, ”he said.

“Facebook makes more money when you consume more content (…) the more you are exposed to anger, the more you interact, the more you consume“, he said.

The company’s own research shows that it is “easier to inspire people to anger than other emotions, ”noted the former Facebook employee.

Haugen suggested that the decision to withdraw this unit, among other measures, made it possible to use the platform for help organize the assault on the United States Capitol January 6. For his part, the vice president of integrity of Facebook, Guy Rosen, indicated via Twitter that the unit was integrated with other teams.

VIP users

One of the last published reports viewed by the Wall Street Journal found that Facebook has a high level user program to whom it grants special treatment and immunity for breaking its rules.

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network reportedly exempt millions of high profile users – celebrities, politicians, sportsmen and journalists – apparently contradicting the social network’s public statements that its rules are applicable to all users without distinction.

The members of this “VIP list” have free way to post content that incites violence or harassment, awaiting content reviews that are not typically done by moderators.

One of the most relevant cases is that of the Brazilian footballer Neymar, who published in 2019 photos and videos of a naked woman who had accused him of rape.

The program Verify also included the most government officialsbut not all candidates for public office at the end of 2020.

Instagram toxicity

Another investigation found that Facebook has hidden internal reports which reveal that Instagram is a toxic network for its users, especially for teenagers. “32% of girls say that when they feel bad about their body, Instagram makes them feel worse,” the documents conclude.

The conclusions of the investigations carried out by Facebook clash with the public discourse of the managers of the two social networks. Company founder Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri have come to a crossroads with accusations and systematically minimized the danger of the platform for the self-esteem of its users.

SL