How Facebook algorithm harms children | Senate hearing | Facebook whistleblower — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00need to hold accountable facebook and
2. 0:03all big tech i came forward because i
3. 0:05believe that every human being
4. 0:07deserves the dignity of the truth they
5. 0:09knew
6. 0:10where the violations were
7. 0:12and they
8. 0:14know
9. 0:15they are
10. 0:16guilty the company's leadership knows
11. 0:19how to make facebook and instagram saver
12. 0:21but won't make the necessary changes
13. 0:23because they have put their astronomical
14. 0:25profits before people how do you get
15. 0:28that many underage accounts
16. 0:31if you aren't turning a blind eye to
17. 0:34them in the first place the choices
18. 0:36being made inside of facebook are
19. 0:38disastrous
20. 0:39for our children
21. 0:41our public safety
22. 0:43our privacy and for our democracy
23. 0:45and that is why we must demand facebook
24. 0:47make changes 66 percent of teen girls on
25. 0:51instagram and 40 of teen boys
26. 0:54experience negative social comparisons
27. 0:58almost no one outside of facebook knows
28. 1:00what happens inside of facebook mark
29. 1:02zuckerberg's going sailing and saying no
30. 1:04apologies uh trust is earned and
31. 1:07facebook has not earned our trust they
32. 1:09allow 99
33. 1:11of their violent contact to remain
34. 1:13unchecked on their platform
35. 1:15the buck stops with him the buck stops
36. 1:17with him
37. 1:20facebook is under the spotlight once
38. 1:22again american lawmakers are frustrated
39. 1:25with growing concerns over repeated
40. 1:27scandals privacy abuse lies
41. 1:30misinformation and safety of children
42. 1:33and this time they have an insider to
43. 1:36give them the real picture of what goes
44. 1:39on inside facebook's offices
45. 1:42the members of the senate's consumer
46. 1:44protection subcommittee have convened a
47. 1:46public hearing with facebook's
48. 1:48whistleblower francis hogan
49. 1:50the focus
50. 1:52is on safety of children a particularly
51. 1:54sore point for facebook and broader
52. 1:56concerns including toxic algorithm
53. 1:59amplification
54. 2:01the chairman of the subcommittee senator
55. 2:03richard blumenthal shared the results of
56. 2:06a recent experiment on facebook his own
57. 2:09staff members created a dummy account of
58. 2:11a teenage girl
59. 2:12and shared a couple of posts on eating
60. 2:15disorders and self-harm
61. 2:17listen in to what the results of this
62. 2:20experiment were
63. 2:23everything facebook does
64. 2:25is to add more users and keep them on
65. 2:28their apps for longer
66. 2:31in order to hook us instagram uses our
67. 2:33private
68. 2:35to precisely target us
69. 2:38with content and recommendations
70. 2:41assessing that
71. 2:43what will provoke a reaction
72. 2:46will keep us scrolling
73. 2:49far too often these recommendations
74. 2:51encourage our most destructive and
75. 2:53dangerous
76. 2:54behaviors we created a fake account my
77. 2:58office and i did as a teen interested in
78. 3:01extreme
79. 3:02dieting
80. 3:03and eating disorders
81. 3:05instagram
82. 3:06latched on to that teenager's initial
83. 3:09insecurities it then pushed more content
84. 3:12and recommendations
85. 3:13glorifying eating disorders
86. 3:17that's how instagram's algorithms
87. 3:20can push teens into darker and darker
88. 3:23places facebook's own researchers
89. 3:27called it instagram's quote perfect
90. 3:30storm
91. 3:35senator marsha blackburn pulled out data
92. 3:38from leaked documents called the
93. 3:40facebook files it is a series of reports
94. 3:43based on leaked internal facebook
95. 3:45research
96. 3:46and narrates a story about an
97. 3:48unstoppable snowball destroying
98. 3:50everything in its path to the bank
99. 3:54senator marsha highlighted the
100. 3:55significant number of teenagers who have
101. 3:57fallen victim to the glamorous world of
102. 4:00instagram
103. 4:01and its problematic standards of body
104. 4:03image and beauty
105. 4:06before you listen to this i must repeat
106. 4:08this data is derived from
107. 4:10facebook's internal research documents
108. 4:15and here you go 66 percent of teen girls
109. 4:18on instagram and 40 percent of teen boys
110. 4:21experience negative social comparisons
111. 4:26this is facebook's research 52 of teen
112. 4:31girls who experienced negative social
113. 4:34comparison on instagram
114. 4:36said it was caused by images related to
115. 4:39beauty social comparison mimics the
116. 4:42grief cycle and includes a downward
117. 4:44emotional spiral encompassing a range of
118. 4:48emotions from jealousy to
119. 4:50self-proclaimed body dysmorphia
120. 4:53facebook addiction which facebook calls
121. 4:57conveniently
122. 4:59problematic use
123. 5:01is most severe in teams peaking at age
124. 5:0514.
