Facebook Cracks Down on Message Boards
Facebook has made some of its discussion groups private to avoid information leaks.
Facebook message boards are used for workers to communicate and collaborate with each other. However, because of the leaks recently, it decided to make some private. Many users were shocked at the news, and many chose to remove themselves from the popular social media site.
Francis Haugen, a former project manager who worked at Facebook, was hired to help protect election content on Facebook. She recently told the public that the platform she was working for was not as it seemed. It frustrated her to see what was going on behind the scenes at her job. So she decided to release information about Facebook. Many believe that she was trying to destroy the social media site, but she has stated that she was trying to help change Facebook.
“As long as your goal is creating more engagement, optimizing for likes, reshares and comments, you’re going to continue prioritizing polarizing, hateful content,” Haugen said.
The leaks involved misinformation and toxic speech. The biggest news was that the Mexican drug cartel used Facebook to recruit members and hire assassins, and some users in the Middle East used the site for human trafficking. On Instagram, the leaks revealed that teenage girls’ mental health was also a massive stand out. Haugen has gone to testify at Congress about what she saw while working at the company. “During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth: Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside Facebook, ” she told Congress.
Facebook released a statement that it would remove anyone on discussion boards who isn’t working on safety and security in the coming months, “with the expectation that sensitive integrity discussions will happen in closed, curated forums in the future.”
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