WASHINGTON: A former Facebook data scientist told Congress on Tuesday that the social network giant’s products harm children and fuel polarization in the US while its executives refuse to change because they elevate profits over safety. And she laid responsibility with the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Frances Haugen testified to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. Speaking confidently at a charged hearing, she accused the company of being aware of apparent harm to some teens from Instagram and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation.
“Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said. “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.”
“Congressional action is needed,” she said. “They won’t solve this crisis without your help.”
Haugen said the company has acknowledged publicly that integrity controls were crucially needed for its systems that stoke the engagement of users, but then it disabled some of those controls.
In dialogue with receptive senators of both parties, Haugen, who focused on algorithm products in her work at Facebook, explained the importance to the company of algorithms that govern what shows up on users’ news feeds. She said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together.
Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, she said Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back — a pattern that helped the social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate most of its revenue.
Senators agreed.
“It has profited off spreading misinformation and disinformation and sowing hate,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, the panel’s chairman. “Facebook’s answers to Facebook’s destructive impact always seems to be more Facebook, we need more Facebook — which means more pain, and more money for Facebook.”
Haugen said she believed Facebook didn’t set out to build a destructive platform. But “in the end, the buck stops with Mark,” she said referring to Zuckerberg, who controls more than 50 percent of Facebook’s voting shares. “There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself.”
Haugen said she believed that Zuckerberg was familiar with some of the internal research showing concerns for potential negative impacts of Instagram.
The government needs to step in with stricter oversight of the company, Haugen said.
Like fellow tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook has enjoyed minimal regulation. A number of bipartisan legislative proposals for the tech industry address data privacy, protection of young people and anti-competitive conduct. But getting new laws through Congress is a heavy slog. The Federal Trade Commission has adopted a stricter stance recently toward Facebook and other companies.
The subcommittee is examining Facebook’s use of information from its own researchers on Instagram that could indicate potential harm for some of its young users, especially girls, while it publicly downplayed the negative impacts. For some of the teens devoted to Facebook’s popular photo-sharing platform, the peer pressure generated by the visually focused Instagram led to mental health and body-image problems, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the research leaked by Haugen showed.
One internal study cited 13.5 percent of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17 percent of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.
Because of the drive for user engagement, Haugen testified, “Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content. ... It’s just like cigarettes. Teenagers don’t have any self-regulation. We need to protect the kids.”
Haugen has come forward with a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook, buttressed with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit. She also has filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but the company hides what it knows.
“The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the US government and from governments around the world,” Haugen said. “The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has repeatedly misled the public about what its own research reveals about the safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages.”
The former employee challenging the social network giant with 2.8 billion users worldwide and nearly $1 trillion in market value is a 37-year-old data expert from Iowa with a degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in business from Harvard. Prior to being recruited by Facebook in 2019, she worked for 15 years at tech companies including Google, Pinterest and Yelp.
After recent reports in The Wall Street Journal based on documents she leaked to the newspaper raised a public outcry, Haugen revealed her identity in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday night.
As the public relations debacle over the Instagram research grew last week, Facebook put on hold its work on a kids’ version of Instagram, which the company says is meant mainly for tweens aged 10 to 12.
Haugen said that Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to violence after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol.
After the November election, Facebook dissolved the civic integrity unit where Haugen had been working. That, she says, was the moment she realized “I don’t trust that they’re willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.”
Haugen says she told Facebook executives when they recruited her that she wanted to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, because she had lost a friend to online conspiracy theories.
Facebook maintains that Haugen’s allegations are misleading and insists there is no evidence to support the premise that it is the primary cause of social polarization.
“Even with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform, we’re never going to be absolutely on top of this 100 percent of the time,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of policy and public affairs, said Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
That’s because of the “instantaneous and spontaneous form of communication” on Facebook, Clegg said, adding, “I think we do more than any reasonable person can expect to.”
Facebook whistleblower says network profits as it hurts kids, fuels division
https://arab.news/me2qz
Facebook whistleblower says network profits as it hurts kids, fuels division
- Facebook’s leadership had rejected recommendations made to make its sites, which include Instagram, safer
- Frances Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, said Facebook had also done too little to prevent its platform from being used by people planning violence
US-made weapon used by Israel in strike that killed journalists, investigation finds
- The Guardian probe reveals Boeing-made kit used to convert unguided bomb into precision-guided weapon, pointing to deliberate targeting
- Warning that targeting journalists based on assumed political affiliations is ‘dangerous trend,’ violation of international law
LONDON: A US-made weapon was used by Israel in an airstrike that killed three journalists and injured three others in southern Lebanon, according to an investigation by The Guardian published on Monday.
The British newspaper revealed that munitions manufactured in the US targeted cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammad Reda from Iran-backed Hezbollah outlet Al-Mayadeen, as well as cameraman Wissam Qassem from the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel. Experts have called the attack a potential war crime.
