Internal docs detail Facebook's struggles with violence-inciting content in India, including failure to designate some politically-connected groups as dangerous

Internal documents show a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence in the country, the company's biggest market.

New York Times 2021-10-24

Context & Ripple Effects

The India disclosures arrived alongside evidence that Facebook understood the presence of extremist Groups on its service but left key enforcement decisions unclear in the available record. Earlier moderator guidance also treated election-specific political issues and potential election-related PR risks as distinct operational concerns.

The India material matters because it turns a broad content-moderation problem into a question of whether Facebook applied its dangerous-organization rules consistently when politically connected groups were involved. Later reporting described reluctance to penalize BJP-linked accounts, extending the same enforcement-accountability issue.

First-order effects

Facebook’s India trust-and-safety operation faces a documented gap between identifying violence-inciting, hateful, and misleading content and designating certain connected groups as dangerous.
The disclosures give Facebook staff, policymakers, and outside critics a concrete record against which to assess the company’s enforcement choices in its largest market.

Second-order effects

Questions over India enforcement reinforce scrutiny of Facebook’s broader handling of extremist Groups, where internal material had already shown substantial knowledge but an incomplete account of how the company responded.
Political actors and civil-society critics gain a clearer basis to challenge whether Facebook’s group-designation rules are being applied unevenly across politically sensitive cases.

Third-order effects

If repeated internal disclosures keep tying moderation exceptions to political sensitivity, platform-safety policy will be judged less by published rules than by whether enforcement is auditable across markets and political affiliations.
The pattern points toward content governance in large electoral markets becoming an executive-accountability issue, rather than a matter left solely to local moderation workflows.

The trend: Platform moderation is moving from a debate over harmful-content detection toward scrutiny of whether politically sensitive enforcement decisions are applied consistently and can be independently assessed.

