September 20, 2021
Facebook recently dismissed a Wall Street Journal report on the social media company’s platform as “deliberate mischaracterizations” saying the articles had “conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook’s leadership and employees.”
The Wall Street Journal, citing internal company documents such as research reports, online employee discussions and presentation drafts to management, reported that while Facebook researchers recognized “the platform’s ill effects,” the tech giant had not moved to solve them.
The Wall Street Journal articles allege that Facebook has exempted prominent users from some or all of its rules, downplayed the negative impact on young users of its Instagram app, made changes to its algorithm that have made the platform “angrier,” and had a tepid response to concerns from employees about how the platform is used by traffickers in developing countries.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, called the statement that “Facebook conducts research and then systematically and willfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company” simply false.
Clegg also defended Facebook’s handling of posts about the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the “intersection between social media and well-being” remained an evolving issue in the research community.
For more information, you may view the original story from Reuters.
For more information, view the original story from Reuters.
