Frances Haugen
@FrancesHaugen
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Advocate for accountability & transparency in social media | Signal 650-796-9723 | Iowan | Data Scientist | 🕵️♀️⛑🕊 | press @franceshaugen .com for interviews
Joined October 2021
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I have accepted the invitation to brief the Facebook Oversight Board about what I learned while working there. Facebook has lied to the board repeatedly, and I am looking forward to sharing the truth with them.
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The past month has been a powerful, wild, and overwhelming experience. I am beyond grateful to the support for my community in navigating this complex conversation. Thank you for all your messages of encouragement and care. (1/3)
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Here is the full text of my opening statement to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation:
WATCH: Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen complete opening statement.
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I’ll be testifying to the Senate tomorrow at 10a ET / 7a PT about
@Instagram
and
@Facebook
's impacts on children and society at large.
You can watch here:
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Together we can create social media that brings out the best in us. We solve problems together - we don’t solve them alone.
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To start, we must demand:
1) Privacy-concious mandatory transparency from Facebook
2) A reckoning wih the dangers of engagement-based ranking
3) Non-content-based solutions to these problems — we need tools other than censorship to keep the world safe. (3/3)
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As the chaos settles, I hope to use Twitter to speak in greater detail about the documents, their meaning, and my experience at Facebook. Please see me as a resource and perspective on the inside of an organization that has been quite opaque. (2/3)
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I'm honored to join
@FLOTUS
tonight at the State of the Union. Facebook and other social media platforms have been paying for their profits on the back of our children's mental health and the well being of our families.
#SOTU
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Thank you
@Trevornoah
for the chance to drop in and discuss
@Meta
/ Facebook’s impact on the mental health of children (airing tonight at 10 CT on
@TheDailyShow
,
@ComedyCentral
)
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A
@TIME
exposé just published details how Facebook treats content moderators in Nairobi, who describe their jobs as mental torture.
You can't fix an algorithm designed to amplify hate with human moderation, and this is what happens when you try. (1/3)
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Unfortunately, this massive drop in Facebook's stock price last night also represents massive losses in retirement accounts and pensions nationwide. This is what happens when public companies *lie* about material issues — real people get hurt.
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1/ Today the Judiciary is holding a hearing confronting the CEOs of Meta, X, Snapchat, TikTok, and Discord confronting them on their negligence and failure to protect children online. It should be a shocking and historic few hours.🧵
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I'll be testifying to Congress tomorrow as part of a panel about "Holding Big Tech Accountable" at 10:30am. We must demand transparency from Facebook, and I look forward to working with Congress to hold them accountable.
Tune in here:
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Congratulations!! For the first time in history, the public is going to be able to ask independent questions about how
@Meta
and the other big platforms work and get the data to see the truth. History in the making!! Come on USA, now it's our turn. 🎉
Everything depends on the teams - the team of teams of
@Europarl_EN
,
@EUCouncil
&
@EU_Commission
made
#DSA
happen last night! Thanks 💚
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I’m looking forward to discussing the Online Safety Bill with the
@OnlineSafetyCom
in
@UKParliament
tomorrow 🇬🇧
Tune in ⬇️
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We cannot let Meta run the same playbook on our kids and families that Big Tobacco did a generation ago by hiding research about the addictive, harmful nature of their products.
#SOTU
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Elon has caused a lot of strong emotions in the last six months - but I can't emphasize how important it is that he's actually following through on removing bots.
Bots and coordinated inauthentic behavior are the biggest dangers on social media.
#thanksElon
@teslaownersSV
You’re welcome.
Note: apparent engagement on Twitter will seem lower, as bots would like/follow/retweet much more than people,
but now you know it’s real.
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Today
@StateDept
formally announced that violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s military against the
#Rohingya
constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity. This should bring renewed attention to the role of Facebook
@meta
in fuelling the
#Rohingya
genocide. 1/6
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I am looking forward to discussing the Digital Services Act in the European Parliament this Monday, November the 8th, from 16:45 to 19:15 CET.
Tune in here:
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Elon has the space to be aggressive because he took Twitter private. If any publicly traded social media site saw their usage drop by 5 or 10% (or more) in a single quarter because they got serious about about bots their stock price would crash. Incentives matter.