Discussion

@jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x
“If social media survives 10 more years like this, there will be only hatred.” Facebook's researchers went to India to understand why hate speech was spiking on its platform. Here's @newley on what they found. https://www.wsj.com/...
@brandyzadrozny Brandy Zadrozny on x
New from me: New internal documents show Facebook has long known—via years of experimentation and research—that its algorithms and recommendation systems push users to extremes. To researchers they gaslit, “Facebook literally helped facilitate a cult.” https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@broderick Ryan Broderick on x
I knew that every time I spoke to a Facebook PR they were, at least, trying to discourage me. But the last month of Facebook leaks has been hard to process. Just years of my life wasted talking to people who knew what we were all reporting was real and just didn't give a shit. ht…
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
Six days after Nov. 3, a Facebook data scientist noticed as much as 1 out of every 50 US views (or 10% of all political views) on the platform were on posts alleging election fraud. Our story on how employees felt FB could have done more ahead of Jan. 6: https://www.nytimes.com/.…
@sheeraf She-Ra Frenkel on x
@Bernstein @swodinsky The embargo was lifted on a small number of documents today based on the WSJ story that went up. There's a lot more coming and new documents being released every day.
@nytimes @nytimes on x
Dozens of reports written by Facebook employees provide stark evidence of one of the most serious criticisms levied against the company: It moves into a country without fully understanding its impact, and fails to act on issues once they occur. https://www.nytimes.com/... https:/…
@ericbellmanwsj Eric Bellman on x
Facebook documents show its services are used to spread religious hatred in India. Company researchers identified calls to violence that coincided with the 2020 riots in Delhi that left 53 dead. The latest from @newley and @JeffHorwitz https://www.wsj.com/...
@drwinarick Dr. Daniel J. Winarick on x
Facebook is sounding more and more like an international terrorist organization. https://twitter.com/...
@ap @ap on x
Facebook saw India as at risk for hostile speech, but it lacked resources to stop misinformation such as local language moderators and content-flagging, according to leaked documents obtained by AP. That misinformation at times led to real-world violence. https://apne.ws/BQ23BS9
@barbaraortutay @barbaraortutay on x
Facebook saw India as of the most “at risk countries” in the world. Yet it didn't have enough local language moderators or content-flagging in place to stop misinformation that at times led to real-world violence, . https://apnews.com/... by @Sheikh_Saaliq and @KrutikaPathi
@suryaracharya Surya Raj Acharya on x
'how a plan championed by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, to focus on “meaningful social interactions,” or exchanges between friends and family, was leading to more misinformation in India' https://www.nytimes.com/...
@dabeard David Beard on x
“Following this test user's News Feed, I've seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than I've seen in my entire life total,” the Facebook researcher wrote. Facebook fed the hate, violence, and misinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@marvicleonen @marvicleonen on x
This can happen in any election including ours. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@nilanjanaroy Nilanjana Roy on x
Facebook has blood on their hands; so does Twitter, YouTube. People reported hate on these networks over five years ago, reported chilling hate campaigns against Muslims and others, women asked for greater safety over and over again. They did nothing. Hate has a high cost. https:…
@yoda Drew Olanoff on x
the fake justification shield of “connecting the world” has worn off. https://twitter.com/...
@sonaliranade @sonaliranade on x
“Facebook found that over 40 percent of top views, or impressions, in the Indian state of West Bengal were “fake/inauthentic.” One inauthentic account had amassed more than 30 million impressions.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Poopganda factories managers will be proud.
@zoo_bear Mohammed Zubair on x
Facebook's services are used to spread religious hatred in India, internal documents show. Company researchers identified calls to violence that coincided with the 2020 riots in Delhi that left 53 dead. Investigative series by @newley and @JeffHorwitz https://www.wsj.com/...
@npr @npr on x
Leaked documents reveal that Facebook struggled to quash misinformation and anti-Muslim propaganda on its platform and lacked the resources to do so, even as its own employees raised red flags. https://www.npr.org/...
@torontoraza Ali Raza on x
We all know social media algorithms promote outrage and incitement because it drives engagement, which ultimately boosts profits. The side effect is it destabilizes societies, but we seem to not care. Look what it's done to India. https://twitter.com/...
@daveyalba Davey Alba on x
