Texts of General Interest (link)
Dr. James Manos (MD)
October 12, 2021
Facebook's worst nightmare!
Do social media put profit before safety?
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Image (free to use): Mark Zuckerberg at TechCrunch Disrupt 2012. Photo by JD Lasica. Source: Wikipedia. Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Zuckerberg_(7985185541).jpg This image was originally posted to Flickr by jdlasica at https://flickr.com/photos/36521958135@N01/7985185541
Note: This article is based on the revelations of Frances Haugen.
The revelations of the whistleblower
In October 2021, Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old computer engineer and former employee at Facebook, became its worst nightmare! Haugen testified to Congress that Facebook is operating covertly, hiding its research from public scrutiny! She shared numerous pages of confidential documents with her lawyers.
Initially, the whistleblower allegations were aired on the "60 Minutes" American broadcast, while she shared documents earlier with the Wall Street Journal newspaper. According to her claims, Facebook was aware of problems with its apps. These included the adverse effects of misinformation and the harm caused by Instagram, especially on the mental health of teenage girls. ''Like counts,'' showing how many people reacted to posts on Instagram, has been linked to social anxiety, particularly in teens. According to her allegations, Facebook's products "harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy."
She said, "The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people!" She implored the Congress committee, "We still have time to act. But we must act now."
Zuckerberg's reaction
After these allegations, Zuckerberg released a statement saying that the testimony of the ''former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years''...'' overall created a "false picture of the company." He wrote, ''We're committed to doing the best work we can, but at some level, the right body to assess tradeoffs between social equities is our democratically elected Congress."
The previous case of data misuse
It is not the first time Zuckerberg has faced criticism for his handling of social media. The previous case of Facebook data misuse shows that the Facebook CEO did not mind his social media credibility. About the above breach of confidence may read my article ''The Real Story of Facebook's Data Misuse!'' at https://drjamesmanos.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-facebook-data-misuse-case.html
According to the whistleblower, Facebook increases divides, destabilizes democracies, and makes young girls and women feel bad about their bodies! She alleged that the company is hiding from investors and public research about its weaknesses. Regarding safety, she stated that "Facebook has become a $1.000 billion company generating profits at the expense of our own safety as well as the safety of our children!''
Facebook's algorithms
Haugen claimed that Facebook keeps its algorithms and actions covert. Working in "algorithmic product management," she realized that its algorithm was designed to show users the content they are most likely to meet, feeding polarization, misinformation, and other harmful content. In her ''60 Minutes" appearance, she said that if Facebook makes the algorithm safer, "people will spend less time on the site, they will click on fewer ads, they'll make less money!"
The uncontrolled content
On Facebook, some profiles may have illegal content. You may occasionally see photos of guys, probably mafia members, posing with guns! It is unacceptable that social media profiles are not personalized and that anyone can create a profile using a nickname. In some circumstances, criminals and terrorists were live streaming their terrible actions on their social media. Others posted images or videos of violence or suicidal intent. Social media will perpetuate anarchy unless profiles become personalized by asking members to use their real identities.
Community standards are not enough, as I remember reporting a photo on a Facebook profile showing a mangled man after a motor vehicle collision. They replied that they could not do something about it as it did not violate the community's standards!
The political component of the revelations
Haugen said, "My team directly worked on tracking Chinese participation on the platform, surveilling Uyghur populations in places around the world.'' It should be noted that, according to China, this Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia is a direct threat. With the excuse of terrorism China represses this population. That means it is not a coincidence that Facebook tracks down these people, if so. Haugen involved even Iran, stating, "We also saw the active participation of, say, the Iran government doing espionage on other state actors!"
The ''coincidental'' outage on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp
Surprisingly, amid Haugen's revelations, billions of users worldwide could not access their accounts on Facebook and its Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp apps. That occurred twice in one week. According to the company, the global outage was caused by an internal technical issue! Facebook attributed the trouble to a configuration change that affected social network users worldwide. In any case, there were no specific details to explain how Facebook and Instagram went down and if it was related to safety controls.
The need for social media control by the State
Many Senators criticized Zuckerberg's decision to go sailing during the turmoil the disclosures caused. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone stated that ''it's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet." Of course, this should be obvious. But in the USA, it is not, as social media are not under the scrutiny of a regulatory body, meaning that they are free to do whatever they wish!
Currently, the allegations' only effect was to prevent Instagram from introducing a version of its service for children! But more is needed. The key to avoiding manipulation by social media is to impose specific rules, such as those proposed by the European Union (EU). These include the EU's ''General Data Protection Regulation ''(GDPR). Rules should be official and not based on the ''community rules,'' or ''self-control,'' or guided by an ''auto-pilot''!
Overall, governments need to create and implement standard rules on the internet to prevent social media from putting profits before safety! The community's standards are not enough. Profiles should become personalized by asking their members to use their real identities.
Thanks for reading!
Reference
(Retrieved October 10, 2021)
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-gave-congress-road-map-n1280873
https://apnews.com/article/facebook-haugen-congress-testimony-1daac7a76ca7bf0b0802cc46e732b51b
https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/08/facebook-and-instagram-went-down-again-this-afternoon/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/06/tech/facebook-frances-haugen-testimony/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/05/tech/facebook-whistleblower-testify/index.html
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-is-facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-7556326/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/9/facebook-grapples-with-another-global-outage
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/technology/facebook-european-union-regulation.html