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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"I Have Blood On My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation
Link to tweet
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-ignore-political-manipulation-whistleblower-memo
Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee and obtained by BuzzFeed News.
The 6,600-word memo, written by former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, is filled with concrete examples of heads of government and political parties in Azerbaijan and Honduras using fake accounts or misrepresenting themselves to sway public opinion. In countries including India, Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, she found evidence of coordinated campaigns of varying sizes to boost or hinder political candidates or outcomes, though she did not always conclude who was behind them.
In the three years Ive spent at Facebook, Ive found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions, wrote Zhang, who declined to talk to BuzzFeed News. Her LinkedIn profile said she worked as the data scientist for the Facebook Site Integrity fake engagement team and dealt with bots influencing elections and the like.
I have personally made decisions that affected national presidents without oversight, and taken action to enforce against so many prominent politicians globally that Ive lost count, she wrote.
*snip*
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"I Have Blood On My Hands": A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Sep 2020
OP
Blecht
(3,803 posts)1. All social media are problematic in some way
But Facebook is the worst -- it's an immediate threat to our safety.
llmart
(15,539 posts)4. If you haven't already watched it...
and have Netflix, watch "The Social Dilemma". You will see how correct you are about all social media. Trust me. It's a frightening documentary.
rockfordfile
(8,702 posts)2. true
Laelth
(32,017 posts)3. Very noble of her.
She turned down the severance package so that she could speak her truth. Admirable.
-Laelth