DeepSummary
The episode examines the Facebook Papers, leaked internal documents revealing that Facebook prioritized profits over addressing its platform's role in spreading misinformation, hate speech, and inciting violence globally, especially in developing countries. Facebook's algorithms promote divisive and extremist content to maximize user engagement, despite aware of the harms. Former employees like whistleblower Frances Haugen exposed Facebook's complicity and lack of adequate moderation and safety measures.
The discussion covers Facebook's business model driven by mining user data and emotions to fuel addiction and engagement, with little regard for societal consequences. It enabled the amplification of conspiracy theories, ethnic violence, and undermined democracy globally. The lack of content moderation in non-English speaking countries exacerbated these issues as Facebook rapidly expanded worldwide while neglecting local contexts.
Potential solutions explored include improved regulation, audits, user privacy protection, restricting algorithmic amplification of harmful content, and reconsidering the fundamental ethics of Facebook's ad-driven model. The episode scrutinizes Facebook's rebrand as 'Meta' and its metaverse ambitions as a distraction from addressing systemic issues plaguing the company's core operations.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Facebook prioritized profits over addressing the serious societal harms caused by its platform, including the spread of misinformation, hate speech, and incitement of violence globally.
- Facebook's algorithms are designed to maximize user engagement by promoting divisive, sensational, and extreme content, creating 'filter bubbles' that reinforce polarization.
- Facebook dedicates minimal resources for content moderation and safety outside the US and major English-speaking markets, exacerbating systemic issues in developing countries.
- Whistleblowers and leaked internal documents exposed Facebook's intentional negligence and lack of transparency around the negative impacts of its business practices.
- Experts propose increased regulation, audits, restricting algorithmic recommendation of harmful content, and prioritizing user privacy as potential solutions.
- Facebook's rebranding as 'Meta' and promotion of the metaverse is viewed as an attempt to distract from scrutiny over its core social media business model's fundamental issues.
- The ad-driven business model exploiting user data and psychology may be fundamentally incompatible with promoting healthy online discourse and democracy.
- Lack of external oversight and Facebook's dishonesty impede accountability and meaningful self-regulation of its practices.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “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.“ by Frances Haugen
- “I think that what Frances Haugen has done is blow the whistle on Facebook's complicity and its internal knowledge of a number of problematic issues that many of us were alleging that they were engaging with for several years. At this time, what Facebook has essentially done, and she has exposed that they were aware of, is play with our emotions, play with our psychologies, play with our anxieties. Those are the raw materials that fuels Facebook's attempts to be a digital empire.“ by Ramesh Srinivasan
- “The reality is that not all of those people on the system interact with Facebook the same amount. So if the behavior of someone who looks at thousands of posts every day is different than the behavior of someone who looks at, say, 50 a day, that person, the person who looks at 1000 a day has 20 times the impact on the algorithm as someone who looks at 50 stories a day.“ by Frances Haugen
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Episode Information
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
BestOfTheLeft.com
12/11/22
Original Air Date 11/9/2021
Today we take a look at the Facebook business model that is driving hate, lies, violence, extremism, and the breakdown of democracy around the world as well as some of the regulatory ideas geared toward reigning it in and mitigating the damage.
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SHOW NOTES
UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan, who says the papers confirm what many critics have warned about for years. “This new form of digital capitalism that I believe Facebook is trailblazing is one that is playing with our intimate emotions on every level."
Tristan and Aza go behind the headlines with Frances herself. We go deeper into the problems she exposed, discuss potential solutions, and explore her motivations — along with why she fundamentally believes change is possible.
We've been hearing about revelations from the leaked 'Facebook Papers.' What has the social media giant been doing, and what they haven't been doing, around the world? Guest: Sheera Frenkel, New York Times technology reporter.
Ch. 4: Zuckerberg's Metaverse - TyskySour - Air Date 10-29-21
Facebook is now Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg says our future is in the Metaverse. Is virtual reality the future of the internet, or Zuckerberg’s latest gimmick? With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: The Science Fiction Origins of the Metaverse - On the Media - Air Date 11-5-21
Jill Lepore, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer; Gene Seymour culture critic with work in Newsday, the Nation, etc; and Annalee Newitz science fiction author and science journalist, on the makings (and potential mishaps) of the metaverse.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 10: Final comments on Facebooks treatment of nonprofits and the actions you can take to call for regulation
TAKE ACTION!
Take part in The Facebook Logout, Nov. 10th-13th via Kairos & coalition - Read the demands
Call on DOJ, SEC, and FTC to Open Criminal Investigations into Facebook Execs via American Economic Liberties Project & MoveOn.org
Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda HoffmanÂ
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: A cardboard cutout of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wearing a black shirt that says "FACEBOOK" and holding a flag (referencing his infamous July 4th video where he rode a hydrofoil on a lake while holding a giant American flag). The flag is dark blue with white text that says "I know we harm kids, but i don't care." with a Facebook icon. A roadway with cars and a building with scaffolding can be seen in the background.
Credit: "Zuckerberg_Sum_Of_Us_2" by SumOfUs, Flickr | License | Changes: Cropped, enhanced brightness, contrast and saturation
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson