Mark Zuckerberg

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  • Facebook, former manager Haugen in the US Senate: "We need total transparency of the algorithms"

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October 26, 2021 "Good faith criticism helps us to improve, but the opinion is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to use a selective way of leaked documents to paint a false image of our company": said the CEO of Facebook , Mark Zuckerbeg, commenting on the latest wave of "Facebook files".



"The truth is that they have an open culture that encourages discussion and research about our work so that we can make progress on many complex issues that aren't just specific to our company," concluded Zuckerberg. The documents testify to some of the most important difficulties facing Facebook, including the battle to regulate disinformation and hate speech or the use of the social platform by human traffickers.



Despite the controversy, the results of the quarterly report turned out to be positive all in all: an increase in users both on a daily and weekly basis responded to a slight decrease in revenues compared to the expected estimate (in any case over 29 billion dollars).



The Facebook Files


Unheard reports, ignored alarms, calls to action fallen on deaf ears, but also manager interference to pave the way for politicians and VIPs. The Facebook papers probably open the worst crisis ever for Zuckerberg's social network which, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, thought or at least hoped to have passed the major test. Despite the blow to the reputation, the accounts of the giant are holding: in the third quarter the profit has risen by 17% to 9.1 billion dollars, on revenues up by 35% to 29.01 billion. Sifted through 17 American media, the 10,000 pages of internal company documents delivered to the Sec (Securities and Exchange Commission) offer a glimpse of a Facebook where - as denounced byformer mole employee Frances Hughues - profits and growth are favored over everything else, even the safety of friends.



Precisely in order not to weigh on the accounts Zuckerberg, champion of freedom of expression in the United States, bowed to the request of the Vietnamese Communist Party to censor anti-government posts. Not doing so would have exposed Facebook to the risk of going offline in the country where, according to some estimates, it makes a billion in revenues a year. Also on Zuckerberg would fall the responsibility for several decisions on posts about politicians and celebrities. The documents reveal interference from managers to allow VIPs to post anything regardless of any violations of the rules. "In many cases the decision on non-compliance" by high-profile people "was made by managers and in some cases by Zuckerberg," an employee denounced.Heavy accusations for the 37-year-old CEO and founder of Facebook, a Zuckerberg-controlled giant who is also chairman of the board as well as holding 58% of the voting shares, with which his power is virtually limitless in the company but also in front of the board.



A position therefore of extreme strength that now exposes him to harsh controversy. "Instead of changing its name, Facebook should change CEO", say some critics referring to the expected change of the name and logo of the social to better reflect the Metaverse. In addition to casting a shadow on Zuckerberg directly, the documents raise doubts about Facebook's role in the misinformation about the election and the January 6 attack, with the inability to act on the 'Stop the steal' movement of Donald Trump's fans. Internal Facebook searches have shown the awareness of the company's managers on the problems related to hate speech and disinformation, to which - the files reveal - the products created by Facebook and its policies contribute.The fight against bad or false information - the employees denounced again - is undermined by political considerations. the problem of hate speech, however, does not concern only the US but goes far beyond its borders up to India and Ethiopia.



The photograph taken from the documents - which also include reports on human trafficking - shows a somewhat ruthless Facebook that risks attracting even more discontent and criticism from authorities around the world.

On Wall Street, however, Facebook still has some 'friends' and despite revenues that are below expectations in the third quarter, they climbed 1.26%.