The 60 Minute Whistle

In early Oct. 2021 Frances Haugen a former employee of Facebook decided that it was time to show Facebook for the power hungry platform that she believes it to be . Her conviction in this opinion runs so deep in fact that she brought her concerns and a substantial amount of evidence to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and her interview on 60 Minutes was the optimal way to spread this information to the public.

Facebook has long been the topic of discussion when it comes to security, misinformation, and cyberbullying, now it has been added to a new conversation. The main question being whether or not Facebook and it’s subsidiary app Instagram cause harm? Haugen believes that they do. Going even as far as saying that Instagram is causing young girls to develop a hatred for their bodies, and that Facebook helped lead to the Jan. 6 insurrection by purposely fostering hate and dissent among users. Ironically Haugen’s own Instagram account is still active and was updated only 13 hours ago, as of the time that this was written.

While Haugen’s claims that Facebook’s algorithm functions at a higher level due mostly to posts that anger viewers by, ”optimizing for content that gets engagement, or reaction. But its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it's easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions”, Facebook itself cannot be blamed for the insurrection. While yes it is important that the site mediate and remove misinformation such as conspiracy theories and false statistics related to the Covid virus or vaccine, it cannot be held responsible for the posts that are not spreading misinformation. Though the insurrection was unprecedented and an outrage, Facebook could not have anticipated the magnitude of the event nor could it have removed posts that were simply stating political beliefs. They should however have removed any posts threatening the safety of those who were targeted.

Though Haugen’s intentions are good she is giving too much credit to a social media platform that with it’s billions of users could not possibly keep track of every post that is created. If asked to comment on the subject I would disagree with Haugen. Facebook is not responsible for the actions of its users such as those who incited the insurrection. It can only do so much to quell the amount of misinformation that is circulated, and sometimes the line between misinformation and an unpopular opinion is so thin that it can be hard to determine if removing a post will be considered a violation of the 1st amendment.

Throughout my time as a Facebook and Instagram user I have had many instances where I have had to report either threatening or offensive comments, and for the most part, the sites responded to the complaints within 24 to 48 hours. This is not to say that every decision they made in response to these complaints were satisfactory, but at least they were looked into.

When posting on social media it is ultimately up to the users to vet what content they find to be appropriate and take action from there, not the site used. The site is only the platform that allows users to share information, it cannot be solely held responsible for the way the viewers of that content choose to react. If the algorithm is set to show content based on what the user has previously interacted with, the displayed content should not be seen as a reflection of the site, but as a reflection of society as a whole. Perhaps that is the real issue that should be addressed.

Photo By Alexander Shatov