Tag Zuckerberg denies Fb places profit over users’ safety

Fb CEO Tag Zuckerberg did now not testify at right this moment time’s whistleblower hearing, however he has posted a prolonged answer to the accusations being lobbed at the corporate. He acknowledged the Frances Haugen’s claims don’t originate sense and that they paint a “false image” of the social network. “On the coronary heart of these accusations is this theory that we prioritize profit over safety and nicely-being. That’s fair correct now now not correct,” he wrote in his put up. The Fb chief cited the Meaningful Social Interactions (MSI) update to Knowledge Feed, which became designed to display conceal fewer viral videos and extra speak from company and household. 

He acknowledged the corporate went by with the alternate lustrous that it would originate folks employ less time on the online page, because review urged it became the ideal thing thing to total for folk’s nicely-being. In Haugen’s testimony, she painted MSI in a less flattering gentle. She acknowledged Zuckerberg selected to practice “metrics outlined by Fb” like MSI “over changes that could acquire greatly decreased misinformation and other inciting speak.” The whistleblower acknowledged the CEO became presented with solutions to originate Fb “less viral, less twitchy,” however he decided now now not to make employ of them because they’d a negative impact on the MSI metric. 

In the SEC criticism she filed, Haugen claimed that Fb allowed “hateful” and “divisive” speak, because it’s “more straightforward to encourage folks to madden than it’s to other feelings.” Zuckerberg addressed that in his put up, as nicely, calling it “deeply illogical.” Fb makes money from commercials, he acknowledged, and advertisers it sounds as if convey the corporate that they set now now not settle on their commercials next to frightening or offended speak. 

As well, Zuckerberg acknowledged the review into how Instagram impacts young folks became mischaracterized. He did now not explicitly point out it, however The Wall Avenue Journal published an editorial in mid-September about how it knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls basically based mostly mostly on internal paperwork detailing Fb’s acquire review. The social network finally published about a paperwork from that review, however Haugen offered Congress with four extra. Zuckerberg defended the platform, writing that many teenagers the corporate heard from actually “feel that using Instagram helps them when they are fighting the forms of exhausting moments and points young folks acquire all the time faced.”

Haugen, who joined Fb in 2019, labored on democracy and misinformation points when she became with the corporate. She brought “tens of thousands” of pages of internal Fb paperwork to Whistleblower Assist founder John Tye as well to submitting a whistleblower criticism with the SEC. There acquire been several experiences that got here out basically based mostly mostly on those paperwork, including the existence of a VIP program that enabled excessive-profile users to skirt Fb’s rules. Haugen additionally accused Fb of contributing to election misinformation and the January sixth US Capitol riots.

As for Zuckerberg, phase of his put up reads:

“If we wanted to brush apart review, why would we produce an trade-main review program to mark these notable points in the most notable space? If we did now not care about battling frightening speak, then why would we make employ of so many extra folks dedicated to this than any other company in our house — even ones greater than us? If we wanted to mask our outcomes, why would now we acquire established an trade-main accepted for transparency and reporting on what we’re doing? And if social media acquire been as in payment for polarizing society as some folks speak, then why are we seeing polarization develop in the US whereas it stays flat or declines in a whole lot of worldwide locations with fair correct as heavy employ of social media world huge?”