Facebook whistleblower

 We’ve known for years that social media and tech platforms are vectors for extremism, racism, misogyny, lies and violence. And guess what? It ends up Facebook knew, too. Sign our petition demanding that Congress and the Biden administration hold the platform accountable.

Thanks to Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen,¹ federal regulators now have access to tens of thousands of pages of evidence that show:

• Facebook exempts high-profile users from some or all of its rules
• Instagram (owned by Facebook) is harmful to millions of young users
• In 2018, Facebook switched to a new algorithm that promotes objectionable or harmful content
• Facebook’s own tools are used to sow doubt about COVID-19 vaccines
• Facebook takes action on only 0.6% of violent or inciting content, allowing violence against ethnic minorities and political protesters

The evidence is damning, Mark: When Facebook has to choose between people and profits, it always prioritizes its bottom line. This matters for our children, our health and our democracy.

“Whistleblower: Facebook Is Misleading the Public on Progress Against Hate Speech, Violence, Misinformation,” 60 Minutes, Oct. 4, 2021

--Free Press e-mail of Oct 3, 2021, Monday

Facebook “has repeatedly misled the public.”

That’s according to a whistleblower — Frances Haugen — who testified before Congress TODAY following her release of thousands of internal company documents and a series of damning reports about Facebook in The Wall Street Journal.

Thanks to Haugen, we are all learning even more about long-suspected, real-world consequences of deliberate choices Facebook has made in its seemingly unquenchable thirst for profits.

Haugen’s testimony and the documents she made public show that the company knows its products (which include Instagram and WhatsApp along with Facebook itself):

• Foment anti-democratic and authoritarian movements.

• Stoke ethnic violence.

• Facilitate human trafficking.

• Worsen body image issues among young women.

Again and again, however, Facebook has declined to take steps it knows could counteract those problems — out of fear that doing so would impede profits — while simultaneously keeping secret vital information that would enable policymakers to act.

As Haugen noted during her congressional testimony today, “The company’s leadership keeps vital information from the public, the U.S. government, its shareholders, and governments around the world.”

We are calling on Facebook to do three things right away:

1. Release internal research related to how its products impact individuals and societies.

2. Stop programming its algorithms to intentionally boost hateful, violent, and anti-democratic content.

3. Permanently end its plans to launch a version of Instagram for teenagers (the company has so far only temporarily paused those plans).

--Public Citizen e-mail of Tues, Oct 5, 2021

Dear MoveOn member,

The bombshell testimony by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen before Congress yesterday confirmed what many of us have known for a long time: Facebook doesn't care about its own role in sowing violence, disinformation, and even suicide—as long as Mark Zuckerburg and his team keep making money.¹ But we have the power to change that.

Facebook cares how long we spend on its platforms (including Instagram), because 98% of Facebook's revenue is derived from ads targeted to users.² Getting and keeping our attention is Facebook's entire business model.

As we saw during Monday's blackout, Facebook can lose tens of millions of dollars when it can't hold our attention for a few hours. Imagine how much power we can have if we log out on purpose.³

From allowing right-wing extremists to organize an insurrection at the Capitol and facilitating the spread of disinformation on COVID-19 to knowing Instagram is toxic for teen girls to hate speech and violent threats aimed at people of color every day, Facebook is a threat to our children, our society, and our democracy.^4,5

We can't continue to let that happen.

Facebook was panicking earlier this week when technical problems reportedly caused them to lose $163,000 in revenue every minute—with CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally losing billions.⁶

Please join to send Facebook a message it can't ignore—as Kairos, MoveOn, and other partner organizations go big on a campaign: The Facebook Logout.

Facebook acts when their bottom line is at risk, and we need to come together to show them that Facebook's greed and relentless pursuit of profit are coming at the expense of racial justice, democracy, public health, and so many issues that are core to a vibrant society.

Sources:

1. “Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead,” The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159084?t=12&akid=307842%2E17999787%2E3Jmy-S

2. “Facebook Posts Revenue Growth Despite Pandemic,” The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/159085?t=14&akid=307842%2E17999787%2E3Jmy-S

3. Ibid.

4. “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,” The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159086?t=16&akid=307842%2E17999787%2E3Jmy-S

5. “‘If They Won’t Hear Us, They Will Fear Us’: How The Capitol Assault Was Planned On Facebook,” Buzzfeed News, January 29, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159087?t=18&akid=307842%2E17999787%2E3Jmy-S

6. "Facebook outage, by the numbers: Largest outage ever tracked could cost millions," MarketWatch, October 5, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159089?t=20&akid=307842%2E17999787%2E3Jmy-S

--Moveon.org e-mail of Wed, Oct 6, 2021