Ex-Facebook employee says network hurts kids, fuels division

By MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A erstwhile Facebook information idiosyncratic told Congress connected Tuesday that the societal web giant’s products harm children and substance polarization successful the U.S. portion its executives garbage to alteration due to the fact that they elevate profits implicit safety. And she laid work with the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Frances Haugen testified to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee connected Consumer Protection. Speaking confidently astatine a charged hearing, she accused the institution of being alert of evident harm to immoderate teens from Instagram and being dishonest successful its nationalist combat against hatred and misinformation.

“Facebook’s products harm children, stoke part and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said. “The company’s enactment knows however to marque Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t marque the indispensable changes due to the fact that they person enactment their astronomical profits earlier people.”

“Congressional enactment is needed,” she said. “They won’t lick this situation without your help.”

Haugen said the institution has acknowledged publically that integrity controls were crucially needed for its systems that stoke the engagement of users, but past it disabled immoderate of those controls.

In dialog with receptive senators of some parties, Haugen, who focused connected algorithm products successful her enactment astatine Facebook, explained the value to the institution of algorithms that govern what shows up connected users’ quality feeds. She said a 2018 alteration to the contented travel contributed to much divisiveness and sick volition successful a web ostensibly created to bring radical person together.

Despite the enmity that the caller algorithms were feeding, she said Facebook recovered that they helped support radical coming backmost — a signifier that helped the societal media elephantine merchantability much of the integer ads that make astir of its revenue.

Senators agreed.

“It has profited disconnected spreading misinformation and disinformation and sowing hate,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the panel’s chairman. “Facebook’s answers to Facebook’s destructive interaction ever seems to beryllium much Facebook, we request much Facebook — which means much pain, and much wealth for Facebook.”

Haugen said she believed Facebook didn’t acceptable retired to physique a destructive platform. But “in the end, the subordinate stops with Mark,” she said referring to Zuckerberg, who controls much than 50% of Facebook’s voting shares. “There is nary 1 presently holding Mark accountable but himself.”

Haugen said she believed that Zuckerberg was acquainted with immoderate of the interior probe showing concerns for imaginable antagonistic impacts of Instagram.

The authorities needs to measurement successful with stricter oversight of the company, Haugen said.

Like chap tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook has enjoyed minimal regulation. A fig of bipartisan legislative proposals for the tech manufacture code information privacy, extortion of young radical and anti-competitive conduct. But getting caller laws done Congress is simply a dense slog. The Federal Trade Commission has adopted a stricter stance precocious toward Facebook and different companies.

The subcommittee is examining Facebook’s usage of accusation from its ain researchers connected Instagram that could bespeak imaginable harm for immoderate of its young users, particularly girls, portion it publically downplayed the antagonistic impacts. For immoderate of the teens devoted to Facebook’s fashionable photo-sharing platform, the adjacent unit generated by the visually focused Instagram led to intelligence wellness and body-image problems, and successful immoderate cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the probe leaked by Haugen showed.

One interior survey cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of termination worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.

Because of the thrust for idiosyncratic engagement, Haugen testified, “Facebook knows that they are starring young users to anorexia content. … It’s conscionable similar cigarettes. Teenagers don’t person immoderate self-regulation. We request to support the kids.”

Haugen has travel guardant with a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook, buttressed with tens of thousands of pages of interior probe documents she secretly copied earlier leaving her occupation successful the company’s civic integrity unit. She besides has filed complaints with national authorities alleging that Facebook’s ain probe shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and governmental unrest, but the institution hides what it knows.

“The institution intentionally hides captious accusation from the public, from the U.S. authorities and from governments astir the world,” Haugen said. “The documents I person provided to Congress beryllium that Facebook has repeatedly misled the nationalist astir what its ain probe reveals astir the information of children, the efficacy of its artificial quality systems and its relation successful spreading divisive and utmost messages.”

The erstwhile worker challenging the societal web elephantine with 2.8 cardinal users worldwide and astir $1 trillion successful marketplace worth is simply a 37-year-old information adept from Iowa with a grade successful machine engineering and a master’s grade successful concern from Harvard. Prior to being recruited by Facebook successful 2019, she worked for 15 years astatine tech companies including Google, Pinterest and Yelp.

After caller reports successful The Wall Street Journal based connected documents she leaked to the paper raised a nationalist outcry, Haugen revealed her individuality successful a CBS “60 Minutes” interrogation aired Sunday night.

As the nationalist relations debacle implicit the Instagram probe grew past week, Facebook enactment connected clasp its enactment connected a kids’ mentation of Instagram, which the institution says is meant chiefly for tweens aged 10 to 12.

Haugen said that Facebook prematurely turned disconnected safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to unit aft Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump past year, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 battle connected the U.S. Capitol.

After the November election, Facebook dissolved the civic integrity portion wherever Haugen had been working. That, she says, was the infinitesimal she realized “I don’t spot that they’re consenting to really put what needs to beryllium invested to support Facebook from being dangerous.”

Haugen says she told Facebook executives erstwhile they recruited her that she wanted to enactment successful an country of the institution that fights misinformation, due to the fact that she had mislaid a person to online conspiracy theories.

Facebook maintains that Haugen’s allegations are misleading and insists determination is nary grounds to enactment the premise that it is the superior origin of societal polarization.

“Even with the astir blase technology, which I judge we deploy, adjacent with the tens of thousands of radical that we employment to effort and support information and integrity connected our platform, we’re ne'er going to beryllium perfectly connected apical of this 100% of the time,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of argumentation and nationalist affairs, said Sunday connected CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

That’s due to the fact that of the “instantaneous and spontaneous signifier of communication” connected Facebook, Clegg said, adding, “I deliberation we bash much than immoderate tenable idiosyncratic tin expect to.”

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Follow Marcy Gordon astatine https://twitter.com/mgordonap.