Daily Times

Imagine being a 37-year-old man with global influence, unparalleled power and earning $40 billion in annual profits. Mark Zuckerberg is that man, the likes of whom the world has never seen.

Imagine being a 37-year-old woman, who publicly calls out the moral and social failings of that man, as the world watches.

This was Frances Haugen testifying before the US Senate on October 5, 2021. Ms Haugen later testified before the British Parliament and this month, she will meet the EU. More than 18 news organisations have joined in examining the research data she presented. Facebook was demystified, thanks to her bold and conscientious initiative.

Facebook connected people in unprecedented ways. From connecting families and friends to communities, it also paved the way for strangers to come together based on their interests irrespective of where they lived on the globe.

Facebook became a major portion of internet usage because man is a social animal. However, the dark side of man also manifested itself on Facebook in full force. The addictive nature of Facebook was often lamented and people would decry its adverse effects on the young.

Parents did not know how to handle the Facebook challenge, whereby their kids seemed glued to their smartphone screens; becoming couch potatoes fully immersed in materialism at a tender age.

Cyberbullying is a real and serious threat to mental health and even to people’s lives. Facebook operates globally in thousands of languages and being a small, highly secretive private company, it is generating complex moral, social and political issues, which have led to ethnic violence, fanned famine and caused population displacement.

The emphasis on growth, virality and reactiveness over public safety is the case against Facebook.

However, to his credit, Mark Zuckerberg had set in place mechanisms to monitor and understand data trends. This is how Ms Haugen was able to present reliable research data to the authorities. That Facebook knew what was going on, but chose profits over people is the whole issue. The emphasis on growth, virality and reactiveness over public safety is the case against Facebook. Facebook uses Artificial Intelligence (AI). A computer-driven social media can never compare to human scale social media.

The anonymity of social media allows humans to manifest the dark side of human nature with impunity and hence the content that goes viral is mostly negative. If it goes viral it is classified as MSI (Meaningful Social Interaction). Downstream MSI spreads hate speech, misinformation, violence, graphic violent content. Algorithms learn correlations. They learn interaction and relevance as a ranking model. This is called EBR (Engagement Based Ranking).

This means that computer-driven social media will encourage negative human interaction as it lacks moral considerations in its decisions. It cannot distinguish between good content and bad content. It can only promote that which is popular. EBR is dangerous, hence.

Facebook knows that it is causing serious harm to kids and teens’ mental health. Their research shows that problematic use (addiction) by age peaked at 14 years. Facebook has, thus, harmful features that quantify popularity, push manipulative influencer marketing, and amplify harmful content to teens. This leads to cyberbullying, body dysmorphia, eating disorders and suicidal tendencies.

Parents are unable to help as they don’t understand this technology and the resulting challenges of 24/7 connectedness with the proverbial schoolyard bullies. The harm caused to human communities is much greater. One way Facebook overcame this was through Integrity Systems (IS), which were intended to curb misinformation and other threats.

Integrity systems exist for the 29 dominant languages of the world, with English topping the list. This means that populations with other languages are at high risk of violence. Ms Haugen has presented evidence of Facebook’s role in spurring anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar and India. Facebook is also to blame for severe ethnic violence and civil war in Ethiopia.

As the product manager of the counter-espionage team, Ms Haugen revealed that Facebook was utilised by Iran and China for surveillance and espionage.

The chairman of the committee then revealed that under Section 230, the law offers Facebook broad immunity not known to even Congressmen. This poses the greatest challenge to any state action against Facebook. However, this is being looked into and quite likely new legislation will effectively counter this obstruction.

The conduct of the US Congressmen was heartening to watch. Not only had they done their homework right but despite belonging to the non-tech savvy boomer generation, they fully understood the context and were prepared for appropriate action. AI transparency and accountability was stressed and concern was shown for the preservation of children’s mental health. This was a group of elected representatives dutifully safeguarding the interest of the state and its citizens. They were fully prepared to face the challenges, and their actions will have a positive impact not just upon their countrymen but on the world at large.

Meanwhile, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the virtual reality firm Oculus, Mark Zuckerberg’s universe is now known as Meta. It is an interconnected world in which our work, life, and leisure all take place on its infrastructure — likely monetizing all aspects of our lives. Facebook even plans to issue a currency. We are living in very interesting times, indeed.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at aliya1924@gmail.com.