And to be clear, it's not just India. Myanmar. Sri Lanka. Ethiopia. These are all places FB moved into without fully understanding its impact on local culture and politics. Then it struggled to deploy the resources to act on issues once they occurred. https://www.nytimes.com/... …
@nicdawes Nicholas Dawes on x
“Facebook hasn't designated the RSS for removal “given political sensitivities,” the document says. Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked for the RSS for decades.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@sonaliranade @sonaliranade on x
“But in Hindi and Bengali, it still did not have enough data to adequately police the content, and much of the content targeting Muslims “is never flagged or actioned,” the Facebook report said.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@sabaeitizaz Saba Eitizaz on x
Inflammatory content on Facebook spiked 300% above previous levels at times during the months following December 2019, a period in which religious protests swept India, researchers wrote in a July 2020 report that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. https://twitter.com/...
@moniquegoyens Monique Goyens on x
With this wealth of revelations, is the @EU_Commission still confident that its Code of Practice to tackle misinformation is the right approach? @julianevrb @divinameigs @OlafSteenfadt @VeraJourova @arcapde @BXLNicola https://twitter.com/...
@lavanyaballal Lavanya Ballal on x
I am sure as the biggest market of FB - India was a Guinea pig . https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon @blackamazon on x
It would be really interesting to note that Facebook seems to have NEVER made an account for Black or marginalized people and seen how often they got fake content and how often that content originated from foreign actors ..... They just knew and don't give a damn https://twitter.…
@amaramarasingam Amarnath Amarasingam on x
In 2019, a researcher employed by Facebook invented a user named Carol Smith Smith said she was interested in politics, parenting, and Christianity. Though never expressing interest in conspiracies, in just two days Facebook sent her to QAnon accounts. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
New from the Facebook leaks, by @BrandyZadrozny: Facebook staffers created a Trump-loving, Fox News-watching fake identity. The account went wherever the algorithm told it to go. It went full-on QAnon in two days. Facebook told nobody about this. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@grimlyspoken Grimm on x
@oneunderscore__ @BrandyZadrozny What happened in Myanmar is a literal precursor to what is happening here. Facebook watched an ethnic group get slaughtered, did nothing, and now had facilitated and even pushed a homegrown domestic threat in the United States. This article is gre…
@justinhendrix Justin Hendrix on x
Crucial report from @RMac18 and @sheeraf that will no doubt interest @RepAdamSchiff, @RepRaskin, @RepLizCheney & other members of the @January6thCmte charged with considering what factors such as online platforms helped create the conditions for violence. https://twitter.com/...
@cydharrell Cyd Harrell on x
couple more things: 1. some of the resistance to user research is because we find inconvenient things that people would rather not know (@mulegirl talks about this a lot) 2. researchers do a service by documenting, but need to be realistic about our chances of changing anything h…
@frankluntz Frank Luntz on x
“Facebook pushed some users into ‘rabbit holes,’ increasingly narrow echo-chambers where violent conspiracy theories thrived. People radicalized through these rabbit holes make up a small slice of total users, but at Facebook's scale, that can mean millions of individuals.” https…
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x
So Facebook knew? https://www.nytimes.com/...
@davidoatkins David Atkins on x
All the big journo influencers on twitter are beating on each other over Popularism, when THIS is the answer. People, especially low-trust voters, get their news on Facebook. Facebook is driving them to right-wing conspiracy theories. Policy and activist slogans are irrelevant. h…
@peterwsinger Peter W. Singer on x
This may be one of the most damning of the Facebook leaks... https://twitter.com/...
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
This is *high stakes* timing for the media vs Facebook as it coordinates with quarterly earnings day. While no-one reports to purposely damage stock price, if a huge group of major outlets publish simultaneously and it's outweighed in markets by Facebook results...that's a moment…
@repriggleman Denver Riggleman on x
Data and CT experts like me knew this; a monetized radicalization pipeline “After the Capitol insurrection and a wave of Storm the Capitol events across the country, we realized that the individual delegitimizing Groups, Pages, and slogans did constitute a cohesive movement.” htt…
@brhodes Ben Rhodes on x
Facebook is an existential danger to democracy and a global public safety hazard. Like previous products that endanger people, it necessitates aggressive government action with strong enforcement. https://twitter.com/...
@claresduffy Clare Duffy on x
