back to article Facebook whistleblower calls for transparency in social media, AI

Frances Haugen, a transparency and accountability advocate known for blowing the whistle on Facebook, believes the tech industry needs to find a North Star to navigate through ethical and privacy risks. Speaking at the DataGrail Summit in Half Moon Bay, California, Haugen drew a metaphorical parallel between the moral drift …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is all great, but does she actually provide solutions, or is this another meaningless "we should make things generally suck less" rant? I like the comparison to testing automotives, but there isn't a clear transition between that and testing social platforms. You can't really compare a precision machine to a place a bunch of humans and robots yell at each other for attention.

    1. Phil Koenig Bronze badge

      AC wrote:

      ...does she actually provide solutions...

      Frances Haugen is a data scientist and a former member of Facebook's "civic integrity team" which apparently was tasked with trying to maintain a reasonable level of fairness and transparency on the platform. She became increasingly disenchanted over the choices that FB staff were pressured to make, and when FB dissolved the civic integrity team she decided to become a whistleblower.

      Given that she's never been a management executive responsible for policy I don't personally expect her to come up with such detailed strategies, she's just the "canary in the coalmine" who figured out that Facebook's hardcore stance of always picking the choices that added to profits even when they had a demonstrably serious negative impact on the quality of life of their users is causing some serious problems for society.

      It's up to the bigshots to decide what to do about that. The first step is even recognizing there is a problem. Luckily more and more people are beginning to see that now wrt social media, in part due to her contributions.

      Personally I think we should start thinking about a way to start bringing the public actively into the process of content decisions on large social media platforms, instead of just allowing them to do whatever greedy things they want to do. (Including all sorts of secret content policy decisions that I think many people would be aghast at if they knew they were being made.)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Kitemark

    “she suggests, companies can do more to promote data transparency”

    Companies do not voluntarily do anything except generate profit. We stopped food manufacturers from bulking out their products with unsafe additives by enforcing strict laws. In many parts of the world you can’t sell most products without a mark shown somewhere on the product saying it has been safety certified. If any popular website had to be safety checked and would be blocked if it lost its certification then the problem goes away. This has happened for all categories of products since the Industrial Revolution.

    I’m still in love with the early lawless anonymous internet from the late 90’s but it is killing children now and social media needs legislation. We keep encryption though and adult interest websites (I mean home improvement).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Kitemark

      100% agree with this comment. However, a certification for a website sounds dangerous and useless. It could only ever be used on small sites, which would easily lead to censorship. Big sites wouldn't feel a thing, as nobody ever dares interfere with big (domestic) websites (I'm ignoring the whole tiktok thing because it's about international warfare and not regulation). We simply can't use these real-world physical goods tactic on a virtual space, this has to be handled as a social issue, because it is one. I think it would be a lot better if we somehow fractured it up. I'm not talking about the fediverse, but just a way to let people have their own little private ponds where we can properly act like the hairless primates designed to know about 100 people, and no more, that we are. I'm good friends with some people in a very tight-knit little Discord group and I've never felt more at home, it feels like shelter from the rain of constantly battling people on the larger internet.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Re: nobody ever dares interfere with big (domestic) websites

        On that point, I really do think we should follow China's example and just throw Zuckerberg in jail for three months.

        Methinks that might have a positive effect on the rest . . .

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: nobody ever dares interfere with big (domestic) websites

          "On that point, I really do think we should follow China's example and just throw Zuckerberg in jail for three months"

          Unfortunately that wouldn't change the nasty bastards that use the web for all the wrong things. I am more for bringing back capital punishment for the CSAM and Fentanyl pushers.

    2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Kitemark

      Sounds like only a part of the solution. Here are a couple more possible pieces:

      1) Teach critical thinking in schools. Considering the possible consequences of a proposition and checking if they exist in the real world separates many propositions into the possible or raving loony conspiracy theory categories.

      2) A popular reason to adopt conspiracy theories is a need to feel special by knowing 'secrets' that hardly anyone else is aware of (dismisses as being contrary to real world experience). There are more healthy ways to gather self respect. I find a good way is to set myself goals that are a little outside my comfort zone. I was lucky enough to experience this from an early age in a good school. Some of the time was directed towards activity: keep them busy so they do not have time to vandalise the buildings. More of the time was directed towards achievement. More funding for education will give teachers the opportunity to put greater emphasis on the latter.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: Kitemark

        1) Teach critical thinking in schools

        It seems to me that a preference to teach a whole load of nonsense subjects that only ensure the student remains as dumb at the entry as they will be at the exit.

        It's almost as though someone very high up prefers to keep the "educated" at an extremely low level of critical thought.

        1. Phil Koenig Bronze badge

          Re: Kitemark

          "Khaptain" wrote:

          It's almost as though someone very high up prefers to keep the "educated" at an extremely low level of critical thought.

          This is precisely what I started wondering about when Reagan and his cohort went about disassembling public funding for higher education which resulted in many educational institutions ending up being much more dependent on funding coming from corporate sources and organizations allied with religious organizations. (During the GWB administration this was continued with his "faith-based initiatives", and then Trump appointing notorious anti-public-school crusader Betsy DeVos as education secretary)

          I don't think those things were an accident.

    3. Phil Koenig Bronze badge

      Re: Kitemark

      "Bendacious" wrote:

      Companies do not voluntarily do anything except generate profit.

      That may be nearly true in the USA due to the laws here that are extremely biased in the direction of corporate shareholders but it's not true a lot of other places in the world.

      I agree with you that something needs to be done about the way social media essentially warps reality with how they present data to users. Finally the public is starting to wake up to this.

      In the USA we can start by bringing back the Office of Technology Assessment.

      This was a non-partisan government agency whose mission was to educate members of the US Congress about up and coming technology so they could be at least somewhat educated about the new issues that come up as a result, before they have to decide how to deal with them legislatively. (And hopefully before corporate lobbyists get their claws into them and brainwash them about such things)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Office_of_Technology_Assessment

      Because I think one of the biggest problems is that most members of Congress are quite pathetic when it comes to understanding things like the rise of online social media until much damage has already been done.

  3. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Quotes

    "Whistleblower"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Quotes

      "That's all good, but who is this person again?"

      "Oh they said mean things about facebook"

  4. Nematode Bronze badge

    "Teach critical thinking in schools."

    Yes, I think much of the potential to correct the big bad world is in the actions of individuals. Legislation may still be required, but the examples of legislation prpovign to be counter-productive are legion.

    Funnily enough, the critical thinking idea has already attracted some interest from various folk including LabGov, see https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/bridget-phillipson-labour-association-of-school-and-college-leaders-liverpool-b2509882.html Of course The Farrago sees this as a threat (GeeBeebies warning) https://www.gbnews.com/news/labour-party-children-spot-extremist-content-nigel-farage-warning

  5. Tron Silver badge

    It's not a tech problem.

    All social media now provides options for locking down your account if you want to see less of stuff. But people don't use them.

    That's not a tech problem, but a human laziness problem. So stop blaming tech and start blaming people for being too damn lazy.

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