FB Employees Knew Anti-Vax Content Was a Problem—Their Bosses Didn't Care

 

The avalanche of news about Facebook's misdeeds continues apace. All the stories have a similar form. 

One or more employees notice harmful conversations about some topic growing on the platform. They become rightly concerned that if they grow too much there could be harmful social consequences. 

They notify their superiors with emails like "surely we're going to do something about this, right?" Their bosses ignore the emails or do next to nothing because doing something could impact the bottom line.

This time the same story plays out with regard to vaccine disinformation. Back in March, FB employees noticed that claims that the vaccines are dangerous and ineffective were spreading across the platform. 

The reckoned that by adjusting how these posts were ranked by the algorithm, they could curtail their spread. In their place they could promote posts from legit outlets like the CDC and WHO.  Others suggested disabling comments on vaccine-related posts, about 60% of which were disinformation according to their own internal research.

One employee responded to an internal memo about this problem and solution by saying "“Given these results, I’m assuming we’re hoping to launch ASAP.” Another asked, "Is there any reason we wouldn’t do this?" 

They did not launch ASAP and there were indeed reasons they wouldn't do anything. The bosses implemented some changes, but only after dragging their feet for a month. By that time the damage was done. 

Nothing about this is surprising. As I have noted before, FB has been gaslighting us for the last year with repeated claims that it's cracking down on vaccine disinformation. Following every such announcement I've been able to easily find such content on the platform. 

They just don't care about anything except eyeballs. Posts that scare people—like those about the danger of vaccines—generate eyeballs, so they have no interest in curtailing them. They really need to be regulated.

Image by Corona-zona



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