ICYMI: CNN is part of a consortium of news organizations reporting on the Facebook Papers. First up, this piece about what the company knew about the spread of Stop the Steal on its platform ahead of January 6. https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@lanceulanoff Lance Ulanoff on x
“Another [Facebook] staffer, referencing years of controversial and questionable decision-making by Facebook leadership around political speech concluded, “history will not judge us kindly.” https://www.cnn.com/...
@crispinburke @crispinburke on x
In the two years leading up to the 2020 election, Facebook removed over five *billion* fake accounts. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
Facebook took enforcement action against QAnon a year later in Aug. 2020. The researcher ended up quitting in part because of the company's slowness in decision making. Compare the company's statement on this research with an excerpt from her own departure note. https://twitter.c…
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
How important was Facebook in the mobilization of Stop the Steal? Just listen to Stop the Steal organizer Scott Presler. Our full report w/@tarasubramaniam @claresduffy @Sarah_Boxer here: https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@modernhomesla @modernhomesla on x
“Internal docs reveal Facebook's failed attempt 2 curb explosion of hate speech + misinfo ahead of + during Capitol riots, causing distress among employees.” Mid-Jan, Sheryl Sandberg, argues events leading 2 Jan 6, “largely” organized on other platforms. https://www.ft.com/... ht…
@newley Newley Purnell on x
Reluctant to turn down the volume on viral content, Facebook is instead playing whack-a-mole with political groups it deems harmful, with little public disclosure or right of appeal. Facebook Files latest. By @JeffHorwitz @ScheckWSJ: https://www.wsj.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
OK, having read @sheeraf @RMac18 NYT report closely, it's really superb reporting. It walks thru everything leading up, during Jan 6th. It does a “truth sandwich” with damming evidence mostly from Facebook on both sides of Facebook spokesperson's “pride.” https://www.nytimes.com/…
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
The consortium of publications that Frances Haugen handed her documents to blew up tonight ahead of a Monday embargo. Get ready for lots of Facebook stories to drop tonight and tomorrow. It's a mess. https://twitter.com/...
@trippmickle Tripp Mickle on x
Damned if they do. Damned if they don't. @ScheckWSJ and @JeffHorwitz on the surgical way it suppressed the push to develop a Patriot Party after Jan. 6 https://www.wsj.com/...
@nakashimae Ellen Nakashima on x
The best account yet of how Facebook fueled Jan. 6 violence. via @craigtimberg @lizzadwoskin @ReedAlbergotti https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
this facebook internal experiment reminds me of this 2017 @broderick piece! https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@amyklobuchar Amy Klobuchar on x
An unaccountable Facebook is a danger to our democracy. We're not going to get many more chances to get this right. https://twitter.com/...
@mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x
Facebook knew they were radicalizing people and they did nothing to stop it https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@magloughlina Andrew Magloughlin on x
Apple and Google banned Parler after Jan 6, citing its content moderation issues. I wonder if Facebook could've met those standards, given this info. https://twitter.com/...
@jmichaelwaller J Michael Waller on x
Interesting how everyone blamed Parler and immediately shut it down, and now a narrative comes out, during Pelosi's hearings, to use J6 impose broad-based e-censorship. https://twitter.com/...
@monteiro Mike Monteiro on x
All of this was done by design. These weren't bugs, they were features. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@katestarbird Kate Starbird on x
“... FB research ... in 2019 ... found that misinformation shared by politicians was more damaging than that coming from ordinary users. Yet the company maintained a policy that year that explicitly allowed political leaders to lie without facing the possibility of fact checks.” …
@tackettdc Michael Tackett on x
“Haven't we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. “We've been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised” https://apnews.com/...
@niemanlab @niemanlab on x
More on Facebook, this time from the @nytimes: “The documents also give new detail on how aware company researchers were after the election of the flow of misinformation that posited votes had been manipulated against Mr. Trump.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/..…
@juliettekayyem Juliette Kayyem on x
“Relief flowed through Facebook in the days after the 2020 presidential election. . . But the high fives ...were premature. On Jan. 6, FB staffers expressed their horror in internal messages as they watched thousands of Trump supporters shouting 'stop the steal.'"@washingtonpost …
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
