Facebook Shares Plunge After Whistleblower Controversy
Shares of Facebook (FB) took a hit in early Monday trading after a whistleblower revealed the social-media giant uses its platform to spread hate, violence and misinformation.
Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, 34, said on the CBS Sunday night news program "60 Minutes" that the site gives polarizing, hateful content more reach and does little to stop its spread. In response to this controversial reveal, shares of the Facebook had dropped about 5.5% by 1:50 p.m. ET.
"There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money," Haugen said.
“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,” says Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. https://t.co/wbxxfgorNE pic.twitter.com/zpQIwcdatr
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 3, 2021
Earlier this year, Haugen released thousands of pages of internal research and documents, some of which reported that Facebook only addressed about 5% of its hateful content.
"I've seen a bunch of social networks, and it was substantially worse at Facebook than anything I've seen before," Haugen said. "At some point in 2021, I realized I'm going to have to do this in a systematic way, that I'm going to have to get out enough [documents] that no one can question that this is real."
Facebook pushed back, telling CNN that “to suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true."
"Every day our teams have to balance protecting the ability of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place," Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch said in a statement to CNN following Haugen’s interview.
The controversy has also caused backlash on social media.
Users of the social platform and its photo sharing app Instagram have taken it to Twitter with the hashtag #DeleteFacebook, which is now trending in the U.S.
Sure, go ahead and #DeleteFacebook. But really, we need to delete surveillance capitalism. We do that by demanding lawmakers in DC finally pass real data privacy legislation, eradicating Facebook's business model of harvesting our data & using it to algorithmically manipulate us.
— Evan Greer (@evan_greer) October 4, 2021
“It’s easier to incite people with anger.”#Facebook is destroying our society from within.🤬#DeleteFacebook https://t.co/LDku3ncAEr
— Dena Grayson, MD, PhD (@DrDenaGrayson) October 4, 2021
Later on Monday, Facebook and its apps Instagram and WhatsApp stopped working completely. Though there are no direct correlations between the apps’ malfunction and Facebook’s scandal, the social media collapse is a simple reminder of the tech giant’s impact as thousands of users share their frustrations and memes using the hashtag #instagramdown, #facebookdown and #whatsappdown on Twitter.
*Whatsapp Facebook and Instagram users right now*#WhatsAppdown #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/MCgYVR619Z
— Prayag (@theprayagtiwari) October 4, 2021
Stop restarting your phone. It’s not you. WhatsApp is down. Facebook and Instagram too. #whatsappdown
— Rebecca Enonchong (@africatechie) October 4, 2021
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