2021 Facebook leak: Difference between revisions
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=== Violence in developing countries === |
=== Violence in developing countries === |
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An internal memo seen by the Washington Post reveal that Facebook has been aware of hate speech |
An internal memo seen by the Washington Post reveal that Facebook has been aware of hate speech and calls for violence against groups such as, for instance, Muslims and Kashmiris, including posts of photos of piles of dead Kashmiri bodies with glorifying captions on its platform in India, still, none of their publishers were blocked.<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/24/india-facebook-misinformation-hate-speech/</ref> |
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=== Controlling falsehoods about the US presidential election === |
=== Controlling falsehoods about the US presidential election === |
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Revision as of 01:23, 28 October 2021
 | This article may be affected by a current event. Information in this article may change rapidly as the event progresses. Initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (October 2021) |
The Facebook Files is the title of a series of news reports by The Wall Street Journal in 2021 based on internal documents from Facebook leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen. In October 2021, a consortium of news outlets began publishing a series known as the Facebook Papers, based on the leaked documents and additional information.
The Facebook Files
There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.
In late September 2021, The Wall Street Journal began publishing articles on Facebook based on internal documents from unknown provenance. Revelations included reporting of special allowances on posts from high-profile users ("XCheck"), subdued responses to flagged information on human traffickers and drug cartels, a shareholder lawsuit concerning the cost of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal liability protection in resolving the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, an initiative to increase pro-Facebook news within user news feeds, and internal knowledge of how Instagram exacerbated negative self-image in surveyed teenage girls.[1]
Siva Vaidhyanathan writes for The Guardian that the documents are from a team at Facebook "devoted to social science and data analytics that is supposed to help the company's leaders understand the consequences of their policies and technological designs."[2] Casey Newton of The Verge wrote that it is the company's biggest challenge since its Cambridge Analytica data scandal.[3]
The leaked documents include internal research from Facebook that studied the impact of Instagram on teenage mental health.[4]
The former Facebook employee behind the leak, Frances Haugen, revealed her identity on 60 Minutes on October 3, 2021.[5]
The Facebook Papers
Beginning October 22, a group of news outlets began publishing articles based on documents provided by Haugen's lawyers, collectively referred to as "The Facebook Papers".[6][7]
Violence in developing countries
An internal memo seen by the Washington Post reveal that Facebook has been aware of hate speech and calls for violence against groups such as, for instance, Muslims and Kashmiris, including posts of photos of piles of dead Kashmiri bodies with glorifying captions on its platform in India, still, none of their publishers were blocked.[8]
Controlling falsehoods about the US presidential election
New York Times points internal discussions where employees raised that Facebook was spreading content about the QAnon conspiracy theory more than a year before the 2020 US Election. Post election, a data scientist mentioned in an internal note that 10 percent of all U.S. views of political content were of posts alleging that the election was fraudulent.[9]
Employee dissatisfaction
Politico quotes several Facebook staff expressing concerns about the company's willingness and ability to respond to damages caused by the platform. A 2020 post reads: "It’s not normal for a large number of people in the 'make the site safe' team to leave saying, 'hey, we're actively making the world worse FYI.' Every time this gets raised it gets shrugged off with 'hey people change jobs all the time' but this is NOT normal."[10]
Apple's threat to remove Facebook and Instagram
In 2019, following concerns about Facebook and Instagram being used to trade maids in the Middle East, Apple threatened to remove these iOS apps from the App Store.[11]
Facebook's response
In the Q3 2021 earning call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the recent leaks, characterizing them as coordinated efforts to paint a false picture of his company by selectively leaking documents.[12]
See also
References
- ^ "Facebook Files: 5 things leaked documents reveal". BBC News. September 24, 2021.
- ^ Vaidhyanathan, Siva (October 8, 2021). "Facebook has just suffered its most devastating PR catastrophe yet". The Guardian. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- ^ Newton, Casey (September 28, 2021). "Why Facebook should release the Facebook Files". The Verge. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (September 14, 2021). "Facebook aware of Instagram's harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals". The Guardian. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
- ^ Ghaffary, Shirin (October 3, 2021). "Why this Facebook scandal is different". Vox. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ Danner, Chas (October 23, 2021). "What Was Leaked in the Facebook Papers?". Intelligencer. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ Varnham O'Regan, Sylvia; Di Stefano, Mark (October 22, 2021). "New Facebook Storm Nears as CNN, Fox Business and Other Outlets Team Up on Whistleblower Docs". The Information. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
- ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/24/india-facebook-misinformation-hate-speech/
- ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/technology/facebook-election-misinformation.html
- ^ https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/25/facebook-employees-message-anguish-517012
- ^ https://apnews.com/article/the-facebook-papers-maid-abuse-94909f43c725af09522704348e35bd25
- ^ https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/FB-Q3-2021-Earnings-Call-Transcript.pdf
Further reading
- Cranz, Alex (October 3, 2021). "Facebook encourages hate speech for profit, says whistleblower". The Verge. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
- Milmo, Dan (October 4, 2021). "How 'losing friend to misinformation' drove Facebook whistleblower". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
- Roose, Kevin (October 4, 2021). "Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Suderman, Alan; Goodman, Joshua (October 23, 2021). "Amid the Capitol riot, Facebook faced its own insurrection". AP News. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- Zakrzewski, Cat; De Vynck, Gerrit; Masih, Niha; Mahtani, Shibani (October 24, 2021). "How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India". Washington Post. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
External links
- Official website (The Facebook Files, The Wall Street Journal)
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