What would it take to get this consortium of media outlets looking at Facebook integrity docs to commit to publishing the underlying documents with every story (redacted for privacy)? These docs could revolutionize academic study of online harms but not without the real data.
@davewiner Dave Winer on x
Articles like this that use the term “Facebook” ambiguously are possibly deliberate attacks on free speech online. Facebook means at least 8 things, and it's not likely they're talking about Facebook the company here. https://twitter.com/...
@ttp_updates @ttp_updates on x
THREAD: For months, TTP monitored and recorded threats from militia and far-right actors online In January, we released what we gathered in that time: militia recruiting, threats to public officials, even calls for martyrdom—all posted openly on Facebook https://www.techtranspare…
@jaxalemany Jacqueline Alemany on x
Facebook has yet to fully comply with requests for data from the House select committee investigating the 1/6 events. Read @craigtimberg, @lizzadwoskin, @ReedAlbergotti on FB & Jan. 6 > https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@rawstory Raw Story on x
‘History will not judge us kindly’: Facebook internal messages show employees fuming on Jan. 6 over company's role in Capitol riot https://www.rawstory.com/...
@wiczipedia Nina Jankowicz on x
Facebook moved too quickly to removed its election protection measures. In disinformation campaigns, Election Day is an inflection point, not an end point. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@moonalice Roger McNamee on x
An epic thread from @TTP_updates details how FB handled right wing extremist groups during 2020 and into early 2021. They found clear evidence that FB enabled and amplified these groups after election and allowed them to operate online stores. Management knew. https://twitter.com…
@clearing_fog ClearingTheFog on x
Please read this. So many of us have been shouting for years that Facebook is *knowingly* facilitating extremism, and yet they've continued to get a pass in our media, as if they were somehow “trying.” Their own internal documents repeatedly prove that they knew. https://twitter.…
@bostonjoan Joan S. Pumpkins on x
Whatever happens, it is critical that the media doesn't become the story here. What these internal studies represent is a new basis to build shared facts across journalism, research, gov, and industry. https://twitter.com/...
@eliotwb Eliot Brown on x
Facebook exec (and a Harvard pal of Zuckerberg) recommends curbs to virality to stave off bad effects Head of ads responds: “'If we remove a small percentage of reshares from people's inventory,' he wrote, ‘they decide to come back to Facebook less.’” https://www.wsj.com/...
@jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x
@karissabe In this instance, the FB research was literally something anyone with a fresh account could do. It's striking that this had to be demonstrated by researchers internally (though it was very good work!)
@evilgalprods @evilgalprods on x
Every. Single. Word. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@william_fitz William Fitzgerald on x
“What the documents do not offer is a complete picture of decision making inside Facebook. ” fb is so so fukd if someone with regular access to zuck & sandberg decides they're willing to give up a lot of money and do the right thing by sharing direct info about decision making. h…
@juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x
For years Facebook treated reporters who came to it with concerns about how it seemed to be pushing people toward extremism and conspiracies like we were hysterical scolds making mountains out of mole hills but actually it knew that we were right https://www.nytimes.com/...
@ecmclaughlin Elizabeth C. McLaughlin on x
COMPLICIT. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@drdenagrayson @drdenagrayson on x
“... We have been reading the [farewell] posts from trusted, experienced and loved colleagues who write that they simply cannot conscience working for a company that does not do more to mitigate the negative effects on its platform.”💥 EXACTLY. #DeleteFacebook
@richismo77 @richismo77 on x
Facebook breathed relief that immediately post-Election Day 2020, it could go back to taking fascist money for publishing insurrectionist deza for 1/6/21. How much did it take in? I hope it was worth it to Zuckerberg, who really seems more Jason. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ .…
@drdenagrayson @drdenagrayson on x
One FB employee fumed, “This is not a new problem. We have been watching this behavior from politicians like Trump, and the—at best—wishy washy actions of company leadership, for years now....”
@drdenagrayson @drdenagrayson on x
‼️Facebook has declined to deploy some mitigation tactics when Mark #Zuckerberg has objected on the basis that they will cause too many “false positives” or might stop people from engaging with its platforms. Zuck puts PROFIT over protecting our democracy.🤬 #DeleteFacebook
@drdenagrayson @drdenagrayson on x
Bottom line: #Facebook and Zuck *knew* that they were fomenting hate and violence in advance of the #January6thInsurrection. They didn't care, because they PROFITED off it. They're a cancer on our democracy. Act accordingly. #DeleteFacebook https://twitter.com/... https://twitter…
