Friend's Death From Misinformation Forced Whistleblower To Reveal FB's Dark Side

Yesterday, the whole world went into a state of shock when a whistleblower made some striking revelations on how Facebook reportedly conducts its business by prioritising profits rather than user safety.

Frances Haugen/CBS

Also Read: Facebook Crisis: Whistleblower Shares How FB Chose Profit Over User's Mental Health

The revelations were made by Frances Haugen -- a former product engineer at Facebook, who has also worked with tech giants like Google and Pinterest. She was the individual behind the leak of internal Facebook research (reported first by the Wall Street Journal) that revealed how Facebook continues to attract teenagers on Instagram despite knowing that it is affecting their mental well being.

On Sunday, she first revealed her identity in an interview with CBS¡¯s 60 Minutes. However, one might wonder what really pushed Haugen to unravel Facebook¡¯s cards, what was the motivating factor to put her life at risk to bring the wrongdoings of Facebook in front of the world?

She lost her friend due to misinformation

In the interview, she revealed how while being recruited at Facebook in 2019, she had agreed to take the job only if she could work against spreading misinformation, as she had lost a friend due to online conspiracy theories.

She said, ¡°I never wanted anyone to feel the pain that I had felt. And I had seen how high the stakes were in terms of making sure there was high-quality information on Facebook.¡±

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She joined as a part of the Civic Integrity team at FB HQ where she would work on misinformation spreading during elections. However, as soon as elections got done, the whole division got dissolved. And, months after that, the attack at the US Capitol happened.

Reuters

At the time when Civic Integrity was dissolved, Haugen revealed how she got a feeling of immense distrust on the fact that Facebook is actually willing to invest in keeping Facebook from becoming dangerous.¡±

Enticing social media users

In the interview, Haugen revealed that the algorithm that¡¯s being used by Facebook -- what¡¯s responsible for showing the right content on an individual¡¯s News Feed -- was found to easily inspire people to feel anger, than other emotions.

Facebook knows what its algorithm makes people feel. However, it also knows that if they toned the algorithm down to make it safer for people, it would make them spend less time on the site, resulting in them clicking on less and eventually making less money.

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Lost $6 Billion When Facebook Services Went Offline For 6 Hours

Reuters

Today, Frances Haugen testified against Facebook before the US Senate. It¡¯ll be interesting to see how Facebook manages to get out of this and responds to her allegations.

Do you think Facebook should pay for how it has harmed users across the world using its algorithm? Can Facebook ever become a safe platform for users? Let us know in the comments below, and keep reading Indiatimes.com for the latest in science and technology news.