Facebook is harming our society. Here’s a radical solution for reining it in.
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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies on risks company’s platforms pose to kids.
Frances Haugen, who revealed herself Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower, could not have made things any clearer.
“Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money,” the former member of Facebook’s civic integrity team, who left the company this spring, told Scott Pelley of CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
This wasn’t just Haugen’s opinion as a digital-economy veteran, with a long stint at Google before she joined Facebook. She had the goods. The huge trove of documents that she took when she left the behemoth social network spells out its ugly incentive structure in case you had any remaining doubt: Outrage, hate and lies are what drive digital engagement, and therefore revenue.
The system is broken. And we all suffer from it.
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