Facebook Can Move Faster Than Government Can Move, Right?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

If the growth rate of all those harms is exceeding the speed and growth rate of our solutions, then we know what the world is going to look like. We don't want just to move towards five % less bad book while the bads are growing at 50% per year. That's not going to get us very far. We want to move to a world where facebook, or social media, as it's a brain implant in our democracy, actually makes for a better and stronger democracy. And i really believe that we have not lost the opportunity to change. We have notLost the opportunity to act.

We are now in social media's Big Tobacco moment. And that’s largely thanks to the courage of one woman: Frances Haugen.

Frances is a specialist in algorithmic product management. She worked at Google, Pinterest, and Yelp before joining Facebook — first as a Product Manager on Civic Misinformation, and then on the Counter-Espionage team. But what she saw at Facebook was that the company consistently and knowingly prioritized profits over public safety. So Frances made the courageous decision to blow the whistle — which resulted in the biggest disclosure in the history of Facebook, and in the history of social media.

In this special interview, co-hosts Tristan and Aza go behind the headlines with Frances herself. We go deeper into the problems she exposed, discuss potential solutions, and explore her motivations — along with why she fundamentally believes change is possible. We also announce an exciting campaign being launched by the Center for Humane Technology — to use this window of opportunity to make Facebook safer.