Discussion

• @ihshaheen @ihshaheen on x

  In a report produced after the elections, 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 30M impressions. @cjwerleman @ashoswai https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @kenroth Kenneth Roth on x

  A researcher created an account to see what Facebook users experience in India. For three weeks, it follow all recommendations generated by Facebook's algorithms. “The result was an inundation of hate speech, misinformation and celebrations of violence.” https://www.nytimes.com/.…

• @seancasten Sean Casten on x

  14/ If you like CrazyTown, good news. FB has delivered. You'll love the status quo. But if you'd prefer to see thoughtful, sane discourse, even if it comes at the expense of a few FB shareholder dividends... delete the algorithms. And just be a bulletin board. /fin

• @sanasaeed Sana Saeed on x

  Where you find civil strife, ethnic cleansing and ethnic hatred.. you will find complicity of and impunity by Facebook. Like in India, where RSS anti-Muslim propaganda is allowed - by the highest levels - to proliferate on FB platforms. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com…

• @vidyakrishnan Vidya on x

  I feel like a broken record saying this: This👏🏾is👏 🏾exactly👏🏾 what👏🏾 @Facebook did👏🏾in👏 🏾 #Myanmar. The company's decisions are tightly related to & directly led to the #RohingyaGenocide https://twitter.com/...

• @baekdal Thomas Baekdal on x

  Facebook should try to prevent bad things on their platform, but to suggest that, because of what people posted on Facebook, there would have been no riots in Delphi is disingenuous at best, completely ignores the real cause, and how the riots actually started.

• @nsnadeemsarwar Nadeemonics on x

  Facebook is shit-scared right now. Just ahead of the next wave of scoops and leaks coming this weekend and early next week, the company wants to do everything it can to unsuccessfully get some sympathy. The language here is almost desperate! #Facebook https://twitter.com/...

• @jairam_ramesh Jairam Ramesh on x

  .@washingtonpost investigation shows BJP, RSS and its acolytes deploy hate speech on Facebook and WhatsApp. While it's obvious Govt of India won't do anything about it, it's unacceptable that @Facebook has one set of standards for USA and another for India https://www.washingtonp…

• @baekdal Thomas Baekdal on x

  What I see newspapers do right now is actually rewriting history and somehow changing why things happened. This is dangerous and, journalistically, it's very wrong. Read up on how these riots actually started: https://en.wikipedia.org/...

• @mtsw Michael Tae Sweeney on x

  Working the refs works https://twitter.com/...

• @drshamamohd Dr. Shama Mohamed on x

  Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang alleges that a fake news account was not taken down because it was personally run by a BJP MP. She says it is now upto India to hold FB responsible. Will the SC pull up Facebook for interference in India's democracy by promoting fake news!

• @evan_greer Evan Greer on x

  This is some of the most important stuff in the Facebook Papers, even if it doesn't get as much attention from US lawmakers as oversimplified “social media is bad for kids” headlines https://twitter.com/...

• @seancasten Sean Casten on x

  More damning information about Facebook, this time in India. But it's important to understand that this is a VERY fixable problem. The algorithm cannot be simultaneously optimized for FB revenue AND not encouraging extremism. Brief thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @samidh @samidh on x

  @TomPaineToday Facebook by a mile. One of the reasons I went to FB was they willing to try to know the full impacts of their platforms— good and bad. This has risks (as these leaks show) but are the only honest way to tackle the problem. Would love to see the same from https://ab…

• @baekdal Thomas Baekdal on x

  I'm getting really tired of this narrative. Are there problems on Facebook? Sure. But this makes it sound like hatred in India is caused by Facebook, So here is a simple question. Was there this level of hatred in India before Facebook? Oh yes, there was ... lot's of it. https://…

• @jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x

  I'm hoping everyone can set aside their disagreements to agree that this is both an excellent burn and an excellent response. https://twitter.com/...

• @seancasten Sean Casten on x

  4/ Even the most charitable interpretation of all the reporting over these last few weeks is that the smartest, most ethical people at FB don't know how to stop this. They are the ones who tried to dial back some of the settings on these algos but still couldn't stop it.

• @davidclinchnews David Clinch on x

  Also worth looking very closely at the dynamic on Facebook in Georgia in the period between the November election and the runoffs in January. Fundraising, organizing and a nexus for the anger and energy that exploded the next day at the insurrection. @BrandyZadrozny @BostonJoan h…

• @seancasten Sean Casten on x

  5/ In other words, the problem is the algorithm. If they are just a “bulletin board” for information as they claim, you don't incite people to do crazy things because most people are not crazy. The crazy gets swamped out by the normal.

• @jordanliles Jordan Liles on x

  @fbnewsroom 1/ Hello. We sent specific Facebook spokespersons emails both before and after Election Day in 2020. We repeatedly notified the company of groups where the harassment of the Biden-Harris bus was organized in real-time on Oct. 30. We never received answers. https://www…

• @samidh @samidh on x

  @venkatananth The same forces that make India the world's most energetic democracy also make it a challenging environment for platform trust & safety— thousands of dialects, huge variability in (digital) literacy, etc. Definitely more effort needed.