125. 5:09facebook is terrifyingly powerful but
126. 5:12can it be brought to heal with
127. 5:14aggressive governmental intervention or
128. 5:17hearings
129. 5:18american politicians have tried multiple
130. 5:20times to hold the social media giant
131. 5:22accountable mark zuckerberg has been
132. 5:25grilled questioned even yelled at in a
133. 5:28group in a room full of lawmakers and
134. 5:30cameras
135. 5:32and
136. 5:33on all these occasions the hearings have
137. 5:35often ended up with fresh promises hopes
138. 5:38for change
139. 5:40like this hearing from the year 2018.
140. 5:46we're going to start by doing an
141. 5:47investigation internally of every single
142. 5:49app that had access to a large amount of
143. 5:51information before we lock down the
144. 5:52platform if we detect any suspicious
145. 5:55activity at all
146. 5:57we are working with third-party auditors
147. 5:59i imagine there will have to be a number
148. 6:01of them because there are a lot of apps
149. 6:03and they will conduct the audit for us
150. 6:06we didn't take a broad enough view of
151. 6:08our responsibility
152. 6:10and that was a big mistake
153. 6:12it was my mistake
154. 6:14and i'm sorry
155. 6:16i started facebook i run it
156. 6:19and at the end of the day i'm
157. 6:20responsible for what happens here
158. 6:25as it turns out the tech gods are beyond
159. 6:28human comprehension
160. 6:30the world is well aware of its influence
161. 6:33user hostile growth hacks pivots its
162. 6:36missteps its priorities and design
163. 6:39but all they lagged was a deeper
164. 6:41understanding of how the company
165. 6:43specifically the website and its
166. 6:45algorithm
167. 6:46works
168. 6:47the former product manager working at
169. 6:49facebook and other social media
170. 6:51platforms helped the senate committee
171. 6:53with her personal experience and
172. 6:55concealed information
173. 6:59on and uh revealed information on how
174. 7:01the company works
175. 7:04during my time at facebook first working
176. 7:06as the lead product manager for civic
177. 7:08misinformation
178. 7:09and later on counter espionage
179. 7:11i saw facebook repeatedly encounter
180. 7:14conflicts between its own profits and
181. 7:15our safety
182. 7:17facebook consistently resolved these
183. 7:19conflicts in favor of its own profits
184. 7:22the result has been more division more
185. 7:24harm
186. 7:25more lies more threats and more combat
187. 7:29in some cases this is this dangerous
188. 7:31online talk has led to actual violence
189. 7:34that harms and even kills people
190. 7:36this is not simply a matter of certain
191. 7:39social media users being angry or
192. 7:41unstable or about one side being
193. 7:43radicalized against the other
194. 7:45it is about facebook choosing to grow at
195. 7:48all costs becoming an almost trillion
196. 7:50dollar company by buying its profits
197. 7:53with our safety
198. 7:55during my time at facebook i came to
199. 7:57realize a devastating truth
200. 7:59almost no one outside of facebook knows
201. 8:02what happens inside of facebook
202. 8:04the company intentionally hides vital
203. 8:06information from the public from the us
204. 8:08government and from governments around
205. 8:10the world
206. 8:11the documents i have provided to
207. 8:12congress prove that facebook has
208. 8:14repeatedly misled the public
209. 8:17about what its own research reveals
210. 8:18about the safety of children
211. 8:20the efficacy of its artificial
212. 8:22intelligence systems and its role in
213. 8:24spreading divisive and extreme messages
214. 8:27i came forward because i believe that
215. 8:29every human being
216. 8:30deserves the dignity of the truth
217. 8:33these problems
218. 8:35are solvable
219. 8:36a safer
220. 8:38free speech respecting
221. 8:40more enjoyable social media is possible
222. 8:43but there is one thing that i hope
223. 8:45everyone takes away from these
224. 8:46disclosures
225. 8:47it is that facebook can change but is
226. 8:49clearly not going to do so on its own
227. 8:53my fear is that without action
228. 8:55divisive and extremist behaviors we see
229. 8:57today are only the beginning
230. 8:59what we saw in myanmar and are now seen
231. 9:01in ethiopia are only the opening
232. 9:03chapters of a story so terrifying no one
233. 9:07wants to read the end of it
234. 9:09we are now available in your country
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236. 9:15the move