Facebook whistle-blower hearing

[dc2london]

Haugen: persistent understaffing meant that my team, tasked with counter-espionage, could only handle about a third of the violations we KNEW about, much less detecting violations

[dc2london]

That's a little tricky, bc when you participate in market research you don't usually know who it's for. So yeah, parents consent to their kid participating in a focus group. They do necessarily know that it's FB getting the information

[dc2london]

Klobes is pissed

[origami]

Oct 5, 2021 8:49:19 GMT -6 clucky said:

I’m surprised at how not annoyed I am at Blackburn.

Agreed. Though I was wondering if Facebook might finally be a bit of a unity horse on congress. Its effecting everyone's constituents and kids, not just one or the other side and even dyed in the wool GOPers are threatened by folks radicalizing away from them.

[dc2london]

Haugen: the bast majority of disinformation spe ding I on English language content, even though English speakers make up a small percentage of users

[dc2london]

Klobes: the earlier in life a person gets hooked on social media, the more the company can profit off of that person

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB is CONSTANTLY making little tweaks to make itself more addictive

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB took steps to reduce the circulation of election misinformation on its platforms in the run up to the 2020 election but then immediately turned those mitigation measures back.off

[dc2london]

The legislation Thune just referenced :

www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-thune-reintroduce-legislation-to-update-section-230-strengthen-rules-transparency-on-online-content-moderation-hold-internet-companies-accountable-for-moderation-practices

[clucky]

Oct 5, 2021 8:56:31 GMT -6 dc2london said:

Klobes: the earlier in life a person gets hooked on social media, the more the company can profit off of that person

And teens don’t yet have viewing preferences (RE tv advertising).

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB knows that content that provokes an extreme reaction from people leads them to spend more time on FB and make more money for FB, AND encourages users to create more content which further drives up profits.


Algorithms from hell

[dc2london]

FB knows engagement based ranking (showing you only content that you will react to) is dangerous bit they think THE ROBOTS WILL SAVE THEM

[dc2london]

Lord in heaven, Schatz says FB is planning to issue a digital currency

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB is absolutely going to launch IG for kids bc they need people to develop habits of routine social media use while they are young and have poor self regulation skills

[dc2london]

Haugen: Instagram allows bullies to harass people 24 hours a day

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB's own research acknowledged that parents don't have the skills to help their children who are struggling with SM bullying, leading kids to feel even further isolated

[dc2london]

Haugen: FB has not rolled out information integrity safeguards in most world languages

Holy cats

[dc2london]

Haugen: we need to establish a federal regulatory body for social media where experienced alumni of these companies who know how they work can serve

[dc2london]

Haugen: Zuckerberg was personally presented with a list of "soft intervention " measures to reduce harms like perpetuating the genocide of the Rohingya, even only I at-risk countries

He instructed that no measures be implemented that in any way reduced engagement

He knowingly let genocide continue

[dc2london]

Haugen: Ethiopia has 100 million people and 6 languages.
FB only employs harm reduction standards in 2 of those languages

[dc2london]

Cantwell: we will investigate whether FB defrauded advertisers

[dc2london]

Mike Lee is showing some truly terrible ads that the Trch Transparency Project submitted to FB that FB approved to appear on accounts of 9 million minors

(TTP pulled the ads, obviously)

[dc2london]

Oct 5, 2021 9:26:45 GMT -6 dc2london said:

Mike Lee is showing some truly terrible ads that the Trch Transparency Project submitted to FB that FB approved to appear on accounts of 9 million minors

(TTP pulled the ads, obviously)

www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/pills-cocktails-and-anorexia-facebook-allows-harmful-ads-target-teens

[dc2london]

Marky calls Frances Haugen a hero

[dc2london]

And Ed Markey nails it: they'll all sit there in that hearing room talking tough, and in an hour the FB lobbyists will be in their offices, and nothing will change

[dc2london]

Markey says the children's online privacy act only applies to kids up to 13 because, in *1998* the tech companies stopped him from making it apply to 14-16 year olds

[dc2london]

Haugen says that Facebook, as I exists today, "is not compatible with democracy "

[dc2london]

Haugen confirms that FB has extensive internal research that its products are harmful to teens and preteens.
She says FB needs to be required to disclose its internal research regularly to Congress and the public

[dc2london]

FB says they collect zero data on kids under 13 bc kids aren't on FB, and in the next breath says there are tons of fake accounts that are actually kids under 13

[dc2london]

Requiring a user to click a link before sharing it, as Twitter does, does not censor or impede people's speech but it does slow the spread of misinformation and disinformation. FB knows this, but won't implement this measure bc it would slightly reduce the engagement (bc bots can't reboot fake news)