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Facebook is pressuring employees to look the other way on VR safety - did
@Meta
/Facebook learn nothing from 2021? Running a product you control 100% is radically different than building a Metaverse platform where every VR game has to reinvent basic safety. We deserve better!
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Today is history in the making. 80%+ of the states in the US are banding together to sue for safer social media for our children. 🎉 I'm in DC and Boston this week - happy to comment or provide context on this giant leap forward in tech accountability.
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Ethiopia declared a state of emergency yesterday in a years-long ethnic conflict. If we do not see change, these are the terrifying opening chapters of Facebook’s role in fanning the flames of hate and violence.
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Tonight at
@Stanford
I'll be speaking about tech, climate, disinformation, and how we can build a movement together to create social media that works for humanity.
6pm, Westin-Sheraton in Palo Alto for conversation & dinner.
Thanks to
@SumOfUs
&
#FossilFreeStanford
for hosting!
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Social media giants tell the public that their platforms don’t damage kids’ mental health, yet my disclosures revealed their internal research that shows they know exactly the damage they’re doing.
Kids and parents are owed the truth. We must demand more.
#SOTU
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New study today: since 2019, there was a 44% increase in social media addiction in children aged 10-17 in Germany.
I'm in Berlin, discussing with German ministers ways to make sure kids are protected online.
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The Mozilla Foundation has found TikTok's algorithms and inadequate safety systems are inflaming the risk of violence in Kenya.
I can't imagine having to make life or death decisions watching a video at 3x speed.
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Facebook and Instagram are flawed products designed to addict and amplify the worst in our children and ourselves. They are buying their profits on the backs of our kids' mental health.
#SOTU
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Thank you for a wonderful conversation 😊
Filming was mostly waist-up — in the wide shot you can catch my fuzzy socks. I’ve got Celiac-induced neuropathy, and ❄️cold weather❄️ makes my feet hurt 🌈🧦
Learn more about Celiac/gluten issues:
Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen has told me that their rebrand is a bid to save its image. She also responded to Panorama's online hate investigation.
"I was shocked that they could afford 10,000 new engineers working on video games, but they couldn't keep women safe."
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Facebook has expanded faster than they can keep their platform safe. We need change.
Thank you to the whistleblowers who took great risk &
@TheSignalsNetw
for supporting them.
I urge the passage of strong whistleblower protections, so people can continue speaking out. (3/3)
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It was a pleasure getting to meet with you and discuss the forthcoming Online Safety Bill. The Bill promises to be an important step for transparency and accountability in the digital age.
Constructive meeting with
@franceshaugen
on online safety. Tech companies have a moral duty to keep their users safe.
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For $1.50/hr, workers watch videos of murders, rapes, suicides, and child sexual abuse. Many report PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Facebook union-busted and punished those who fought for better working conditions.
This cost of devaluing human beings is unacceptable. (2/3)
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It was wonderful meeting with Christine Lambrecht, German Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection today! Thank you for standing up for German social media users 🌍
Angeregter Austausch heute im Bundesjustizministerium: Bundesverbraucherschutzministerin Christine Lambrecht und
@FrancesHaugen
,
#FacebookWhistleblower
-in.
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At
#SXSW
I spoke about why I became a
#whistleblower
and what the path forward is to create a safer social media.
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The evidence is clear — social media is immensely detrimental to teenagers and their mental health.
I'm looking forward to joining mental health experts on Monday to discuss what we can do to reverse this terrifying reality.
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Most of us today don't have free speech when we feel silenced by the extremes.
From
@JonHaidt
's interview with Voice of America
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Great analysis by
@katieharbath
detailing the need for
@Meta
(Facebook) to PUBLICLY detail its plans for protecting elections around the world in 2022.
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1/ Today's Senate >Judiciary< hearing today is 🔥.
Proof that Meta intentional lied to Congress about the safety of kids on
@instagram
&
@facebook
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It's more transparency — not more censorship — that's required from Big Tech in this moment. It's time for them to stop hiding and start building the transparent, free speech-respecting, mental health-boosting social media we deserve.
