Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms in the world with more than 2 billion users, is an extremely well-known platform that helps people all across the world keep in touch. From a distance this platform seems like it’s pretty neat. However according to Facebook whistle blower Frances Haugen the trillion dollar company, “amplifies hate, misinformation, and political unrest.” She claims that the company would continuously prioritize what was good for the company over what was good for the public. Haugen says that these conflicts of interest are one of the main reasons why she left Facebook the way that she did. An article on CNN that followed the story of Huegens bravery, They highlighted the fact that Facebook had a multitude of opportunities to do right by the public and constantly chose profit over what was right. Huegen was quoted in this article saying, “The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money”. I personally am not on facebook but many adults and young adults in my life are, one example being my father who absolutely hates facebook and is well aware of all the awful and unethical practices it has used since its creation. Everyone that has seen the movie “social network” knows that Mark Zuckerberg even before the success of the app had been using unethical techniques and making very shady moves to start the company. As someone who has worked at multiple social media companies, Haugen says that none were as poorly run as facebook. In the year 2021 Haugen Gathered the strength to collect incriminating documents that would prove Facebook's wrong doings. In these documents she recovered written information that proved that Facebook had been lying to the public about taking strides to reduce hate, misinformation, and violence. After watching The 60 minute segment, I have been inclined to agree with Haugen, from a young age my mom always told me how bad Facebook really was, she told me that it promoted hate and would not think twice about selling personal information for profit. As a young kid it was hard to see the overall evil that there is in the world, however as I got older and ended up on a Facebook owned social media app Instagram, I realized how right my mother really was. It is clear that both Instagram and Facebook have a major impact on society and societies across the world, there are over 2.5 billion individuals on these Facebook owned apps and information posted on these apps reach from one side of the world to the other. Trends, and important information are often the positives of these apps, however the promotion of hate, violence, and misinformation A negative outweigh the positives. It is clear Facebook does more negative with their power than they do positive and because of these reasons I have no other choice but to agree with Huegen, similar to the case of Edward Snowden, she took a major risk in order to right a wrong That was negatively impacting our society and she was not only brave but vital to the integrity of our democracy in doing so.
60 Minutes youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lx5VmAdZSI
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