The former employee of the social network demands more transparency from Facebook.
(Photo: Reuters)
Washington Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen made serious allegations against her former employer at a hearing before the US Congress on Tuesday. The management of the US tech group knows very well about the harmful effects of the social network on society, according to the whistleblower. “But in the past Facebook has repeatedly decided against the good of society and in favor of more profit.”
The hearing followed several revelations by the “Wall Street Journal”, in which Facebook is accused of having ignored and kept secret research results on the harmfulness of the network in order to avoid economic damage by adapting its own algorithms. The mechanism with which the software selects supposedly interesting articles for the user is supposed to favor extreme opinions in order to intensify the interaction.
“During my time at Facebook, I experienced several times that there were conflicts between the growth target and the security of the platform,” explained Haugen, who had also worked for Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook. The hearing committee also paid particular attention to the question of how children and young people are influenced by the functionality of the platform. These are the main allegations against Facebook:
1. Instagram damages the psyche of children and adolescents
It is an accusation that has caused particularly great outrage in the USA in recent weeks: Although the company is aware that the way the Instagram photo platform works has a harmful effect on the psyche of children and adolescents, and in large numbers, it increases Suicidal thoughts, the management around Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have not changed any of the current algorithms.
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Specifically, the hearing also dealt with the question of whether the use of Instagram can increasingly lead to eating disorders. The chairman of the committee, Senator Richard Blumenthal from Kentucky, reported on a self-experiment with a fake Instagram account that was flooded with glorifying content about eating disorders after being used for a while: “This is how the Instagram algorithms can draw young people deeper and deeper into darker territories . “
2. Facebook lies to the public about protective measures
When a wave of ethnic violence hit Ethiopia in late 2019, many observers were quick to blame false reports shared on Facebook. The network tries to use artificial intelligence to remove problematic content from the platform. But without resounding success, as whistleblower Haugen now explained: “The algorithms are not effective and filter out a maximum of ten percent of the problematic contributions.”
The finding contrasts with previous statements by Facebook, in which the company always stated that automatic discovery was getting better and better. In addition, according to Haugen, the filter mechanisms are currently only available for selected languages. “Facebook’s algorithms have led to violence in the real world,” said the 37-year-old. Governments are often not aware of how ineffective the security measures promoted by Facebook are.
3. Facebook is a “morally bankrupt organization”
The whistleblower has little hope that Facebook will change the way it works of its own accord. “The company is a very metrics-driven organization, the numbers make the decisions,” said Haugen. To avoid tighter regulation, management let the public believe the problems cannot be solved. “As long as the incentive structures in the organization don’t change, Facebook won’t change either.”
In order to solve the problems nonetheless, Haugen called for a supervisory authority to be set up to check and evaluate the effectiveness of protective measures, for example against false information. “Facebook has not earned our trust,” said the whistleblower, who is also calling for platform liability to be adjusted in US legislation. “We have to hold Facebook responsible for the damage that the algorithms cause.”
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