Facebook has been jumping from one scandal to the next for the past five years. Political interference, fake news, vaccine misinformation, antitrust concerns. In this context, the latest scandal – a whistleblower revealing the company knew its products could cause meaningful harm – does not seem to be that different. Especially as this is not the first whistleblower in Facebook’s history.
However, this scandal is breaking differently. The press are focused on it, lawmakers are working with the whistleblower and one Senator, Richard Blumenthal, has compared Facebook’s tactics to those of Big Tobacco (being aware of the harmful effects of its products and withholding that knowledge from the public).
The other key difference is the focus of the issues. With the election interference, fake news and vaccine misinformation, the focus was on Facebook’s content policy and censorship decisions. In this case, the focus is on Facebook’s algorithm and core platform design. This is not individual moderation issues. This is the whole platform. In these two articles, Vox have outlined why this Facebook scandal is different and MIT’s Technology Review have taken a deep dive on Facebook’s algorithm. Together, they make clear why this Facebook scandal is not going to fade into the background and will be the one to watch.
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