{"id":8631,"date":"2021-10-28T12:14:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T12:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1371383"},"modified":"2021-10-28T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T12:14:56","slug":"the-facebook-papers-all-the-major-revelations-in-a-handy-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8631","title":{"rendered":"The Facebook Papers: all the major revelations in a handy list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Facebook has had many bad days and months, but the company is facing yet enough public disgrace. Everyone\u2019s talking about Facebook Papers, and we\u2019re here to summarize it for you, so you don\u2019t have to spend days of your life reading. Let\u2019s dive right into it.<\/p>\n

What are Facebook papers?<\/h2>\n

Facebook papers are a set of documents, that former Facebook employee, and now a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, obtained before leaving the company. She submitted these documents to the Security Exchanges Commission (SEC) earlier this year, and now they are available to a consortium of news outlets.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s Kathrine Haugen and what does she think about Facebook?<\/h2>\n

Haugen, 37, was a product manager at Facebook and a part of the Civic Integrity group, which worked on risks to elections including misinformation and bot accounts. She left the company in May, but collected a trove of information that is now called the Facebook papers.<\/p>\n

In her interview with the show 60 minutes, she said \u201cFacebook over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.\u201d You can read more about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Facebook papers have revealed a lot of information about what the company thinks about and how it deals with dwindling user numbers, misinformation, and its own image.<\/p>\n

Below are some of the big problem areas for Facebook. We\u2019ll keep updating the list as new details emerge.<\/p>\n

Facebook, teens, and mental health<\/h2>\n

In the past decade, the number of teenage users on Facebook has steadily decreased. According to a report from Bloomberg<\/a>, a recent internal study revealed that time spent by teens on the platform has declined 16% year-on-year. Facebook\u2019s more popular among baby boomers these days.<\/p>\n

Fewer teens are signing up for the services. That\u2019s not surprising given the growth of other platforms such as TikTok.<\/p>\n

A report from the Wall Street Journal published in September, said that the company ignored Instagram\u2019s harmful impact on teens<\/a>, particularly in regard to self-esteem and body image.<\/p>\n

After these reports, Nick Clegg, Facebook\u2019s VP of global affairs, went on to defend the firm and said that it\u2019s working on a slew of new features<\/a> \u2014 including a \u2018take a break\u2019 warning \u2014 for teen safety.<\/p>\n

Facebook has failed to moderate hateful content in different countries<\/h2>\n

While Facebook\u2019s base lies in the US, its biggest audiences are in countries like India and Brazil. As Casey Newton of The Platformer noted, these countries are placed in \u2018tier zero\u2019 \u2014 meaning they are a high-priority for its Civic Group formed in 2019 to monitor election interference.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t guarantee success. A New York Times<\/a> article showed that the company struggles with problems like hate speech, misinformation, and the celebration of violence in India.<\/p>\n

The report noted that the infestation of bots and fake accounts had a massive impact on the country\u2019s national elections held in 2019.<\/p>\n

A lack of budget allocation where it\u2019s needed<\/h2>\n

The NYT report said that shockingly, 87% of the company\u2019s budget to combat misinformation is allocated to the US, while the rest of the world has to make do with 13%.<\/p>\n

This creates a massive resource crunch for monitoring countries that communicate in languages other than English.<\/p>\n

In countries like Myanmar, which held its national elections last November, Facebook deployed tools to fight fake news, but they were ineffective.<\/a><\/p>\n

The situation in other countries, which are slotted in tier 3 according to The Platformer<\/a>, is more dire. In Ethiopia, despite knowing that Facebook is being used for violence, the company did little to stop that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s algorithm mishap<\/h2>\n

In her revelations, Haugen said that Facebook\u2019s 2018 algorithm change<\/a> was the culprit of inciting hate between its users. When it was rolled out, Zuckerberg said that it meant to increase interactions between friends and family.<\/p>\n

However, this change backfired<\/a>, as the feeds become angrier, resulting in increased toxicity and misinformation.<\/p>\n

Make positive stories visible<\/h2>\n

As a way to combat its algorithm failures, and improve its image, Facebook began to increase the visibility of positive stories about itself<\/a> after a meeting in January. Plus, the social network began to distance Zuckerberg from controversial topics such as vaccine misinformation.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the company even ran an experiment of turning off its News Feed algorithm for select people<\/a>. That also led to worse experiences for many people with less engagement and more ads.<\/p>\n

Employees are unhappy with the direction<\/h2>\n

Haugen is probably one of the pristine examples of how Facebook employees are not fine with the way the social network is operating. In her interview, she said that the situation in the firm was substantially worse than \u201canything I\u2019d seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report from the Wall Street Journal<\/a> noted that the firm ignored employees\u2019 warnings about pages and groups run by global drug cartels and human traffickers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re FB, not some naive startup. With the unprecedented resources we have, we should do better,\u201d said an employee after the Capitol Riots in the US in January, as per a report by Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The story has numerous quotes from former and current Facebookers, who were angry about the way the firm was handling misinformation across the board.<\/p>\n

A report from Wired<\/a> echoed what some former employees have said before: the company focuses on engagement a lot.<\/p>\n

It also highlighted that the critical teams that engage with misinformation directly, such as the content policy team, don\u2019t have the power of other teams like the public policy team to carry out swift actions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg\u2019s response<\/h2>\n

While the company agreed earlier this year to keep King Zuck out of sight for controversial issues, this is too big to ignore.<\/p>\n

In the company\u2019s quarterly earnings call, the head of the company addressed this issue and said the media is misinformed about the firm<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Want to find out more?<\/h2>\n

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the issues uncovered by the Facebook papers. So here\u2019s a reading list for you to dive deeper into it:<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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