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“I have blood on my hands,” writes a former Facebook employee.
According to Sophie Zhang, the social network could do more to stop the political manipulation of its platform by various governments, believes a data specialist, recently fired by the social network.
In a 6,600-word dependent note, published on her last day at Facebook and obtained by Buzzfeed News, she accuses the California giant of ignoring or delaying action against fake accounts used to undermine elections and political life in many countries.
"I have detected multiple blatant attempts by foreign governments to exploit our platform on a large scale in order to deceive their own citizens," wrote Sophie Zhang., She continues.
A note posted on Buzzfeed
In one of the examples cited, Sophie Zhang reveals that it took nine months for Facebook to take action against a campaign using "inauthentic assets" used for manipulation in favor of the President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez .
The report also mentions concerted efforts to harass, deceive or manipulate citizens in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Bolivia, Ecuador, India and other countries, as well as attempts at electoral manipulation in the United States and Brazil.
In response to the note, Facebook said it had stepped up its efforts to fight disinformation and manipulation.
"We have put in place specialized teams, which work with the most reputable experts to prevent malicious actors from exploiting our systems, which has resulted in the withdrawal of more than 100 networks for concerted inauthentic behavior," reacted Facebook in a statement.
The group assured that this "very comprehensive" work was carried out "without respite".
Buzzfeed said it did not publish the full note because it contains personal information.
Sophie Zhang declined severance pay
According to the site, Sophie Zhang, who declined to be interviewed, declined severance pay offered by Facebook, which included a "no-denigration" clause.
The former employee clarified that she did not want the details of her memo made public for fear of disrupting Facebook's efforts to protect the November US presidential election.
“The last thing I want is to distract ourselves from the efforts for the upcoming US election, even though I know that's what this publication will do internally,” writes Sophie Zhang.
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