Facebook is in the limelight for both the right reasons and the wrong reasons. The wrong reason is that what was supposed to be a small configuration change took Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp down for a few hours last week. It affected billions of users, showing us how important Facebook and other tech giants have become to our lives and other businesses. Of course, the much more significant issue is whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former employee, making tens of thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents public. The documents show that the leadership of Facebook repeatedly prioritised profit over social good. Facebook’s algorithms polarised society, promoted hate and fake news because it drove up “engagement” on its platforms. That it is tearing apart communities and even endangered young teens for not having “perfect” bodies matters not a jot to Facebook.
The Wall Street Journal has published detailed exposes quoting Facebook’s internal documents and Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who appeared on CBS 60 Minutes and Congressional hearings. “The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for
— source newsclick.in | Prabir Purkayastha | 08 Oct 2021