The strike, which was carried out on the night of Oct. 25, hit a chalet in Hasbaya that was being used as a press station by several media workers, including journalists from Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia, and TRT.
The Israeli military claimed it targeted a “Hezbollah military structure” in which “terrorists were located,” but later said that the incident was under review after learning journalists were among the casualties.
Nadim Houry, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, told The Guardian: “All the indications show that this would have been a deliberate targeting of journalists: a war crime.
“This was clearly delineated as a place where journalists were staying.”
The investigation found no evidence to support Israel’s claims. Cars marked with “Press” signs were parked outside the chalet, and no military activity was detected in the area before the strike.
Witnesses said Israeli drones constantly monitored the site during the 23 days it was used as a press hub.
Ahmed Baydoun, an Amsterdam-based open-source intelligence researcher who was among the first to geolocate the strike, told Arab News that while satellite imagery and eyewitness video analysis pinpointed the chalet’s exact coordinates, providing both “accuracy” and a “tangible grasp of the gravity of the situation” in Hasbaya, definitive conclusions about the incident “would require shrapnel or remnants of the ammunition from the site.”
Geolocated #Israel’s airstrike on the residence of Lebanese journalists in Hasbaya, Lebanon that happened at 4:21 AM. Coordinates: 33.407794, 35.673511. #Lebanon https://t.co/f9Pw8OkjSZ pic.twitter.com/CONQAbvr3P
— A. Baydoun (@weatherwar) October 25, 2024
Remnants of munitions at the scene indicated that at least one weapon used was a 500lb MK-80 series bomb equipped with a Boeing-made JDAM (joint direct attack munition) kit, which converts unguided bombs into precision-guided weapons. The use of such a bomb suggests the site was deliberately selected as a target.
Under US law, the use of American-made weapons in attacks that constitute crimes against humanity requires the suspension of arms supplies to the country in question. Both Israel and the US have denied such accusations.
The journalists killed in the strike were not members of Hezbollah, although one coffin was draped in a Hezbollah flag during burial.
Experts noted that such practices often signify political affiliation but do not indicate military or operational involvement.
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict, said targeting journalists based on assumed political affiliations was “a dangerous trend already witnessed in Gaza” and “not compatible with international law.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that since the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed six journalists in Lebanon and at least 129 in Gaza, marking the deadliest period for the profession in over four decades.
Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, accused Israeli authorities of “blatantly ignoring” their international legal obligations to safeguard journalists.
Israeli government sanctions Haaretz newspaper citing allegations of ‘anti-state’ incitement
- Move confirmed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi
LONDON: Israel’s government on Sunday announced plans to boycott the country’s leading left-leaning newspaper, Haaretz.
The move, confirmed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, follows a unanimous decision by Israeli ministers to order a halt to government advertising in its pages. Officials and employees of government-funded organizations are also prohibited from engaging with the publication.
“We will not allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the State of Israel will call for the imposition of sanctions against it and will support the enemies of the state in the midst of a war and will be financed by it,” said a statement from Karhi’s office.
“We advocate a free press and freedom of expression, but also the freedom of the government to decide not to fund incitement against the state of Israel.”
Haaretz is known for its critical stance on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition. It has recently drawn anger from the government for vocal support of a ceasefire to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas since Oct. 7 last year.
In response to Karhi’s decision, Haaretz issued a scathing statement accusing Netanyahu of undermining Israel’s democratic principles.
“Like his friends Putin, Erdogan and Orban, Netanyahu is trying to silence a critical, independent newspaper. Haaretz will not balk and will not morph into a government pamphlet that publishes messages approved by the government and its leader,” the statement read.
The government’s justification for the boycott centers on remarks by Amos Schocken, Haaretz’s publisher, during a recent conference in London. Schocken described the Israeli government as “imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population” and accused it of targeting “freedom fighters” among Palestinians, a statement he later clarified was not intended to refer to Hamas.
The boycott has drawn condemnation from international press freedom advocates, reported The Guardian.
The International Federation of Journalists said it was concerned the Israeli government’s actions represented a broader effort to restrict press freedom and public access to independent reporting.
In May, Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera, citing national security concerns. The government’s decision to close the satellite news network was met with widespread criticism, with opponents calling it a “dark day for the media.”
As tensions between the government and independent media continue to rise, critics have argued the actions represent a troubling erosion of democratic values in Israel.
Event in London asks whether advanced technology might be key to longer life
- ATOM Conference explores ways in which advances in AI, quantum computing and biomedical sciences might revolutionize healthcare and extend lifespans
- ‘We have spent a lot of money on ... things to understand the non-living universe but … we don’t understand our bodies,’ says Armen Sarkissian, former president of Armenia
LONDON: Experts in the fields of healthcare and technology gathered for the ATOM Conference at London’s National Science Museum to explore the ways in which advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biomedical sciences might revolutionize healthcare and extend human life.
They focused in particular on how best to leverage cutting-edge technologies to aid understanding of the “living universe” with the aim of improving health so that 100-year lifespans become the norm.
