Read more about Whistleblower Frances Haugen says Facebook making online hate worse on Business Standard. Haugen appeared before a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the British govt’s draft legislation to crack down on harmful online content, and her comments could help lawmakers beef up the rules
Former data scientist turned whistleblower Frances Haugen on Monday told lawmakers in the United Kingdom working on legislation to rein in that the company is making online hate and extremism worse and outlined how it could improve online safety. Haugen appeared before a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the British government’s draft legislation to crack down on harmful online content, and her comments could help lawmakers beef up the rules. She’s testifying the same day that is set to release its latest earnings and that The Associated Press and other news organisations started publishing stories based on thousands of pages of internal company documents she obtained. Haugen told U.K. lawmakers how Groups amplifies online hate, saying algorithms that prioritize engagement take people with mainstream interests and push them to the extremes. She said the company could add moderators to prevent groups from being used to spread extremist views. Unquestionably, it’s making hate worse, she said. 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.
