The Wall Street Journal published last week internal research from Facebook that showed how toxic the company's product is for its users. We learned tonight how the Journal got those documents. Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, spoke to CBS News 60 Minutes and discussed the many ways Facebook is poisoning society.
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The whistleblower, aged 37 years old, released tens of thousand of pages of documents from Facebook. He also plans to testify before Congress this week. Haugen filed at least eight complaints to the SEC alleging Facebook has deceived shareholders about its product.
Haugen claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what's good for Facebook, and what's good overall for society. According to Haugen, Facebook's good things tend to be detrimental to the world in which we live. This central point is highlighted by our selection of Sunday's most fascinating tidbits.
1) The algorithm of Facebook intentionally shows users things that make them mad
60 Minutes interviewed Haugen about how Facebook's algorithm selects content that is likely to anger users because it causes the most engagement. Facebook's ad dollars are made from user engagement.
60 Minutes reported that it has found that hateful content, which is divisive, and that is polarizing, is easier to incite people to anger than other emotions.
Facebook realized that changing the algorithm to make it safer will result in people spending less time on the site, clicking on fewer ads and making less money.
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2) Facebook is worse than other social media companies
Many Big Tech companies are lumped together when we discuss social media and how it has harmed society. Haugen says that Facebook is a singularly terrible company.
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Haugen said that he had seen many social networks, and Facebook was the worst.
Haugen worked previously at Google and Pinterest, and insists Facebook is more dangerous than other Big Tech in significant ways.
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3) Facebook disbanded its Civic Integrity unit following the 2020 election and prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection
Haugen was a member of the so-called Civic Integrity unit at Facebook. This unit was responsible for combating misinformation and political violence on the platform. The social media company believed they were safe after the U.S. election in November 2020, and that Civic Integrity was likely to be shut down.
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They said that they were dissolving Civic Integrity. There were no riots. It is possible to get rid Civic Integrity now, Haugen stated.
Facebook is not only destroying American democracy; it's also chipping away democratic institutions around the globe.
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4) Because it was the only way for people to see Facebook ads, political parties in Europe ran negative advertisements
Haugen's forged documents show that to gain any engagement on Facebook, political parties in Europe needed to run negative ads.
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Haugen summarized the European political party position as follows: You force us to accept positions that are not in our best interests, and that are detrimental for society. We all know that if we don't take these positions, we won't be successful in the social media marketplace.
5) Facebook only recognizes a small fraction of misinformation and hate on its platform
According to Haugen's leak, Facebook internal research has shown that it can identify roughly 3-5% of hate and less than 1% violence and incitement. Facebook considers itself the best at identifying hate on social media.
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Naturally, Facebook disagrees with this description. According to a statement sent to Gizmodo by the company on Sunday night, the company appears to believe that the internet is the problem.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that if any research had found a solution to these complex problems, it would have been solved long ago by the tech industry, governments, as well as society. Our track record is strong in using both our internal and external research, and close collaboration with experts and organisations to inform the development of our apps.
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6) Instagram makes kids miserable
Facebook is the owner of Intagram. 60 Minutes reports that 13% of teenage girls believe Instagram makes their thoughts of suicide worse and 17% claim it makes eating disorders worse.
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Facebook's research shows that these young women become more depressed as they consume more of this type of eating disorder content. It actually encourages them to use the app more. 60 Minutes reported that they get into a feedback loop where they become more hateful of their bodies.
This is all part of the business model. This misery is a huge source of revenue for Facebook. Facebook has a different view.
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Internal research is done to find out the best way to improve the experience for teens. We will continue to do this work to improve Instagram as well as all our apps. Leaked internal research does not prove that Instagram is harmful for teenage girls, Lena Pietsch (Director of Policy Communications) told Gizmodo via email.
According to the research, many teens feel that Instagram can help them deal with difficult moments and issues that teenagers face. Pietsch said that this research was similar to external research on these topics and found that teens have both positive as well as negative experiences using social media.
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7) Facebook employees aren't necessarily evil. They just have perverse incentives
Haugen claims that Facebook employees aren't bad people. This sounds like something someone who has worked previously at Facebook would say.
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Although no one at Facebook is malicious, Haugen claims that the incentives are not in alignment. Facebook makes more money if you consume more content. People love to engage with content that provokes an emotional response. They are more likely to react to anger the more they interact with it and the more they consume.
Although it is easy to understand why Haugen may believe that no one at Facebook has a bad character, this bold assertion is quite valid. In the 2020s, Facebook's negative effect on society is not a secret.
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Facebook does not see it this way.
Lena Pietsch, Gizmodo's email correspondent, said that protecting our community is more important then maximizing our profits. These investments include the $13 billion we have invested since 2016 and the 40,000 workers who are responsible for safety and security at Facebook.
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8) Haugen has even empathy for Zuck, for some silly reason
Mark is someone I feel a lot of empathy. Mark never intended to create a hateful platform. Haugen explained to 60 Minutes that he allowed the side effects of his choices to be made, which have led to hateful and polarizing content getting more distribution and reach.
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Haugen said that Zuckerberg didn't set out to create a hateful platform. He set out to create a website that would rate the hotness and beauty of women. But, in reality, it's not. It is important to see how the platform is being used today.
9) Haugen believes that she is covered by whistleblower legislations, but you can see.
60 Minutes spoke with John Tye, Haugens' lawyer and whistleblowers expert, about the law protecting people who speak with the SEC.
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The Dodd-Frank Act was passed over ten year ago. It created the Office of the Whistleblower within the SEC. Tye explained to 60 Minutes that one of the provisions in that law states that employees cannot be prohibited from communicating with SEC officials and sharing corporate documents with them.
While Dodd-Frank may protect employees who speak with the SEC, it does not necessarily protect journalists or people who take thousands of pages of documents. We will quickly find out how much protection whistleblowers in the U.S. actually receive. Let's just say that historically, the answer has not been very good.
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Update at 11:50 pm: Updated with comments by Facebook