#SOTU
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Facebook has run experiments where they show you more content you consented to (your friends and family) vs this algorithm content, and for FREE you get less violence, nudity, and hate speech. Your friends are not the problem - opaque AI is.
I wrote about Facebook’s shift away from friends and family in the feed toward a TikTok-style ‘discovery engine.'
It’s gotten surprisingly little attention for something that could have a big effect on content moderation, publishing and even regulation
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A book is a perfect forum to explore the nuance and complexity of the problems Facebook faces, and I'm very excited about this collaboration with
@littlebrown
and
@vanessamobley
.
As I learned from my mother, "every human being deserves the dignity of the truth."
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I'm encouraged to see lawmakers in California — a Republican (
@Cunning_Jordan
) and a Democrat (
@buffywicks
) — teaming up to protect kids' privacy and safety online. Whatever your party affiliation, the wellbeing of kids matters.
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Reminder, Big Tobacco only faced justice through class action lawsuits.
I'm definitely eating popcorn 🍿 on the edge of my seat watching how the courts are starting to play out. 👀
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Whistleblower protections are critical to improving safety and keeping corporations honest. Because they don’t exist in commercial space flight, the FAA was unable to speak with the anonymous signers of a warning letter on Blue Origin’s safety.
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1/ If Twitter whistleblower (and head of security) Peiter Zatkoin left you asking, "How could it possibly be this bad???" you're not alone. Twitter's problems aren't unique, and we should worry…
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Excited to be at
#sxsw
to talk about the solutions to make Facebook safer (hint: it’s not censorship) 🤫 ballroom d, 10am! 👏
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All change begins by believing the world can be better. We can build social media where our friends and family keep us safe - not unaccountable content moderation AIs.
"There's nothing better than being able to give someone hope," says
@FrancesHaugen
on why she does what she does. She believes that social media can and will change. It's not a binary choice between security & freedom of speech.
#CodeCon
#code2022
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NPR named my new memoir, the Power of One, their Book of the Day on Monday. 🎉
Order it here:
Or read NPR's review:
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Facebook wants to believe it can shift its focus and make problems go away. Our children are still struggling. Ethnic violence is still happening.
@Meta
/Facebook is still responsible. Let's not repeat the chaos in the Metaverse. We deserve a public-viewable safety plan.
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No similarly powerful industry opperates with as much secrecy - only with public transparency and accountability can social media live in democracy's house.
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🥰🎉
@FrancesHaugen
's msg to Zuckerberg: Do you want to wake up everyday & feel like you're being punched in the gut?! People don't change because we yell at them. They change because the cost of changing is less than the cost of not changing."
#micdrop
#CodeCon
#code2022
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Meta switched this year to using AI/no human in the loop reports for child abuse material to save $ - meaning the govt. can no longer legally use them without a warrant. Side benefit for Meta - fewer child abuse cases link back to them, at the cost of children’s safety.
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The
#EU
must give civil society access to platform data in the DSA. Civil Society Organizations and whistleblowers can:
🔔Act as an early warning system about emerging tech harms
💜Save lives &
⏳Future proof the
#DSA
See my
@FT
piece:
#peoplevsbigtech
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Thrilled with
@OnlineSafetyCom
's extremely robust report and appreciate testifying there this year.
I urge 🇬🇧 UK govt to adopt recommendations which slow the frictionless spread of damaging content, a critical step in putting people before profits.
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If you're curious, this is what a 26% drop looks like.
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Learn more about how
@Meta
is pressuring engineers off its already understaffed
@facebookapp
and Instagram engineering teams to work on video games for the Metaverse. __We deserve basic safety__ before the
@Meta
cancer expands outwards.
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We turned to social media for connection and understanding. We can have that again.
It won't happen by accident. We need to design our systems to amplify and favor real connection.
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More deets please. 🧐🍿 This is why we need mandatory transparency -
@Meta
shouldn't be able to walk away from issues that make them look bad.
Meta has informed the Oversight Board that the company would be withdrawing an earlier request for policy guidance concerning content moderation issues related to Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
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Facebook has repeatedly demonstrated that when there is no mechanism for the public to confirm what it is doing to keep us safe, it cuts corners provides unequal and inadequate defenses.
