New Facebook whistleblower claims company allows hate, illegal activity
Another Facebook whistleblower has come forward to allege that the company prioritizes revenue over combating misinformation and hate speech, echoing statements by another former employee.
Credit: Facebook
The whistleblower submitted an affidavit on Friday outlining the allegations under penalty of perjury, according to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the document. The new whistleblower is reportedly a former member of Facebook's Integrity team.
One of the key claims in the affidavit is a quote from a top Facebook communications official overheard by the unnamed whistleblower in 2016, during controversy surrounding Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election that year.
"It will be a flash in the pan," said the official of the controversy. "Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine."
The affidavit claims that the quote is indicative of a widespread attitude within Facebook regarding problematic content. It goes on to claim that Facebook executives routinely undermined its own efforts to combat hate speech, misinformation, and other problematic content.
In some cases, it avoided fighting those types of content to avoid angering then-President Donald Trump and his allies, or out of concern about dampening user growth, the affidavit claims.
The affidavit echoes many of the same claims made by Frances Haugen, a former data scientist at Facebook who leaked documents indicating that the social media giant is aware that Instagram is bad for the mental health of some of its users. Haugen also criticized the company's track record on misinformation, political polarization, and hate speech.
The filing on Friday was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was accompanied by a second affidavit from former journalist Gretchen Peters, who now runs a group combatting illegal activities online.
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Credit: Facebook
The whistleblower submitted an affidavit on Friday outlining the allegations under penalty of perjury, according to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the document. The new whistleblower is reportedly a former member of Facebook's Integrity team.
One of the key claims in the affidavit is a quote from a top Facebook communications official overheard by the unnamed whistleblower in 2016, during controversy surrounding Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election that year.
"It will be a flash in the pan," said the official of the controversy. "Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine."
The affidavit claims that the quote is indicative of a widespread attitude within Facebook regarding problematic content. It goes on to claim that Facebook executives routinely undermined its own efforts to combat hate speech, misinformation, and other problematic content.
In some cases, it avoided fighting those types of content to avoid angering then-President Donald Trump and his allies, or out of concern about dampening user growth, the affidavit claims.
The affidavit echoes many of the same claims made by Frances Haugen, a former data scientist at Facebook who leaked documents indicating that the social media giant is aware that Instagram is bad for the mental health of some of its users. Haugen also criticized the company's track record on misinformation, political polarization, and hate speech.
The filing on Friday was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was accompanied by a second affidavit from former journalist Gretchen Peters, who now runs a group combatting illegal activities online.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Example: I commented on a decision by the German parliament with the expletive “F*ing Germans!”, which was flagged as “hate speech” and my account suspended for 48h. Really? They have utterly no context and seem to filter posts with a very crude “AI” or keyword based algorithm.
Trying to get the block lifted or the infringement expunged (since it leads to progressively longer suspensions for repeat offenses) is nearly impossible, you can submit your objection, but without any explanation text.
Another time I was arguing a hypothetical point, and it too was flagged, even though out of context it should have been clear that it was pretty much the opposite of the point I was making.
So, yeah, profit over filtering hate speech is a VERY GOOD thing, at least until they don’t have actual people with real common sense reviewing what gets filtered.
Just this week FB and YouTube band any things related to LETS GO BRANDAND, and claim it is miss information.
The thought police are in full 1984 mode.
Since I first heard about FB back in 2006 I have been saying it would lead to nothing good.
Participating in FB is just asking for trouble. I have no sympathy for those who do so. It's like volunteering to participate in a dunking booth, then complaining about getting wet. I looked at signing up about 15 years ago. Then, I read their T&C. FTS. I never signed up and never looked back.
Within a single day, page recommendations for this account generated by Facebook itself had evolved to a “quite troubling, polarizing state,” the study found. By day 2, the algorithm was recommending more extremist content, including a QAnon-linked group, which the fake user didn’t join because she wasn’t innately drawn to conspiracy theories.
A week later the test subject’s feed featured “a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial and graphic content,” including posts reviving the false Obama birther lie and linking the Clintons to the murder of a former Arkansas state senator. Much of the content was pushed by dubious groups run from abroad or by administrators with a track record for violating Facebook’s rules on bot activity."
And that is consistent with what Jon Stewart reported: that users are pushed by Facebook deeper and deeper into whichever political preferences they might have -- thus creating a deeper divide and a more radicalized population.
So, we not only have to contend with religious and political groups promoting their radical beliefs and agendas -- but now we have (social) media profiting from helping them promote it -- and thus dividing and radicalizing the people of this country.
Amid the Capitol riot, Facebook faced its own insurrection
You forgot the '/s' after that sarcasm. Err, it was sarcasm, right? Wasn't it? Please say it was....
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/03/facebook-misinformation-nyu-study/
** https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/14/facebook-research-disinformation-politics
*** https://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Troll
**** https://www.logicalfallacies.org/
***** https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/04/09/10-tips-to-dealing-with-trolls/?sh=6d69c2cc54f4
Funny how it's the biggest jerks who try to excuse their jerkiness by claiming that everyone is as big a jerk as themselves and therefore being a jerk is no big deal.
Misery loves company (even if the company is imaginary).
https://aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheFoxWhoHadLostHisTail ;
That's a very liberal approach. But you seem to have a unique definition of "liberal." Perhaps in this exploration of space, we'll discover the bizarre distant planet where "liberalism" is defined as "a mix of Nazis and communists."
Maybe...
”Facebook's Integrity team“
unreal
Today's crisis and issues seem to have more to do with outrage than right or wrong, good or bad.