As supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, battling police and forcing lawmakers into hiding, an insurrection of a different kind was taking place inside the world바카라s largest social media company.
It quickly became clear that even after years under the microscope for insufficiently policing its platform, the social network had missed how riot participants spent weeks vowing 바카라 on Facebook itself 바카라 to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden바카라s election victory.
As supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, battling police and forcing lawmakers into hiding, an insurrection of a different kind was taking place inside the world바카라s largest social media company.
Thousands of miles away, in California, Facebook engineers were racing to tweak internal controls to slow the spread of misinformation and inciteful content. Emergency actions 바카라 some of which were rolled back after the 2020 election 바카라 included banning Trump, freezing comments in groups with a record for hate speech, filtering out the 바카라Stop the Steal바카라 rallying cry and empowering content moderators to act more assertively by labeling the U.S. a 바카라Temporary High Risk Location바카라 for political violence.
At the same time, frustration inside Facebook erupted over what some saw as the company바카라s halting and inconsistent response to rising extremism in the U.S.
바카라Haven바카라t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?바카라 one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. 바카라We바카라ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn바카라t be surprised it바카라s now out of control.바카라
It바카라s a question that still hangs over the company today, as Congress and regulators investigate Facebook바카라s part in the Jan. 6 riots.
New internal documents provided by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen provide a rare glimpse into how the company appears to have simply stumbled into the Jan. 6 riot. It quickly became clear that even after years under the microscope for insufficiently policing its platform, the social network had missed how riot participants spent weeks vowing 바카라 on Facebook itself 바카라 to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden바카라s election victory.
The documents also appear to bolster Haugen바카라s claim that Facebook put its growth and profits ahead of public safety, opening the clearest window yet into how Facebook바카라s conflicting impulses 바카라 to safeguard its business and protect democracy 바카라 clashed in the days and weeks leading up to the attempted Jan. 6 coup.
This story is based in part on disclosures Haugen made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Haugen바카라s legal counsel. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.
What Facebook called 바카라Break the Glass바카라 emergency measures put in place on Jan. 6 were essentially a toolkit of options designed to stem the spread of dangerous or violent content that the social network had first used in the run-up to the bitter 2020 election. As many as 22 of those measures were rolled back at some point after the election, according to an internal spreadsheet analyzing the company바카라s response.
바카라As soon as the election was over, they turned them back off or they changed the settings back to what they were before, to prioritize growth over safety,바카라 Haugen said in an interview with 바카라60 Minutes.바카라
An internal Facebook report following Jan. 6, previously reported by BuzzFeed, faulted the company for having a 바카라piecemeal바카라 approach to the rapid growth of 바카라Stop the Steal바카라 pages, related misinformation sources, and violent and inciteful comments.
Facebook says the situation is more nuanced and that it carefully calibrates its controls to react quickly to spikes in hateful and violent content, as it did on Jan 6. The company said it바카라s not responsible for the actions of the rioters and that having stricter controls in place prior to that day wouldn바카라t have helped.
Facebook바카라s decisions to phase certain safety measures in or out took into account signals from the Facebook platform as well as information from law enforcement, said spokeswoman Dani Lever. 바카라When those signals changed, so did the measures.바카라
Lever said some of the measures stayed in place well into February and others remain active today.
Some employees were unhappy with Facebook바카라s managing of problematic content even before the Jan. 6 riots. One employee who departed the company in 2020 left a long note charging that promising new tools, backed by strong research, were being constrained by Facebook for 바카라fears of public and policy stakeholder responses바카라 (translation: concerns about negative reactions from Trump allies and investors).
바카라Similarly (though even more concerning), I바카라ve seen already built & functioning safeguards being rolled back for the same reasons,바카라 wrote the employee, whose name is blacked out.
Research conducted by Facebook well before the 2020 campaign left little doubt that its algorithm could pose a serious danger of spreading misinformation and potentially radicalizing users.
One 2019 study, entitled 바카라Carol바카라s Journey to QAnon바카라A Test User Study of Misinfo & Polarization Risks Encountered through Recommendation Systems,바카라 described results of an experiment conducted with a test account established to reflect the views of a prototypical 바카라strong conservative바카라 바카라 but not extremist 바카라 41-year North Carolina woman. This test account, using the fake name Carol Smith, indicated a preference for mainstream news sources like Fox News, followed humor groups that mocked liberals, embraced Christianity and was a fan of Melania Trump.
Within a single day, page recommendations for this account generated by Facebook itself had evolved to a 바카라quite troubling, polarizing state,바카라 the study found. By day 2, the algorithm was recommending more extremist content, including a QAnon-linked group, which the fake user didn바카라t join because she wasn바카라t innately drawn to conspiracy theories.
A week later the test subject바카라s feed featured 바카라a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial and graphic content,바카라 including posts reviving the false Obama birther lie and linking the Clintons to the murder of a former Arkansas state senator. Much of the content was pushed by dubious groups run from abroad or by administrators with a track record for violating Facebook바카라s rules on bot activity.
Those results led the researcher, whose name was redacted by the whistleblower, to recommend safety measures running from removing content with known conspiracy references and disabling 바카라top contributor바카라 badges for misinformation commenters to lowering the threshold number of followers required before Facebook verifies a page administrator바카라s identity.
Among the other Facebook employees who read the research the response was almost universally supportive.
바카라Hey! This is such a thorough and well-outlined (and disturbing) study,바카라 one user wrote, their name blacked out by the whistleblower. 바카라Do you know of any concrete changes that came out of this?바카라
Facebook said the study was an one of many examples of its commitment to continually studying and improving its platform.
Another study turned over to congressional investigators, titled 바카라Understanding the Dangers of Harmful Topic Communities,바카라 discussed how like-minded individuals embracing a borderline topic or identity can form 바카라echo chambers바카라 for misinformation that normalizes harmful attitudes, spurs radicalization and can even provide a justification for violence.
Examples of such harmful communities include QAnon and, hate groups promoting theories of a race war.
바카라The risk of offline violence or harm becomes more likely when like-minded individuals come together and support one another to act,바카라 the study concludes.
Charging documents filed by federal prosecutors against those alleged to have stormed the Capitol have examples of such like-minded people coming together.
Prosecutors say a reputed leader in the Oath Keepers militia group used Facebook to discuss forming an 바카라alliance바카라 and coordinating plans with another extremist group, the Proud Boys, ahead of the riot at the Capitol.
바카라We have decided to work together and shut this s바카라t down,바카라 Kelly Meggs, described by authorities as the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, wrote on Facebook, according to court records.