If the documents are to be believed, Facebook is more than aware of the dangers of its platform.
A consortium of 17 different news outlets based out of the United States have released a lengthy collection of documentation outlining Facebook’s internal policies, and especially its thinking and responses to the events of the January 6 Insurrection at the US Capital and the problem of multi-lingual hate speech. The release of this collection, nicknamed the “Facebook Papers,” has cast Facebook in a disconcerting light, tanking their market value in early trading. This is unfortunate for Facebook, as they are scheduled to report their earnings today after the markets close.
The documents making up the Facebook Papers were provided by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned prominent whistleblower. The documents include internal memos from Facebook employees revealing their problems with controlling the inflammatory content that eventually led to the events of January 6. “Haven’t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” an employee wrote on an internal message board during the events of that day. “We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn’t be surprised it’s now out of control.”
The documents also reveal the difficulties Facebook has had in controlling hate speech and inflammatory comments in languages besides English. “We were incorrectly enforcing counterterrorism content in Arabic,” an internal document said, adding that the system “limits users from participating in political speech, impeding their right to freedom of expression.”
Facebook, for their part, have downplayed the severity of the documents. “At the heart of these stories is a premise which is false,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “Yes, we’re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie. The truth is we’ve invested $13 billion and have over 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on Facebook.”