“Life matters. At the end of the day, whatever is happening on our planet, for us it’s about life,” Armen Sarkissian, the former president of Armenia, said during his opening remarks to delegates.
“We have spent a lot of money on our accelerators, our space stations, observation telescopes and many other things to understand the non-living universe but I realized that I don’t understand my body; we don’t understand our bodies.”
Sarkissian, who trained as a physicist and computer scientist before becoming a politician, was joined at the conference by an array of prominent expert speakers, including: Irene Tracey, the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford; physicist Konstantin Novoselov, a Nobel prize-winner for his work on graphene; and Eric Xing, the president of Mohammed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi.
King Charles, a friend of Sarkissian, was scheduled to attend the conference but his speech was instead delivered by a spokesperson. In it, the monarch emphasized the royal family’s commitment to medical innovation, noting in particular his own interest in cancer research and treatment.
“Many of you will know that earlier this year (the king) was diagnosed with cancer, and (he is) very keen that other people should gain some benefit from his diagnosis,” said Dr. Michael Dixon, head of the Royal Medical Household.
“Perhaps he is more aware than any of us of the extraordinary potential to unleash a healthier future for us all.”
The conference was organized by the ATOM Institute, which was founded by Sarkissian and his son Vardan, the Science Museum and Singapore University.
Speakers highlighted the fact that our limited understanding of the living universe contrasts sharply with our advanced knowledge of many aspects of the non-living one. The discussions also considered the effects of conflicts and climate change on global health.
“We are living a time where there are devastating wars worldwide; in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Armenia and elsewhere in the world, hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost,” Sarkissian said.
“You can restore a bridge, you can restore a house, you can restore many things (but) how on earth do you restore lives that are destroyed? How on earth do you (restore) the millions of people who are wounded? How do you restore the mental problems and depression of tens of millions of people (resulting from) our activity?”
Other panel discussions considered pressing health-related challenges such antimicrobial resistance, which was recently highlighted at the UN General Assembly, and the resilience of healthcare systems during pandemics and natural disasters.
Specialist sessions focused on the growing global crisis in mental health; the transformative potential of AI in the health sector, including its implications for patient care, diagnostics and longevity; and ethical challenges relating to data security and privacy.
The ATOM Institute, the name of which stands for “Advanced Tomorrow,” seeks to foster collaborations on issues spanning geopolitics, medical innovation and technological breakthroughs with the aim of revolutionizing healthcare and extending the human lifespan.
OpenAI considers taking on Google with browser, the Information reports
- OpenAI has already entered the search market with SearchGPT
- Google commands the lion’s share of the browser and search market
ChatGPT-owner OpenAI has recently considered developing a web browser that would combine with its chatbot and has separately discussed or struck deals to power search features, the Information reported on Thursday.
OpenAI has spoken about the search product with website and app developers such as Conde Nast, Redfin, Eventbrite and Priceline, the report said, citing people who have seen prototypes or designs of the products.
Google and OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The move could pit the Sam Altman-led company against search giant Google, which commands the lion’s share of the browser and search market. OpenAI has already entered the search market with SearchGPT.
Alphabet shares were down 1 percent after the bell, after falling nearly 5 percent in regular trading on Thursday.
Snap launches new office, first hub for creators in Saudi Arabia
- Diriyah’s JAX District is location for platform
- Move will support partnership with Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture
DUBAI: Snap is expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia with the launch of a new office and the Kingdom’s first creator hub, named Majlis Snap for Content Creators, in Diriyah’s JAX District, near Riyadh.
Majlis Snap for Content Creators will serve as a platform to grow and support the local creator community through training, educational programs and opportunities for collaboration.
The opening ceremony of the new office was attended by Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc.; Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih; and Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha.
The event featured a conversation between Spiegel and Jomana Al-Rashid, the CEO of the Saudi Research and Media Group, about Snap’s growth and popularity in the Kingdom.
Spiegel also hosted exclusive sessions with content creators to commemorate the launch of Majlis Snap for Content Creators.
The establishment of the new office will support Snap’s partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture by upskilling local talent.
Abdulla Alhammadi, managing director of Snap Inc. in Saudi Arabia, said that the Kingdom was one of the company’s “most dynamic growth markets” and the investment would “enhance the experience” of both Snapchat users and advertisers.
Hussein Freijeh, the vice president of Snap Inc. in the Middle East and North Africa region, said that the company’s expansion in Saudi Arabia “symbolizes more than just a physical presence,” and represented “a deeper commitment to enhancing Saudi Arabia’s digital ecosystem.”
He added: “This marks a huge milestone in our journey in KSA, and we look forward to strengthening our connection with Saudi partners and clients, in line with the country’s digital transformation agenda.”
Snapchat has 25 million active monthly users in the Kingdom, reaching 90 percent of those aged between 13 and 34, with users opening it 50 times a day on average.
