Fact check on Zuckerberg’s statement defending the company

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In a 1,300-word statement, Zuckerberg defended Facebook’s services and, appealing to his employees, suggested that their work and the company as a whole were distorted.

Here’s a look at what Zuckerberg said and what we know.

Responding to Haugen’s claims and a Wall Street Journal investigation that Facebook, owned Instagram, has negatively impacted many of its millions of users, especially young women, Zuckerberg cited a previous statement from Facebook on the matter.

“Research has actually shown that many teens we’ve heard from believe that using Instagram helps them when they are grappling with the kind of difficult times and issues that teens have always faced,” says the press release. “In fact, in 11 of the 12 areas on the slide referenced by the Journal – including serious areas like loneliness, anxiety, sadness and eating problems – more teenage girls who reported having difficulty with this problem also said that Instagram made these difficult times better than worse. ‘”

The facts first: While it is true that many teens surveyed said they had a positive experience with Instagram, this shouldn’t invalidate or outweigh the fact that it negatively impacts a significant portion of its users. Both documents published by Haugen and other studies indicate that Instagram in particular can be harmful to teenagers, young girls in particular, and in some cases exacerbate the very problems that Zuckerberg says it helps improve.

According to Facebook’s own internal research cited in one of Haugen’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, “13.5% of teenage girls on Instagram say the platform makes thoughts of ‘suicide and self-harm’ worse.” and 17% say the platform makes “eating problems” such as anorexia worse. Her research also claims that Facebook’s platforms “worsen body image problems for 1 in 3 teenage girls.”

This research is supported by experiments conducted by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal and reproduced by CNN.

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, who covers Facebook, Recount CNN’s John Berman on “New Day” that less than a week after setting up an Instagram account as a 13-year-old girl who followed a few accounts on diets and related topics, “Instagram’s Algorithm, l ‘algorithm that Zuckerberg controls, hammers that now counts with suggestions, more and more, pro-diet, pro-anorexia accounts. “

Addressing the impact of Facebook’s platforms on teens during his testimony, Haugen said: “In the case of cigarettes, only about 10% of people who smoke get lung cancer, so the idea that 20% of your users could be facing serious mental health issues. problems and it’s not a problem, it’s shocking. ”

One-off results

“If we wanted to hide our results, why would we have set a leading standard for transparency and reporting on what we do? Zuckerberg’s statement asserted.

The facts first: This is at best misleading. There is evidence beyond Haugen’s testimony that Facebook has withheld reports or findings in the past.

For example, after Facebook released a quarterly report in August that the most popular posts on its platform were positive and harmless, like revenue, the New York Times first reported that the company had put aside a report from the first three months of 2021 due to concerns. that would be bad for the business. In this version, the Times reported, the top link on the platform was anti-vaccine news.

Facebook was ultimately blunt, with company spokesperson Andy Stone saying, “We are guilty of cleaning up our house a bit before we invited the company.”

Efforts to combat harmful content

Zuckerberg wrote: “If we don’t care about tackling harmful content, then why would we hire as many dedicated people as any other company in our space, even the largest ones?

Facts first: It needs context. Facebook has been aware of the need to tackle harmful content on its platform for years, but has not made a commitment to hire and train full-time Facebook employees to address it.

Facebook has content moderators, but many of them are contractors or subcontractors, not officially employed by the company. As a result, they are paid less and do not have access to many of the perks that normally come with working for Facebook.

“If they really cared about this problem, if they really wanted to take it to this level, why not spend that extra money?” Bring more people to the house? »O’Sullivan noted. “Facebook will probably say it’s a scale issue, but this issue has been on their platform for a decade now; what’s holding them back?”



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