Facebook Whistleblower to UK Lawmakers: 'It's Making Hate Worse'

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told British lawmakers Monday that the social media giant stokes online hate and extremism, fails to protect children from harmful content, and lacks any incentive to fix the problems—testimony that provides strong momentum for efforts by European governments working on stricter regulation of tech giants. From the AP:

• UK is planning crackdown. While Haugen's testimony echoed much of what she told the US Senate earlier this month, her appearance drew intense interest from a British parliamentary committee that is much further along in drawing up legislation to crack down on social platforms. It comes the same day that Facebook is set to release its latest earnings and that the AP and other news organizations started publishing stories based on thousands of pages of internal company documents she obtained.

• "Unquestionably, it's making hate worse." Haugen told the committee of lawmakers that Facebook Groups amplifies online hate, saying algorithms that prioritize engagement take people with mainstream interests and push them to the extremes. The former Facebook data scientist said the company could add moderators to prevent groups over a certain size from being used to spread extremist views. "Unquestionably, it’s making hate worse," she said.
• Shocked by metaverse plans. Haugen added that she was “shocked to hear recently that Facebook wants to double down on the metaverse and that they’re gonna hire 10,000 engineers in Europe to work on the metaverse,” Haugen said, referring to the company’s plans for an immersive online world it believes will be the next big internet trend. "I was like, 'Wow, do you know what we could have done with safety if we had 10,000 more engineers?’ It would be amazing," she said.

• Poor moderation is a "national security issue." Haugen said Monday that Facebook’s moderation systems are worse at catching content in languages other than English, and that’s a problem even in the UK because it is a diverse country. "Those people are also living in the UK and being fed misinformation that is dangerous, that radicalizes people," Haugen said. "And so language-based coverage is not just a good-for-individuals thing it’s a national security issue."
• Not evil, but negligent. Pressed on whether she believes Facebook is fundamentally evil, Haugen demurred and said, "I can’t see into the hearts of men." Facebook is not evil, but negligent, she suggested. "It believes in a world of flatness and it won’t accept the consequences of its actions," she said.

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