@joenbc Joe Scarborough on x
Facebook made an insurrection against the United States possible. Then it's leaders refused to let an oversight board investigate. New documents suggest Mark Zuckerberg and company remain a threat to democracy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@drdenagrayson @drdenagrayson on x
🚨Internal #Facebook documents show that posts—including by Trump—fueled the #January6thInsurrection. User reports of “false news” hit ~40,000 per hour. On Instagram, the account reported most often for inciting violence was @realdonaldtrump.🤬 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@jesselehrich Jesse Lehrich on x
.@facebook employee bemoaning FB's role in the insurrection: “Never forget the day Trump rode down the escalator in 2015, called for a ban on Muslims entering the US & we determined that it violated our policies & yet we explicitly overrode the policy...” https://www.washingtonpo…
@daveyalba Davey Alba on x
@RMac18 @sheeraf I was reading a draft of this piece earlier today and it brought back the pit in my stomach of total helplessness in the months before the election to Jan. 6. Just a really good tick-tock of the events and how FB employees dealt with it. What they knew. https://w…
@parismartineau Paris Martineau on x
Facebook should have just tweeted that they were mad because all the tech reporters were hanging out in a Slack group called ‘Apparently we are a consortium now’ https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@craigsilverman Craig Silverman on x
I find it a bit strange that some outlets working with FB whistleblower docs are treating FB's internal Stop the Steal report as news. We published the full text of it back in April. Genuinely curious why it's being prominently featured in new stories? https://www.buzzfeednews.co…
@bobcesca_go Bob Cesca on x
Wasn't there a story a while back about a similar deal between FB and Shapiro's The Daily Wire? https://twitter.com/...
@realdrothschild David Rothschild on x
We must end FB...the propaganda machine is evil https://twitter.com/...
@2020istrash2020 StevieSaid_no_flat_tires on x
I stumbled across like 6 hate groups on fb a few weeks ago. Reported them. Fb said they didn't violate any TOS. I believe this shit. https://twitter.com/...
@moonalice Roger McNamee on x
NYT just did FB a huge favor. They released the huge (and embargoed until Monday) 1/6 story on Friday night, diminishing its impact. NYT says they have an independent source. Was that source inside FB Comms? That would be a classic FB move.
@paulmasonnews Paul Mason on x
And here we were thinking it's only Facebook's algorithm that promotes far right hate... https://twitter.com/...
@brainnotonyet Karl on x
The right has been lying about social media bias while creating a massive far-right propaganda and radicalization platform under those false pretenses. If only people had been warning of this for years. This is a great example of weaponized unreality and its inversion of reality …
@annmlipton Ann Lipton on x
i mean the fascinating thing again is that the whistleblower is going to the sec. is that bc of protections the securities laws afford against retaliation? https://twitter.com/...
@stevesilberman Steve Silberman on x
One of the things that will astonish historians is how much damage to the entire world Trump's tight little circle of pedophiles, criminals, Russian agents, meth-freaks, and psychopaths was able to do with sheer bullying. “Big Tech” is the best friend these scumbags ever had. htt…
@wiczipedia Nina Jankowicz on x
On Russian interference in 2016, a FB comms official said: “It will be a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine.” https://www.washingtonpost.co…
@emilybell Emily Bell on x
One of the most depressing aspects of this is that the ‘comms official’ was pretty much right. The Honest Ads Act etc - never came to pass.FB enjoyed record $$ https://twitter.com/...
@bgrueskin Bill Grueskin on x
Facebook is like a tobacco grower, an asbestos manufacturer and a lead-paint supplier, all rolled into one company https://twitter.com/...
@katestarbird Kate Starbird on x
Again, we hear that instead of holding highly visible, “repeat offender” accounts & domains to higher standards (e.g. around the spread of misinformation), FB whitelisted them, fearing political and PR blowback. And again that private groups are toxic. https://www.washingtonpost.…
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
This story took a while to report and was based on docs obtained by Frances Haugen + others that I've reported on in the past. It includes this March report that we reported at @BuzzFeedNews. FB took it down internally after our story. So we published it: https://www.buzzfeednews…
@sal19 @sal19 on x
Yet another Facebook whistleblower has spoken up. Reporting by the @WashingtonPost https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@fchollet @fchollet on x
FB's algorithmic mind-steering has only one stable attractor: extreme radicalization. https://twitter.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
