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A former Facebook data scientist exposed the company’s awareness that Instagram caused obvious harm to some teenagers and her allegations of dishonesty in combating hatred and misinformation, which shocked lawmakers and the public. Now she is before Congress.
Before leaving the job of Facebook’s Citizen Integrity Department, Frances Haugen secretly copied tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents and made widespread condemnation of Facebook. Haugen also filed a complaint with federal authorities, alleging that Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hatred, misinformation and political unrest, but the company hides what it knows.
After the Wall Street Journal’s recent report based on the documents she leaked to the newspaper caused a public outcry, Hogan revealed her identity in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday night. She insisted that “Facebook has shown time and time again that it chooses profit over safety.”
The former employee who challenged this social networking giant with 2.8 billion users worldwide and a market value of nearly $1 trillion is a 37-year-old data expert from Iowa with a degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in business from Harvard University. She worked for 15 years before being recruited by Facebook to companies such as Google and Pinterest in 2019.
Haugen will testify before the Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing on Tuesday.
The group is reviewing Facebook’s use of information provided by its own researchers on Instagram, which may indicate potential harm to some of its young users (especially girls), but it publicly downplays the negative impact. Hogan’s leaked research shows that for some teenagers who are committed to Facebook’s popular photo-sharing platform, peer pressure created by visual focus on Instagram leads to mental health and body image problems, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.
An internal study cited 13.5% of teenage girls who said that Instagram made suicidal thoughts worse, and 17% of teenage girls said it made eating disorders worse.
Hogan said in a TV interview: “Facebook’s own research shows that it’s super tragic that as these young women start to consume content with this eating disorder, they become more and more frustrated.” “This actually makes them even more frustrated. Use the app a lot. So they end up in this feedback loop and they hate their body more and more.”
As the collapse of public relations researched by Instagram intensified last week, Facebook suspended work on its children’s version of Instagram, which the company said was mainly aimed at teenagers between the ages of 10 and 12.
The senators are eager to hear from Hoogen.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, said: “I look forward to asking her follow-up questions about why Facebook has not taken action to resolve the issues on its platform, even though its own internal research reflects Lots of problems.” The subcommittee told The Associated Press on Monday. “I want to discuss how Facebook’s algorithm promotes harmful and divisive content, and how much Facebook really benefits from our children.”
The problem lies in the algorithms that control the content displayed on users’ news feeds and how they support hate content. Haugen said that the changes in content flow in 2018 have led to the split and maliciousness of a network created on the surface to bring people closer. Despite the hostility caused by the new algorithms, Facebook has found that they can help attract repeat customers—a model that helps the social media giant sell more digital advertising that generates most of its revenue.
Haugen’s criticism extends beyond Instagram’s situation. In an interview, she stated that after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, Facebook prematurely shut down safeguards designed to stop misinformation and incitement to violence, claiming that this led to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Fatal attack.
After the November election, Facebook disbanded the Citizen Integrity Coalition where Haugen worked. She said that at that moment she realized that “I don’t believe they are willing to actually invest in what needs to be invested in order to prevent Facebook from becoming dangerous.”
Haugen said that when Facebook hired her, she told executives that she asked to work in a field of the company that combats misinformation because she lost a friend in online conspiracy theories.
At the hearing last Thursday, Facebook’s head of global security, Antigone Davis (Antigone Davis) faced a series of criticisms from senators on the Commerce Committee. They accused Facebook of concealing negative findings about Instagram and demanded that the company promise to make changes.
Davis defended Instagram’s efforts to protect young people who use its platform. She disputed the description of the research content reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook insists that Haugen’s allegations are misleading, and insists that there is no evidence to support the premise that this is the main cause of social polarization.
“Even if I believe that we have deployed the most advanced technology, even if we hire thousands of people to try to maintain security and integrity on our platform, we will never absolutely exceed the 100. Facebook is responsible for policy and public affairs. Nick Clegg, vice president of CNN, said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” program on Sunday.
Clegg said this was because of the “instant and spontaneous form of communication” on Facebook, adding, “I think we are doing more than any reasonable person would expect.”
Haugen said that by coming forward, she hopes this will help stimulate the government to formulate regulations for Facebook’s activities. Like other tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook has enjoyed minimal supervision in Washington for years.
Another Monday, Massive global blackout Facebook, Instagram, and the company’s WhatsApp messaging platform fell into chaos, which didn’t gradually dissipate until late Monday Eastern Time. For some users, WhatsApp worked for a while, and then it didn’t. For others, Instagram works, but Facebook does not work, and so on.
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