• @askanshul Anshul Saxena on x

  In Assam, a man named Arbas Khan uploaded his photo of putting a foot on a Ganesh idol on Facebook. 1. People of Assam protested & he got arrested. 2. No violence, killings & looting. 3. No attack on any religious site or against any community. This is the right way. https://twit…

• @mariaressa Maria Ressa on x

  More evidence of what has been pointed out for years — How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @szhang_ds @szhang_ds on x

  @drshamamohd This is inaccurate. I was not speaking about a “fake news account.” I was speaking about a network of fake Facebook accounts pretending to be Indians who did not exist. The accounts were focused on supporting the BJP MP who personally ran them, not on creating fake n…

• @johnrobb John Robb on x

  This is a very smart way of selling the idea that big tech platforms should be in charge of social pacification, not just in India, but everywhere.... https://twitter.com/...

• @sanasaeed Sana Saeed on x

  When your company is heavily invested in a country, when you have executives making exceptions to already poorly enforced rules for a country's fascist leadership and when this pattern is repeated across the world—that's complicity, not an AI/moderation problem to be fixed.

• @maggie_a_lee Maggie Lee on x

  FB says that globally it's cut the hate speech it serves by half No word on what it's doing with the other half Set up a Fb account, set your location as India and follow the algorithm's recommendations. See how many corpses and hate speech you get https://www.google.com/...

• @baekdal Thomas Baekdal on x

  the focus I see in the press that Facebook is somehow the cause of all societal problem everywhere is not just misleading, it's bad journalism. It's escapism. Look, for instance at this, and please explain to me why all of it is somehow Facebook's fault? https://en.wikipedia.org/…

• @mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x

  Facebook ruins other countries not just America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @akarl_smith Allan Smith on x

  “Other documents also reveal that Facebook's management team has been so intently focused on avoiding charges of bias that it regularly places political considerations at the center of its decision making.” https://www.wsj.com/...

• @evelyndouek Evelyn Douek on x

  The stories about Facebook's role in overseas markets are the most damning, imo, but sadly also getting the least attention... (the underinvestment and underwhelming level of public & regulatory outrage are... not unrelated) https://twitter.com/...

• @evelyndouek Evelyn Douek on x

  This is a known & ongoing issue. Eg, in April, the @OversightBoard drew attention to the fact that Facebook... had not even translated its community standards into Punjabi? Not an obscure dialect! Wikipedia says the 9th most spoken language in the world!! https://twitter.com/...

• @dearauntcrabby @dearauntcrabby on x

  How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India Facebook must be broken up, regulated, or closed. They are a danger to our society. Their unwillingness to regulate hate speech is a threat to America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x

  The scale of Facebook's toxic impact on the world's biggest democracy is horrifying. The latest stories coming out of @FrancesHaugen's Facebook Files are some of the most important yet. Can Indian democracy even survive Facebook? https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @tribelaw Laurence Tribe on x

  To be clear: Facebook's radicalizing business model is NOT free speech. The obstacles to regulating FB's dangerous algorithms aren't constitutional or technical but political and economic. Don't let that Zuckerman dude hide behind the First Amendment. https://www.nbcnews.com/...

• @3r1ng Erin Gallagher on x

  There were calls to violence and genocidal language circulating on all social media platforms long before and leading up to the 2020 *pogroms* (not riots) activists had been sounding alarms for months. https://twitter.com/...

• @sfielding90 Sean Fielding on x

  Not just Failsworth where @Facebook allows irresponsible people with extremist views to peddle lies and disinformation in closed groups posing as “community” groups then. What has to happen for them to act? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

• @labourlewis Clive Lewis MP on x

  I gave up on: “Facebook's vice-president of integrity said,...” Facebook boss ‘not willing to protect public from harm’ https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

• @slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x

  Moved fast. Broke things. https://twitter.com/...

• @duty2warn @duty2warn on x

  If you lived in India your Facebook page would be “flooded with hateful messages” saying Kashmiris were “traitors who deserved to be shot.” Facebook is a menace to planetary security. Watch pictures of your friends' kids somewhere else. Shut it down. https://www.washingtonpost.co…

• @daveyalba Davey Alba on x

  More on the horrors of FB India from @washingtonpost: “8,000 miles away from [Facebook's] headquarters, a Kashmiri student watched as his real FB page flooded with hateful messages. One said Kashmiris were ‘traitors who deserved to be shot.’” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @wtop @wtop on x

  Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech, misinformation and inflammatory posts, even as its own employees cast doubt over the company's motivations and interests. https://wtop.com/...

