|
|
Facebook knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws but hasn’t fixed them. That’s one of the main findings of a WSJ series that launched this week, based heavily on an array of internal company documents. Catch up on the articles we’ve published so far, in this special newsletter edition. 💬 Then on Monday, join us for a live online event at 1:00 PM EDT. Editor Brad Reagan will talk with reporters Georgia Wells, Deepa Seetharaman and Justin Scheck about the WSJ investigation and will answer your questions. |
|
| PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ANDREW LEVINSON/WSJ |
|
|
|
Facebook says its rules apply to all, but company documents say something different. Mark Zuckerberg has said Facebook allows its more than three billion users to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism, and that its standards of behavior apply to everyone. In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by the WSJ. The program, known as “cross check” or “XCheck,” was initially intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile accounts, including celebrities, politicians and journalists. Today, it shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said criticism of XCheck was fair, but added that the system “was designed for an important reason: to create an additional step so we can accurately enforce policies on content that could require more understanding.” He said Facebook is continuing to work to phase out the practice of whitelisting. 🎧 Listen to a related episode of The Journal podcast. |
|
|
|
Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, its documents show. | | A multiple exposure portrait of teenager Anastasia Vlasova at home last month. PHOTO: HANNAH YOON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
|
For the past three years, Facebook has been conducting studies into how its photo-sharing app Instagram affects its millions of young users. Repeatedly, the company’s researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of them, most notably teenage girls. In public, Facebook has consistently played down the app’s negative effects on teens, and hasn’t made its research public or available to academics or lawmakers. In May, Instagram head Adam Mosseri told reporters that research he had seen suggests the app’s effects on teen well-being is likely “quite small.” In a recent interview, Mr. Mosseri said the research into the mental-health effects on teens was valuable. “In no way do I mean to diminish these issues.…Some of the issues mentioned in this story aren’t necessarily widespread, but their impact on people may be huge," he said. 🎧 Listen to The Journal podcast episode about Instagram. |
|
|
|
Facebook tried to make its platform a healthier place. It got angrier instead. | |
Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said the aim of an algorithm change on the platform in 2018 was to strengthen bonds between users and to improve well-being. Within the company, though, staffers warned the change was having the opposite effect, documents reviewed by the WSJ show. It was making Facebook’s platform an angrier place. In an interview, Lars Backstrom, a Facebook vice president of engineering, said that any algorithm risks promoting content that is objectionable or harmful to some users. “Like any optimization, there’s going to be some ways that it gets exploited or taken advantage of,” he said. “That’s why we have an integrity team that is trying to track those down and figure out how to mitigate them as efficiently as possible.” Data scientists on the integrity team worked on potential changes to the algorithm, but Mr. Zuckerberg resisted some of the proposed fixes, the documents show. 🎧 Listen to a related episode of the Journal podcast. |
|
|
|
Facebook employees flag drug cartels and human traffickers. The company's response is weak, documents show. | | Patricia Wanja Kimani at home in Nairobi last week. She was taken in by human traffickers who recruited workers on Facebook. PHOTO: NICHOLE SOBECKI/VII FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL |
|
Facebook's user base internationally, including in developing countries, is already huge and expanding. But the social-media giant commits fewer resources to stopping harm overseas than in the U.S., internal documents reviewed by the WSJ show, and in many foreign markets Facebook has few or no people who speak the dialects needed to identify dangerous or criminal uses of its platform. “In countries at risk for conflict and violence, we have a comprehensive strategy, including relying on global teams with native speakers covering over 50 languages, educational resources, and partnerships with local experts and third-party fact checkers to keep people safe,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said this week. The company has also said it is investing in artificial intelligence to help counter cartel activity on its platforms. 🎧 Listen to a related episode of The Journal podcast. |
|
|
|
Antivaccine activists used Facebook’s own tools to undermine Mark Zuckerberg's vaccine push. | |
Last March, the Facebook CEO said the social-media giant would use its resources to encourage 50 million people to get Covid-19 shots. Weeks before the announcement, Facebook's testing found some 41% of comments on English-language vaccine-related posts risked discouraging the shots, company documents show. The spread of false and misleading vaccine information on Facebook in subsequent months highlights the company's challenges controlling user-generated content. Even when the chief executive set a goal, he couldn’t steer the platform as he wanted. “The data shows that for people in the U.S. on Facebook, vaccine hesitancy has declined by about 50% since January, and acceptance is high,” Facebook spokesman Aaron Simpson said. “Narrowly characterizing leaked documents doesn’t accurately represent the problem, and it also ignores the work that’s been underway to make comments on posts about COVID-19 and vaccines safer and more reliable.” |
|
|
| The 10-Point was the name given to the news column on the WSJ's front page. Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by Eleanor Miller in New York in collaboration with Editor in Chief Matt Murray. The 10-Point is a WSJ member benefit. If someone forwarded you this email, we invite you to join us. |
|