On October 25, local time, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen (Frances Haugen) met with members of the British Parliament and called for urgent external supervision to control Facebook and reduce its harm to society. She said,Because of Mark Zuckerberg’s impeccable position at the top of Facebook, he “unilaterally controlled more than 3 billion people.”
According to the “Guardian” report on the 25th, after publishing tens of thousands of confidential documents on Facebook’s internal operations, Hogan traveled from the United States to London to participate in a parliamentary hearing. Hoogen said that the main reason for the increasing polarization of world politics is the “radical influence” of services such as social platforms and Facebook groups, including Facebook. These are small but dense communities that can encourage the breeding of conspiracy theories. “I am deeply concerned that the products they make will cause people to stay away from their real communities and isolate them in information bubbles. The shared facts no longer exist.” Hogan said.
Hoogen pointed out that Facebook’s internal culture puts the interests of its shareholders above the public interest, and that “the top management has no intention to ensure that these systems operate in a sufficiently safe manner.”
Hoogen believes that Facebook has many people with a sense of social responsibility, but their work is full of bad incentives set by management and the requirement of “providing shareholders with maximum financial returns.” Facebook’s ownership structure allows Zuckerberg, as the founder of the company, to have a special class of shares, which means that he has huge control over the social network of the same name and its social platforms. Hogan emphasized that Zuckerberg “unilaterally controls More than 3 billion people”.
Regarding the impact of “Facebook”’s “Photo Wall (Instagram)” on the mental health and body image of teenagers, Hogan said that Facebook’s internal research compares young users who use this app to addicts because they cannot leave subjectively. This service that causes negative emotions. Facebook’s internal research found that Instagram is more dangerous than other social media (such as TikTok and Snapchat) because the platform focuses on “comparisons about appearance and lifestyle, which is worse for kids”.
Regarding the allegations of former employees, Zuckerberg said on the earnings call on the 25th that the focus of the company’s current problems is not social media, but related to the “polarization that gradually appeared in the United States before he was born.”
