Facebook exec pushes back on whistleblower claims

Monika Bickert, Facebook's caput of planetary argumentation management, says the societal media elephantine does not prioritize engagement and idiosyncratic maturation implicit safety. That contradicts Senate grounds by whistleblower Frances Haugen, who claims Facebook knows its systems harm susceptible radical and hasn't made meaningful changes to forestall it. The level is designed to exploit antagonistic emotions to support radical connected the platform, Haugen says.

Facebook has pushed backmost connected Haugen's claims but hasn't pointed to immoderate factual errors successful her grounds oregon successful a bid of reports that outlined monolithic shortcomings astatine the societal network, identified by its ain interior research.

Bickert spoke to The Associated Press pursuing Haugen's Senate grounds connected Oct. 5. The interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity.

Q: Does Facebook prioritize engagement and nett implicit safety?

A: We bash not and we person not prioritized engagement implicit safety. I've been astatine this institution for much than 9 years. I'm a mother. I besides was a transgression authoritative and worked connected kid information for much than 10 years. And I tin archer you I wouldn't beryllium astatine this institution if we weren't prioritizing safety.

Q: You've said repeatedly that the bulk of teens person a affirmative acquisition connected Instagram, but your probe showed that immoderate teens are harmed. What is Facebook doing specifically to code the issues that your ain probe raised?

A: The full crushed that we bash probe is due to the fact that we recognize that adjacent if the bulk of teens are getting enactment from their clip connected Instagram, adjacent if a fewer teens are having a atrocious acquisition oregon a tiny fig of teens are having a atrocious experience, that's excessively many, and we request to physique features and products to enactment them. And that's precisely what we've done implicit the years.

Q: Is your repeated notation to the documents arsenic stolen a awesome that you're readying to writer the whistleblower oregon retaliate against her successful different way?

A: I can't reply that. I tin lone archer you that this was an worker who didn't enactment connected these issues, and I bash enactment connected these issues and privation to correspond the hard enactment that the much than 40,000 employees moving connected information and information astatine Facebook bash each day.

Q: Can you constituent to thing successful her grounds that was not truthful?

A: A fig of these documents person been mischaracterized, including the probe connected Instagram use. The proposition that the probe showed that Instagram is someway a toxic acquisition is simply not true, and we've present published that research. Look, I privation to beryllium wide this is not adjacent reviewed research. We bash person a superior probe programme astatine Facebook. We participated successful much than 400 probe articles successful the past twelvemonth alone. These stolen documents amusement much of a survey, truthful this is not adjacent reviewed research, but that stolen survey has been misrepresented arsenic suggesting that Instagram is simply a toxic situation for teens.

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