“At Facebook, I soon learned, there's no will to actually fix problems, in particular if doing so might reduce user engagement, and therefore profits. Instead, management treated everything as a PR issue only.”
@patti_foss Patti on x
@profcarroll What is wrong with these people? They knowingly used toxic hate, propaganda which have harmed alot of people, to win elections, while so many hide behind religion. Who does that to people in your own country?
@jgo4justice Jessica González on x
But let's focus on what this means: a second whistleblower has come out, at great personal risk, to corroborate Frances Haugen's revelations that Facebook hasn't done enough to stop hate, conspiracies and violence organized on its platform.
@jgo4justice Jessica González on x
And I'm feeling “pissy” about it because Facebook's failures have put me and my community at greater risk for hate, harassment, violence and disinformation campaigns aimed to decrease the number of Latinx people who turn out to vote.
@jgo4justice Jessica González on x
He can say he didn't say this, but for any of us who have advocated for FB to clean up its act over the past decade, this sounds awfully familiar.
@can @can on x
One thing to remember is that the only actual thing any Facebook employee could have done is actually quit. Raising flags and collecting checks as the democracy goes down the drain is essentially Just Following Orders https://twitter.com/...
@green_footballs Charles Johnson on x
Wow. The latest allegation is that Facebook specifically EXEMPTED hate sites like Breitbart “News” from policy enforcement. New whistleblower claims Facebook allowed hate, illegal activity to go unchecked https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
We even ran ads on Facebook targeted at @facebook employees asking them if they knew why Breitbart was given special treatment. No answer. Now it's clear why. Kaplan was flying cover for Breitbart the whole time. What an absolute outrage. We need transparency now. https://twitter…
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
Knew it. Knew it exactly when it was happening. Here it is. Definitive proof that @facebook made special concessions for Breitbart when they set up their “trusted news” tab. @campbell_brown, their head of news, wouldn't answer why. Now we know. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...…
@juliadavisnews Julia Davis on x
Facebook official about the controversy re Russian election interference: “It will be a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy... in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, & we are fine.” https://www.washingtonp…
@jesselehrich Jesse Lehrich on x
.@Facebook really seems to think they can just go full Trumpian war against the press & it'll end well. here's journalist-turned-FB spox Erin McPike berating WaPo for writing a story off a single... whistleblower's sworn affidavit? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twit…
@stevekovach Steve Kovach on x
Facebook responded to this by insulting the Washington Post instead of addressing the whistleblower's allegations. https://twitter.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
The whistleblower is anonymous but has spoken to @craigtimberg, who broke the story. Check out Facebook's response to the story.... https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@joshsternberg Josh Sternbag on x
A new whistleblower affidavit submitted by a former Facebook employee Friday alleges that the company prizes growth and profits over combatting hate speech, misinformation and other threats to the public https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
(Most of the charges here are oft-rehearsed and it's not clear what new evidence there is in this new SEC complaint, aside from some fresh hearsay)
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
My joke idea for a new Facebook name has been “Whistleblowers Inc.” because it would make stories about Facebook whistleblowers too confusing to follow. Anyway there's a new Facebook whistleblower https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@anothercultland @anothercultland on x
ummmm, that statement isn't exactly a denial https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@gretchenspeters Gretchen Peters on x
Notice that @tuckerbounds and other #Facebook execs are not denying they said it. They are just counterattacking. #typical https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@new_narrative Mike Walker on x
Another whistleblower accuses Facebook of valuing growth and profits over the combating of hate speech and misinformation https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@viacristiano Cristiano Lima on x
🚨 Breaking: Another Facebook whistleblower has alleged in an SEC complaint that the company prizes its profits over battling hate speech & misinformation https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... via @craigtimberg
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
They're gonna run out of whistles https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

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