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The former employee of the technology conglomerate, turned informant today, testified before UK lawmakers about the disclosure of thousands of documents showing the damage caused by Facebook. Not only did Haugen warn that, specifically, the social network will cause more disturbances, but that the launch of the so-called ‘metaverse’ could have been dedicated to providing greater security. Their statements could influence the technological regularization that the country evaluates.
Frances Haugen again threw her darts at Facebook. The former product manager of the technology giant’s civic disinformation team testified on this occasion before the British Parliament, in order to respond to several questions about the thousands of documents that she leaked in the so-called ‘Facebook Archives’.
His testimony in the UK is crucial, as a parliamentary committee moves forward with the drafting of legislation in the country to crack down on social platforms.
Haugen said on Monday, October 25, that his former company will cause more violent riots around the world, due to the way its algorithms are designed to promote divisive content.
“The events that we are seeing around the world, like in Myanmar and Ethiopia, those are the opening chapters because the classification based on data from engagement It does two things: first, it prioritizes and amplifies extreme divisive and polarizing content, and second, it concentrates it, “he said.
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who has turned whistleblower, testified to the British Parliament that the company misled its own oversight board about its ‘crosscheck’ program, allowing users to evade restrictions on sharing content https://t.co/7dTWb3s0FO pic.twitter.com/youzWiSOGi
– Reuters (@Reuters) October 25, 2021
Haugen is a computer engineer with an MBA from Harvard. Before being hired by Facebook in 2019, she worked for 15 years in companies in the sector such as Google, Pinterest and Yelp.
The expert in computer data management explained to the committee of legislators that the platform could add what it called “moderators” to prevent large groups of users from being used to spread extremist opinions. However, always according to Haugen, until now Facebook has refused to do so for financial reasons.
“Unquestionably, the hatred is getting worse … Facebook has not been willing to accept that even small amounts of profit are sacrificed for security, and that is not acceptable,” he emphasized.
Concern about the ‘metaverse’, the next challenge for Facebook
Haugen said she was “surprised to hear that the technology company is working to build its own ‘metaverse’ (system),” for which it will hire 10,000 engineers in Europe.
It is a kind of virtual world in which the physical or real space will converge with the virtual one. A meeting place between individuals in the digital universe, in the words of the news outlet ‘The Verge’, which announced that the company would be thinking of changing its name to reflect its new approach.
Haugen pointed out that an immersive online world will be the next big Internet trend and criticized that such resources are not used, instead, to improve the security of the platform: “I was surprised. ‘You know what we could have done with security if we had 10,000 more engineers? ‘ It would be incredible”.
Haugen also echoed his explosive statements before the United States Congress on October 5. The documents, which Haugen provided to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, show that Facebook withheld from investors and the public its own investigations into the damage it would cause to society.
Some stories based on the leaked files have already been released, putting the company on the ropes for the January 6 riots in the US Capitol.
According to the computer data analyst, Facebook contributed to the assault, after prematurely deactivating safeguards designed to reduce the spread of false information and demagoguery, after then-President Donald Trump did not acknowledge defeat in the presidential election against the current president. Joe Biden.
Haugen stressed that any system that relies on artificial intelligence to identify what counts as high-quality news will fail. For this reason, he indicated that the solution is to slow down the process and let humans choose.
In this regard, he stated that any blogger should not necessarily be treated as a provider of high-quality news and that many people are willing to pay for news from reliable sources. In fact, young people over 18 have one of the highest subscription rates to information portals.
The expert concluded that she is “proud” of her collaborations with the United Kingdom, as she is sure that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, will pay attention to what is decided there.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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