Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who leaked internal Facebook documents to The Wall Street Journal, went public on the television show 60 Minutes and accused the social media giant of encouraging hate speech for profit.
Haugen said the company had deliberately gamed its algorithms to amplify hate speech, telling the host of the show, “It’s paying for its profits with our safety.”
A former product manager assigned to the Civic Integrity Group at the company, Haugen dissolved the group and left in 2021, after realising that the company's priorities were skewed.
Haugen said Facebook was not willing "to invest in what actually needs to invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous."
Haugen has worked with a number of Silicon Valley's biggest companies like Google but said that Facebook was much worse due to repeatedly showing that it would put profits over the welfare and safety of its users. The social media giant had almost 2.8 billion active users by the second quarter of 2021.
Speaking with 60 minutes host Scott Pelley Haugen said that, "There was conflict... between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook chose over and over again to optimize for its own interests — like making more money.”
The algorithms Haugen mentioned were put in place on the platform in 2018. Facebook used it to drive engagement by instilling fear and hate in its users.
Of the many leaked documents, published by the Wall Street Journal, one in particular shows that Facebook doesn't play by its own rules. While the company has said time and again that its rules applied to everyone, the documents show that the platform shields millions of VIPs from enforcement.
It allows them complete freedom to post unchecked and incite fear and harassment.
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