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I'm hiring a Puerto Rico-based Executive Assistant. Please send along any qualified candidates who want to work on building a better tomorrow for social media!
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Why? Because it is more profitable. 💵
It's more profitable to show extreme dieting content to teen girls, or leave the Rohingya people without basic safety systems.
@meta
is making its profits on the backs of our children's wellbeing & the world's most vulnerable populations.
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We must collectively demand more from
@meta
. It is clear that they cannot be trusted to make these changes on their own so we must require transparency. Solutions are possible if we are able to work on them together.
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Social media should value and prioritize language diversity.
My disclosures detailed how focusing on content moderation over product safety short changes all languages but English.
87% of misinfo spending for English, 13% for "rest of world" makes Spanish a second class citizen
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Ad biz = Twitter had to weigh every product safety change vs small declines in usage or user numbers.
Ex bots are the most dangerous disinformation factor - they retweet and amplify disinformation
Removing bots = fewer "users", ⬇️ wall street's perceived value of Twitter
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I'm excited to be joining
@mediatechdem
@mcgillu
to work on expanding the conversation around democratic oversight for social media! Transparency accelerates consumer choice, product safety & innovation. 🇨🇦 is one of the best places to be today to drive this discussion forward 🎉
We are thrilled to announce that
@FrancesHaugen
is joining the Centre as Senior-Fellow-in-Residence.
@mcgillu
Read full announcement:
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Removing it from the public markets gives us new options that aren't censorship.
The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.
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I have had at least 5 friends (including my husband, who runs troll accounts as a hobby harassing certain obv state actors) that they don't get crypto scams anymore (which used to flood Twitter) or they got all their troll accounts taken down. Noticeable change happening.
Frances, all due respect here, on what basis are you sharing that he is actually doing this? I’d be happy to review any independent research. They were set to participate in the industry auditing process but that hadn’t happened AFAIK (and I would know). Thx.
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Watch this video made by
@Avaaz
, featuring these young
#Rohingya
who are looking to
#Ireland
to ensure
@Meta
pays
#Rohingyareparations
. Share it and help this fight for justice. 6/6
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Distance learning during COVID opened a technological can of worms we now need to close.
We can keep children safer by limiting the data collected by companies to the minimum that makes education possible.
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I learn something from students every day! You have the right to share information with congress and the SEC.
Speaking truth to power,
@FrancesHaugen
tells
@UCLA
students that whistleblowing has been removed from their curricula.
"You are entitled to tell Congress anything you believe is needed [...] no contract with a company can stop you."
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Content moderation is not free. But Meta _is_ finally having to pay for some of the harm it inflicted on its Kenyan moderators. 👩⚖️⚖️🎉
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It's so easy to focus on just the scary parts of how fast technology is advancing, so I try to light up the exciting parts when I stumble across them. AI gave this new portal to the past - and this historic milestone is just 5% of one of thousands of scrolls! 🌋 📜 🤯
Ten months ago, we launched the Vesuvius Challenge to solve the ancient problem of the Herculaneum Papyri, a library of scrolls that were flash-fried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Today we are overjoyed to announce that our crazy project has succeeded. After 2000
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Today I presented proposal
#11
at the Meta Annual Shareholder's meeting.
We need regular reporting on what children are experiencing on Meta's products to create space for employees inside of Meta to build experiences that improve the safety of children. Safety matters as much
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"The world [/Facebook are] not ready for the coming electoral tsunami… With so many elections on the horizon—France, Kenya, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and the United States will hold elections this year—the conversation now should focus on how Facebook is preparing."
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Looking forward to discussing this Friday with
@NobelPeaceOslo
how social media can help democracy and peace flourish, but only if it's designed and built that way.
Excited to chat
@benteka
&
@finnmyrstad
! 🇳🇴🕊
Join us 1 April with
@FrancesHaugen
in conversation with
@benteka
and
@finnmyrstad
at the Nobel Peace Center! Are you in Oslo? Join the physical event here:
Go to our livestream-page and save it for Friday👇
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👏👏🎉
@FrancesHaugen
says data science is taught reductively. We need to simulate social networks and teach the physics of social media, make better choices, create speed bumps to force people to deliberate before posting!
