Mark Zuckerberg complains about the attempt to create a false image of his social network after “Facebook Papers”
Mark Zuckerberg defends his company after revelations of the “Facebook Papers”.
Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, whose company has been widely criticized for allegedly putting its profits before security and misinformation, has claimed that you are trying to paint a false image of the company.
The publication this Monday of the so-called “Facebook Papers,” which delve into how the company prioritized its profits over security and misinformation, has redoubled the pressure on its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on the same day that the social network presented its results.
These documents, published by a consortium of seventeen outlets including CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, are adding new details to the leaks of a former employee of the company, Frances Haugen, which published weeks ago The Wall Street Journal.
For its part, Zuckerberg He assured these reports that “criticism if it is in good faith” helps to improve “the operation of the company, according to CNN.
However, in his view, “we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false image of our company.”
“The reality is that we have an open culture that encourages discussion and inquiry about our work so that we can move forward on many complex issues that are not specific to us,” adds Zuckerberg.
On Monday the results of the company were known amid what may be the biggest crisis in the social media giant’s 17-year history.
But despite the intense scrutiny it is receiving from the press and politicians, Facebook continues to gain users and skyrocket its profits, which in the first nine months of the year rose 62% compared to the same period in 2020.
The Facebook Papers
Among the new revelations of the “Facebook Papers” it is worth highlighting that the social network company hardly dedicates resources to combat false information outside the United States, and its effectiveness is almost nil in developing countries such as India, at this time the country with the most Facebook users in the world.
According to a report prepared by the company itself, in 2020, 84% of actions against false information on Facebook and Instagram (owned by them) occurred in the US., despite the fact that the vast majority of its users are outside of that country.
The documents also describe how the company fell into neglect following the US presidential election last November and disabled precautionary measures ahead of the Jan.6 assault on the Capitol.
According to published information, many of the workers who, in the months prior to the elections, had been part of the prevention team against false news and hateful content, took leave of absence or changed positions after the elections.
What’s more, Facebook backed down with dozens of measures it had activated to avoid chaos on election day such as the suppression of certain groups, and the civic integrity team was practically disbanded for fear of the criticism that its members devoted with increasing frequency to the company itself.
The information contained in the “papers” also provides more details on the lack of resources the company has devoted to eliminating hate speech, and indicates that two years ago the company reduced the time that human moderators spend reviewing complaints from users for this reason.
Facebook employees themselves expressed in internal communications their skepticism about the possibility that, in the future, the social network will be able to effectively identify the majority of hate content on the platform.
Thus, according to the estimates of one employee, the automatic control systems eliminate content that only generate 2% of the views of hate speech on the platform, while the estimates of another group of employees in March of this year raise that percentage a between 3 and 5%.
With information from Efe.
It may interest you:
· Facebook could change its name to get a better image
· “Facebook is a scandalous and reprehensible example of a new global economic order”
· Mark Zuckerberg Rejects Facebook Prioritizing Profits Over User Safety
.
