FB Whistleblower Sophie Zhang On The Social GiantĄ¯s Uncomfortable Relationship With Democracies

"I'm an extreme introvert. I can't imagine why anyone would want public attention," the whistleblower currently locking horns with Facebook, one of world's largest tech companies, Sophie Zhang said as the mewing of one of her cats infiltrated our conversation.

The first ex-Facebook employee to make the company's inner workings public, Sophie Zhang called on the world to take notice when she spoke publicly about the company about half a year ago. "I came forward half a year ago, you just didn't pay attention earlier," Zhang proclaimed. With Facebook's motives under increasing spotlight, the world is finally paying attention to what Sophie Zhang has to say about the social media giant.

Associated Press

Sophie Zhang's duties at Facebook

During her time at Facebook, Zhang worked in the Site Integrity Fake Engagement Team as a data scientist. Her work focused on bot accounts used to manipulate the public mood, more often than not in authoritarian regimes.

While Facebook faces mistrust for amplifying hate speech and not doing enough to contain misinformation, Zhang believes that "most activity on Facebook is not political". In fact, Zhang claims the allure of social media's popularity lies in people's ambitions to be famous and recognisable.

Lisa Danz

Also read: New Whistleblower Alleges Facebook's Criminality, Says She Has 'Blood On Her Hands'

"Our team's purpose was not to report, but to clean up these kinds of activities," Zhang explained. She also alluded to the competition enmeshed into Facebook's existence, claiming that it pits people against each other, which in turn, may compel them to find other means to generate engagement on their platforms (i.e., buying likes or through fake accounts).

Why Sophie blew the lid on Facebook

"When I worked to protect Indian democracy; when I found fake accounts that were being used to manipulate Indian people, this was work I was doing in my spare time," Zhang told us.

In the beginning of this project, Zhang "naively" believed that she would find the right people at Facebook who would "take ownership" of such work. But that didn't happen. Instead, she was let go in September, 2020 for not keeping up with her allocated work. Before being officially terminated, Zhang was asked to stop working on her side project about manipulation in 2019.

Also read: Whistleblower Alleges Facebook's Dismal Response To Hate Speech In India

"What was probably the deciding moment for me [to come forward] was in 2019 when I was officially told to stop". Facebook claimed that Zhang's work about "protecting Indian democracy" was useless to the company. "As a result of it, I was considered to be a bad employee," Zhang told Indiatimes.

Contrary to popular belief, Zhang cleared the air and said that her takedown on Facebook was not a retaliation to her termination. In fact, it was the rationale behind her removal that shocked her. "Part of the arguments that they gave to me was that if this [work] was actually important, then I should not work on it." Facebook's "reactive" tendencies were stressed on by Zhang, who said that Facebook waited for things to get dire before taking any action.

What happened after blowing the lid

Zhang also told us how it would be a personal nightmare for her to be famous, even as a whistleblower caught in the Facebook-flavoured eye of the storm. "I'm very grateful that I can go out without being recognised," she gleefully said.

ABC

But fame naturally follows an unravelling of such proportions, along with a series of self-imposed restrictions for Zhang. Blowing the lid on Facebook meant that Zhang couldn't take on a new role at any company. "I think that it would be unfair to any company [for me] to be trying to manage the responsibility of doing interviews and press appearances at the same time I was trying to hold down a job," she told Indiatimes while adding that she is currently able to sustain herself from savings during her time at Facebook.

Also read: Hateful Ads On Facebook Are Cheaper Than Other Ads, Says Facebook Whistleblower

The challenges to speaking truth to power are multi-fold. Zhang believes that "standard criticisms" of Facebook whistleblowers are that they speak on "areas that they have no knowledge of, or that they're in it for profit and attention." But Zhang did it anyway, saying "Facebook was going to criticise me regardless."

For her, the driving force to come out publicly was partly owing to her conviction in "conclusively disproving that Facebook was a good actor who could be trusted."

Going to the press is not how Zhang envisioned the process would pan out when she set out to make Facebook's misdemeanours public. "It's important to work within the system at first - to give them every chance to function before you give it up in the press."

Why nothing changed after she spoke out

Zhang claims that ultimately, she can only "provide information". "It isn't up to [me] to personally fix a solution."

"I only have as much power as people give me and that's dependent on not myself, but the reactions of people, of reporters who choose to interview me, of politicians who choose to consider my words and everyday people who hear those words and consider approaching me for a solution," Zhang told us.

According to Sophie Zhang, she simply lacks the "specific set of skills required to be heard." Nevertheless, Zhang is glad to finally be taken seriously.

Facebook not very pleased

Fighting one of the world's largest social media, err, metaverse companies is a herculean task that comes with different shades of pressure. But Zhang doesn't let it get to her. "I've been staying home and petting my cats. They are usually very good cats," she said, as one of her cats "Midnight" took advantage of Zhang's busy moment to steal some food.

Lisa Danz

The claims put forward by Sophie Zhang and most recently, Frances Haugen, another former employee of Facebook were not received warmly by Mark Zuckerberg. On Monday, Zuckerberg hit out at whistleblowers for carrying out a "coordinated attack against Facebook".

Also read: Defying Whistleblowers, Zuckerberg Blames 'Coordinated' Attack On Facebook

At the same time, Zuckerberg absolved Facebook of most responsibility by saying that polarisation in society predates Facebook, and even him. His messaging was on-brand for Facebook. Through the allegations and confirmations through internal documents, Facebook has maintained that it does the most to protect protect users and democracies alike.

"This is a reaction that is very emblematic of Facebook," Zhang told Indiatimes. Comparing Facebook's modus operandi to modern day dictatorships like Russia and Belarus, Zhang shed light on how "domestic dissent is unthinkable" for such regimes.

"Any disagreement has to be false," Sophie Zhang said. Not much later, she compared Facebook to Soviet Union, which she rightly pointed out "claimed to be the vanguard of workers' rights" but cracked down on the same workers when they resisted Soviet rule in 1956.

"This is how autocracy functions," Zhang said in an attempt to explain why all critics and whistleblowers are labelled as "traitors" by authoritarian regimes and Facebook alike.

The Guardian/Indiatimes

For Zhang, there's not much differentiating the company from such regimes. In fact, many theorists have referred to Facebook and the likes of social media giants as "quasi-governments" - an apt terminology given the far-reaching effects of the social media on democracy and social harmony, which were revealed in detail in what have been dubbed as the "Facebook Papers" over the week.

Even though Zhang feels there's no point in sending across a message to Zuckerberg at this juncture in Facebook's development, she does hope that the man behind the world's most used social networking platform would "grow a conscience" and "fix his product" in a way that user integrity and democracy are both preserved in the long run.

What do you think about Sophie Zhang and her claims about Facebook's malpractices? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. For the second series of Sophie Chronicles and the latest in tech and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.