• @revkin @revkin on x

  “Facebook has meticulously studied its approach abroad — and was well aware that weaker moderation in non-English-speaking countries leaves the platform vulnerable to abuse by bad actors and authoritarian regimes.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @Cat_Zakrzewski et al @washin…

• @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/...

• @deccanherald @deccanherald on x

  The report said the internal documents include reports on how bots and fake accounts tied to the “country's ruling party and opposition figures” were wreaking havoc on national elections. #Facebook #India https://www.deccanherald.com/ ...

• @vinodkapri Vinod Kapri on x

  Very important story and thread 👇 https://twitter.com/...

• @cat_zakrzewski Cat Zakrzewski on x

  NEW from the Facebook Papers: India is Facebook's largest market. But internal documents show that Facebook didn't invest in key safety systems there that it has had in the United States for years @GerritD @ShibaniMahtani @NihaMasih https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @nihamasih Niha Masih on x

  NEW: How Facebook's failure to invest in key safety protocols helped spread hate speech and violence against minorities in India, internal documents show. With @Cat_Zakrzewski @GerritD @ShibaniMahtani (1/n) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @grantstern @grantstern on x

  Facebook didn't neglect the reset of the world's, they just cared more about money and catering to hatemongers in high places. Hate is profitable for Facebook, and responsibility could slow growth. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @arifcrafiq Arif Rafiq on x

  Bottom line: Facebook knows its services are being used by Hindu extremists to incite hatred toward Muslims and wage violence against them, but it won't do a thing because Hindu extremists rule India and India is a huge market for the company. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @pranavdixit @pranavdixit on x

  Not holding Facebook to account in India is one of the Indian press's most glaring failures (among many others). It's increasingly harder to take any tech journalism out of India seriously. https://twitter.com/...

• @hughhewitt Hugh Hewitt on x

  “For all of Facebook's troubles in North America, its problems with hate speech and disinformation are dramatically worse in the developing world.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @nihamasih Niha Masih on x

  8/ “They were told, told, told and they didn't do one damn thing about it. The anger [from the global south] is so visceral on how disposable they view our lives.” From the Facebook Papers: https://www.washingtonpost.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/... …

• @emilygorcenski Emily GorCIAnski on x

  The Facebook leaks are adding little to the conversation that antifascist activists and internet scholars have been having for years. The peek inside is interesting, but the substantive facts are things we've been screaming about for years. https://twitter.com/...

• @mutalenkonde @mutalenkonde on x

  In true colonizer fashion https://twitter.com/...

• @chinmayiarun Chinmayi Arun on x

  How is this still new to people in 2021? Glad to see more reporting about it though https://twitter.com/...

• @arzugeybulla Arzu Geybulla on x

  The report was one of dozens of studies and memos written by Facebook employees grappling with the effects of the platform on India. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @mrwharton Phillip Wharton on x

  “Violent riots erupted within hours, killing 53 people. Most of them were Muslims. Only after thousands of views and shares did Facebook remove the video.” https://twitter.com/...

• @emma_leik Emma on x

  87% percent of Facebook's global budget for time spent on classifying misinformation is earmarked for the US, while only 13% is set aside for the rest of the world. Oh & North American users make up 10% of the FB's daily active users. Great reporting by @sheeraf @daveyalba https:…

• @newsremote Nestor Vega on x

  FaceBook knew by their algorithms. That hate and controversial people creat engagement which in turn creates longer time spent which in turns = more Ads served. It's always about the money. https://twitter.com/...

• @gary_machado_ Gary Machado on x

  Well, many Members European Parliament are supporting an exemption of moderation for all vaguely-defined media, thus supporting an extended “white list” policy of Facebook. #DSA Bonus: some say they support it because they don't trust and dislike Facebook. Hilarious, and sad. htt…

• @mattocko Matt Ocko on x

  What I am trying to understand is how committing the exact same sins with the exact same algos in VR is any better Like “sorry our cigarettes caused cancer & we lied about it but our new ‘mouthfire cylinders’ are way different & also you wear a diving mask while using them...” 🤔 …

• @ianclucas Ian Lucas on x

  All part of a course of conduct by Facebook first exposed in 2018. https://twitter.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:…

• @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/...

• @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.

• @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/...

• @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/...

• @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:/…

• @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

• @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/...

• @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…

• @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.

• @yoda Drew Olanoff on x

  the fake justification shield of “connecting the world” has worn off. https://twitter.com/...

• @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/...

• @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

• @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/...

• @nakashimae Ellen Nakashima on x

  The best account yet of how Facebook fueled Jan. 6 violence. via @craigtimberg @lizzadwoskin @ReedAlbergotti https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @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/...

• @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/...

• @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.…

• @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/...

• @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.” …

• @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/...

• @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/..…

• @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…

• @paulmasonnews Paul Mason on x

  And here we were thinking it's only Facebook's algorithm that promotes far right hate... https://twitter.com/...

• @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/...

• @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/...

• @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/...