Facebook is in trouble. Again.

A testimony by a former Facebook employee has proven to be one of the most serious crises the company has had to face yet

Leaked internal research shows how much Facebook knew about its links with mental health issues, self-harm and human trafficking

In certain categories, such as beauty, fitness and fashion, the content has the ability to trigger negative spirals, meaning that the users would use the platform even more

The animosity between the two tech giants Apple and Facebook has been brewing for some time, especially as Apple’s new privacy regulations came into force this year

Early October millions of Facebook users around the world were unable to access the platform with what was recorded as one of the company’s biggest outages to date. Businesses on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp were especially impacted as the platforms recorded a downtime of more than six hours.

According to Facebook’s Vice President of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centres caused issues that interrupted this communication.” In other words, Facebook did an update to several of its routes which move packets of information around. The update however, contained a crucial error and caused a massive worldwide outage which sent the message to users that the platform essentially didn’t exist. 

There is no doubt of just how much this rare outage impacted businesses and individual users.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth shrank by more than $6 billion within a few hours which also knocked him down the list of the world’s wealthiest. (Although he remains the world’s 8th richest person.) Meanwhile stocks plummeted nearly a 5% just hours after the outage was reported, which according to Forbes estimates was around $65 million. 

Sri Lanka is no stranger to the kind of power the tech giant wields in not just empowering small businesses, but also mobilizing communities and inciting violence, especially after the events following the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The company’s flaws have long been criticised by both state and non-state actors. But peace and democratic integrity aren’t the only facets that Facebook threatens, according to one whistleblower. 

The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people

A former Facebook employee wanted to take the tech giant before a US Senate committee with allegations that the company ignored just how much harm it continues to cause its users, over profits. 

That’s right. Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, testified before a US Senate committee on just how much the tech giant is aware of its own problems. Hot on the heels of a damaging worldwide outage, the company was now being dragged over the coals over it’s business model, which generates revenue close to one billion US dollars a day. 

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before a Senate Committee. (Reuters)

Whistleblower urges regulation to tackle Facebook ‘crisis’

The whistleblower told US lawmakers on October 5, 2021 that the social media giant fuels division, harms children and urgently needs to be regulated, drawing pledges from Congress that it would take up long-delayed action. (Exactly how remains unclear.) The testimony by the former Facebook employee has proven to be one of the most serious crises the company has had to face yet.

Responding to Haugen’s claims CEO Zuckerberg told his employees in an internal message that it was ‘just not true’. The message was then posted on his account stating “The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical,” Zuckerberg wrote hours after the whistleblower testified.

There are going to be women walking around this planet in 60 years with brittle bones because of the choices that Facebook made around emphasizing profit today

Facebook knows it harms children
“I joined Facebook because I think Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us,” the whistleblower said before the committee on the Capitol Hill. “But I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy. The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people,” Haugen charged.

“I believe that Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” Haugen told a Senate panel. “Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help,” she added.  “There are going to be women walking around this planet in 60 years with brittle bones because of the choices that Facebook made around emphasizing profit today,” she said, referring to the impact of eating disorders,” Haugen said. 

Prior to her appearance before the Senate, Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents to Wall Street Journal journalist Jeff Horowitz. In the subsequent investigation titled the Facebook Files, Horowitz and fellow journalist Justin Scheck detailed how Facebook — in acute detail — is aware of the problems and flaws the platform is riddled with. 

According to Horowitz who first dived into problems associated with Instagram, discovered that Instagram can make existing problems far worse for people with vulnerabilities, according to the company’s own research. This was specially focused on problems associated with body image and eating disorders, which the researchers focused on. The takeaway from this specific file was that Instagram makes body image issues worse for one in three girls, particularly teenage girls. According to Horowitz, for some users of the platform, thoughts of hurting themselves were traced back to Instagram. Moreover, in the US some 6 % of users thought about killing themselves in a given month. 

Interestingly, the ones who do have a negative relationship with Instagram use the platform less once they identified their issues. This however was not true to users who have the least self control in using Facebook or its other products. 

Facebook found that certain categories, such as beauty, fitness and fashion, the content has the ability to trigger negative spirals, meaning that the users would use the platform even more. “They keep coming back to the platform, even if they are aware that it’s not good for them,” Horowitz said. 

Facebook and Human Trafficking
Facebook’s troubles don’t end here. According to new insights, Silicon Valley giant Apple threatened to remove Facebook from its App Store after an explosive report by the BBC which detailed how human traffickers were using Facebook to sell victims .

The animosity between the two tech giants have been brewing for some time, especially as Apple’s new privacy regulations came into force this year. The Apple privacy updates, which rolled out earlier this year in April prevents advertisers from tracking iPhone users without their consent. This move has made Facebook and Snap Inc. feel the brunt of the change, with losses in ad revenue growth expected.

But the internal documents reviewed by Wall Street Journal show that a relatively small team has been tasked to track down human trafficking rings, especially in the Middle East. The documents indicate that Facebook was well aware of its role in the process prior to the BBC report. 

With the threat by Apple to remove its application from the App store, Horowitz states that Facebook only resorted to clean up the troublesome content related to human trafficking, by removing posts, ads, etc. but didn’t take any preemptive action to solve the issue. 

I believe that Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy

Why is Haugen invested?
Facebook has continued to play down scandal after scandal, and did no different with the current issue. The company vehemently objected to Haugen’s testimony before the Senate subcommittee. A Facebook statement called her “a former product manager who worked at the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives.” “We don’t agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about,” said the statement from Lena Pietsch, director of policy communications.

Haugen is a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa. She has previously been employed by several companies including Google and Pinterest. “ My job is largely focused on algorithmic products like Google Plus search. And recommendation systems like the one that powers the Facebook newsfeed,” Haugen testified earlier this month. 
According to Horowitz the reason she sought employment at Facebook was when a close friend was radicalized as a white nationalist on the internet. She wanted to work with the company to work to change how the company can address such issues, but soon realized that Facebook either can’t or won’t implement changes for betterment, Horowitz said. 

“A lot of the changes I’m talking about are not going to make Facebook an unprofitable company,” Haugen said. “It just won’t be a ludicrously profitable company like it is today.” Haugen repeatedly stressed that the social media giant has built a platform where its users are regularly manipulated to keep app engagements high. She added however that she believed Facebook was not intrinsically bad, but was in certain need of intervention to guide it away from its current practices.