Gizmodo plans to publish the Facebook Papers in batches, redacting sensitive information with help from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU
Independent experts from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU are partnering with Gizmodo to responsibly publish this historic leak.
Gizmodo
Context & Ripple Effects
Frances Haugen's document strategy has been a widening circle: she started with the Wall Street Journal's Facebook Files and then broadened distribution to a large group of outlets, which is how a consortium of over 12 news outlets including AP and Fox Business ended up sifting the same trove. Facebook has fought back on framing, posting a thread attacking unnamed journalists it claimed were coordinating articles, while arguing it should get to release the documents itself first so it can add missing context.
Gizmodo's move changes the terms of that fight. By pairing batch publication with redaction review from NYU, UMass Amherst, Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU, it borrows the vetting approach of the [[a:936305|UK Parliament's release of more than 250 redacted pages of seized internal Facebook documents from Six4Three]] — and directly undercuts Facebook's claim that only Facebook can publish these documents responsibly.
First-order effects
Facebook loses its last lever over the trove: its push to release the documents first with its own context is moot once an outlet publishes them independently with third-party expert sign-off.
The five partner institutions gain direct working access to the raw documents, extending the story's shelf life as batches land rather than one splash.
Second-order effects
Other outlets in the reporting consortium now compete against a version of the Papers that carries academic legitimacy, pressuring them to add their own verification layers or risk looking less rigorous.
Facebook's public attacks on 'coordinated' journalism become harder to sustain when named universities and the ACLU are attached to the publication process rather than anonymous reporters.
Third-order effects
If this template holds, big corporate leaks increasingly route through expert-vetted, staged releases instead of single-outlet exclusives — echoing the redacted parliamentary publication precedent and making 'responsible disclosure by committee' the expected norm.
It also sharpens the standing dispute over platform control of journalistic tools: Gizmodo's earlier fight alongside the Knight First Amendment Institute over Facebook's ToS ban on scraping was about who may study the platform, and this partnership extends that contest to who may publish its internals.
The trend: Leak publication is shifting from exclusive scoops toward coordinated, expert-redacted releases that strip platforms of narrative control over their own documents.
Today, @Gizmodo is announcing our plan to make the Facebook Papers public in partnership with @LauraEdelson2 and Damon McCoy w/ NYU, @EthanZ w/ UMass Amherst, @michaelzimmer w/ Marquette, @acookiecrumbles w/ Columbia, and Daniel Khan Gilmour w/ ACLU https://gizmodo.com/... 1/4
so........ our fb papers project is getting expanded a bit. and by “a bit” i mean “it's now inarguably the biggest project of my entire reporting career” i can't believe we're actually pulling this off https://gizmodo.com/...
how big? big enough that this is just a *fraction* of the experts we're recruiting. this thing is spanning multiple countries, languages, and god knows how many time zones. it's not just a gizmodo joint. it's an *everyone* joint https://twitter.com/...
We at @Gizmodo believe there is a strong public interest in the contents of the leaked Facebook docs, one that is bigger than the small group of journalists who already have access. So today we're stepping up and making the docs public. Story below! https://twitter.com/...
We, along with researchers from several institutions, are advising Gizmodo on how to publish the FB Papers safely. We think this is the most responsible way to move the public conversation forward about Facebook's research into harms on its platforms. https://gizmodo.com/...
This is good and important, but it's kind of amazing that it's Gizmodo taking this on, rather than any one of the much larger, more well resourced publications involved in the consortium. The fact that so many of those other news orgs view themselves as gatekeepers is telling. ht…
@AndrewCouts ... Would love to have been a fly on the wall for this expert tech/journalist discussion about what can ethically (and legally) be published from the Facebook Papers. It closely mirrors discussions platforms and lawmakers have about what transparency can/should be co…
👏👏 to @swodinsky @dellcam and @AndrewCouts for leading this. Looks like an all-star line up of scholars. Looking forward to seeing the library! https://twitter.com/...
@daphnehk ... We're not quite there yet, but we are going to release documentation detailing the recommendations we come to and hopefully giving some insight into the process by which we came to decisions.
ICYMI: We're making the Facebook Papers public. Thanks to all who voiced support for this undertaking. It's a lot of work, much of it done after hours, for a relatively small newsroom like ours, but your kind words keep us going. Stay tuned for much more https://gizmodo.com/...
Excited to work with @Gizmodo to get all the documents associated with the Facebook Papers into the hands of the general public in the very near future. Pleased to be working with such talented academics on the redaction process and standards. https://twitter.com/...
the one thing i can't share is the release timeline 😅😅😅 did i mention there's a lot of docs? and that they all need to be reviewed multiple times, by multiple ppl, sometimes across multiple countries? chill out yall lol
@AndrewCouts ... The article lists priorities as privacy and avoiding furtherance of harms. Re the latter, it mentions vetting regional content with local experts, which is great. And it mentions avoiding “handing criminals and spies a roadmap” to game FB's systems, which is crit…
Why is it okay for a FB employee to steal a huge set of confidential docs, give them to reporters, and this is considered reporting? The employee should be prosecuted and the reporters should be accomplices. Instead, they are gleeful. Other companies should be outraged. https://t…
After @dellcam, @swodinsky, and I began pub'ing the documents and sharing copies with researchers and non-US journalists, we realized we needed a better approach. We also realized dumping the full cache is a bad idea for many reasons that we detail in the announcement above. 2/4
We're publishing the Facebook Papers. For privacy's sake & to ensure we aren't teaching extremists and spies how to game the measures that help detect harassment & propaganda, we created a security & ethics advisory board & will work with local experts https://gizmodo.com/... htt…
I'm extremely proud and humbled to be working with this esteemed group of experts who will be aiding in our redaction process to ensure the Facebook Papers are published responsibly and as quickly as possible. Here's the full announcement: https://gizmodo.com/... 4/4