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Mark Zuckerberg hit back at the testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, saying her claims that the company puts profit over personal safety are “just plain wrong.”
In a blog post, the founder and CEO of Facebook addressed one of the most damaging statements in Haugen’s opening speech to US senators on Tuesday – that Facebook is putting “astronomical profits before people.”
“At the heart of these accusations is the idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being. It’s just not true, ”he said.
He added, “The argument that we deliberately deliver content that angers people for profit is deeply illogical. We make money from ads, and advertisers constantly tell us that they don’t want their ads to be next to harmful or angry content.
Zuckerberg said many of the claims made by Haugen – and in the Wall Street Journal, based on documents she leaked – “don’t make sense.” The most damaging report from the WSJ, reiterated at length by Haugen in testimony before the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, was that Facebook had failed to respond to internal research showing its Instagram app was harming teen mental health.
“A lot of statements just don’t make sense. If we wanted to ignore research, why would we create a cutting edge research agenda to understand these important questions in the first place? ” he said.
Responding to Haugen’s claims that Facebook’s attempts to curb harmful content are constantly hampered by a staff shortage, he said: Business in our space – even bigger than us? If we wanted to hide our results, why would we have set a leading standard for transparency and reporting on what we do? “
Haugen’s testimony and accompanying statements from U.S. senators at the hearing repeatedly questioned whether Facebook could be trusted. “Facebook is not allowed to have blind faith in them,” said Haugen, a former Facebook employee who worked in the company’s election interference monitoring unit before resigning in May.
Zuckerberg said a change to Facebook’s news feed algorithm in 2018 was implemented because it increased well-being. According to Haugen, internal Facebook research showed that switching to the News Feed – a personalized scrolling of content that is at the heart of Facebook users’ interaction with the platform – amplified content that divides. .
“This change showed fewer viral videos and more content from friends and family – which we did knowing it would mean people would spend less time on Facebook, but this research suggested that was the good for the well-being of people Is this something that a business focused on profits rather than people would do?
Speaking to company staff in the Facebook post posted late Tuesday, Zuckerberg said he expected many employees not to recognize the company depicted in the WSJ coverage and Haugen’s testimony.
“I’m sure many of you have found the recent coverage difficult to read because it just doesn’t reflect the business we know,” he wrote. “We care deeply about issues such as safety, well-being and mental health. It’s hard to see a cover that distorts our work and our motivations. At the most basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognize the false corporate image that is painted.
Zuckerberg opened the post by referring to Monday’s platform outage when the company’s services – including the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms – were disconnected for nearly six hours. Facebook has 3.5 billion monthly active users on its platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.
“The deepest concern with an outage like this is not how many people switch to competitive services or how much money we lose, but what it means for the people who rely on our services to communicate. with their loved ones, manage their business or support their communities, ”he said.
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