#CodeCon
#code2022
@CaseyNewton
& Kara unpacking it all!
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Ireland is the headquarters of many Big Tech platforms in the
#EU
where global decisions are made.
#Irish
citizens would never stand for such
#humanright
abuses committed by companies on their soil. 5/6
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In the coming weeks, state lawmakers in Maryland, Minnesota, and Nevada will decide whether they pass much-needed protections for kids online.
It’s critical that they pass the Age Appropriate Design Code.
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7/ Twitter will not be the last critical piece of public infrastructure outed as running with a dangerous skeleton crew.
The sooner we lay the groundwork for building independent sources of truth about these systems - the sooner we can adequately staff the safety teams.
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6/ AND Big Tech's (like Twitter's) dirty laundry can be a national security threat.
Every open democracy is vulnerable when social platforms understaff their safety teams. The easiest way to influence our democracies is to weaponize how we get our information.
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It has been 5 years of promises from
@meta
to “do more” and “do better.” So, are they? No.
@Global_Witness
had 8 ads with explicit hate speech about
#Rohingya
approved for publication. 👎👎👎AP News: 2/6
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Had an amazing time at
@OlinCollege
yesterday. It's not just you - always remember, when I was 18, I was insecure, alone, and felt small. Life is about a long series of small choices - keep pushing! ❤️❤️
This spring over Zoom,
@FrancesHaugen
‘06 has been collaborating w/
@erhardt
and
@eminencefont
for the co-curricular, Movement Building. Today, she’s here in person to talk to the Oliners before tonight’s live-streamed event. Tune in at 5:30 pm:
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Grateful to
@tristanharris
for the nomination and in awe I am mentioned alongside these incredible leaders and artists. Social media that treats us with dignity and brings out the best in us is possible. 💫
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@Meta
must be held accountable. That’s why I support the brave Rohingya young people who brought a complaint to Ireland’s
@OECD
contact in
@DeptEnterprise
demanding justice and remediation.
#Rohingyaremediation
#peoplevsbigtech
. 4/6
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A former colleague on Civic Integrity just dropped a great editorial in the
@guardian
. I agree with him that what we need is governance not prohibition, and it can't come soon enough. Incentives matter! We learned that the hard way with social media. 👏
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46/
@HawleyMO
corners
@MarkZukerberg
and asks if he has ever apologized to the victims of his platform before. When he says no, he insists Mark apologize now.
Wild wild hearing. I never imagined today happening.
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This negligence is unacceptable. I saw this behavior over and over from Facebook - it ultimately led me to become a
#whistleblower
.
@meta
chronically underfunds and understaffs the teams responsible for keeping us safe — especially in the most vulnerable places in the world. 3/6
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Designing for safety, instead of censoring after the fact, protects people in every language.
Censorship = rebuilding safety systems one language at a time, leaving small languages behind 🌎
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Great new piece from
@jeffhorwitz
at the
@wsj
.
@meta
Facebook knew "1 in 8 users under the age of 16 said they experienced _unwanted sexual advances_ on the platform over the previous _7 days_" Yikes. Imagine how high that # is over the last month.
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2/ Facebook/Instagrams's safety features are "placebos" - they look like safety features, but they don't accomplish anything. They're intentionally designed that way.
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4/ He returned to
@Meta
to work on
@instagram
in 2019 because his daughter was having horrifying experiences on
@instagram
. He was thought they must not know what was going on - he was terrified to find out they already knew, they just decided not to act.
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@Meta
@instagram
5/ Instagram is the largest directory of children that has existed in history. A directory with pictures that will directly connect you with children you don't know.
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It's CSAM negligence like this that has forced the Senate Judiciary committee to hold a hearing with the CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord on January 31st @ 10 AM. Tune in - it's going to be wild.
woah, most redactions just now removed in the New Mexico attorney general’s complaint vs instagram and facebook. it is even more shocking, infuriating and stomach turning to see what has now been lifted (in yellow).
“a 2021 presentation estimated 100,000 children per day...” /1
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