The removal of Meta / Facebook number 2, Sheryl Sandberg, is unlikely to change much in the behavior of the California giant, estimates Frances Haugen, the former employee who accuses the social network of systematically favors its revenues at the expense of the safety of its users.
After 14 years with the group, which has become an Internet juggernaut under her leadership, Sheryl Sandberg announced last week that she was leaving Meta.
The choice of his successor, Javier Olivan, shows that the group not listening to the main rebuke made to himsaid the whistleblower.
In announcing his promotion, Meta boss and founder Mark Zuckerberg welcomed strong balance Javier Olivan, who to date has managed Facebook’s business growth.
This department contains many of the things I consider problematic at the company, underlined Frances Haugen, who participated on Thursday at the International Cybersecurity Forum in Lille, France.
Facebook’s commercial and financial growth has been accompanied by growing distrust of the social network’s consequences on society, fueled by questions about the platform’s role in attempts at disinformation and electoral manipulation.
According to Frances Haugen, if Sheryl Sandberg didn’t always stand up to Mark Zuckerberg, however, she did try to provide answers to the criticism of Facebook’s role.
He set up services that care for the safety of people living in vulnerable areas, such as Ethiopia.he said, specifically referring to the group of strategic response of Facebook, quickly intervene in a crisis situation.
Better on Twitter
Frances Haugen shows herself otherwise cautiously optimistic in the evolution of things Twitter, another major social network in the hot seat for its role in disinformation, which multi-billionaire Elon Musk plans to buy and withdraw from the Stock Exchange.
If Facebook has made a bad decision, it is partly because it is a public company., he says. If Musk pulled Twitter from the stock exchange, he will have the opportunity to do the necessary cleaning without fear of causing the stock price to fall, he explains.
Elon Musk notably wants Twitter to take stronger measures against robots-powered accounts, at the risk of reducing the social network’s audience and therefore its advertising resources.
In general, the young woman does not regret her role as a global whistleblower in the plethora of social networks.
I was really encouraged by the fact that the leading minds around the world have given us serious attention.he says.
” And many journalists have told me that on Facebook, security discussions are taken more seriously internally, thanks to my disclosures. “
Facebook doubled its annual security spending from C $ 3 billion to C $ 6 billion, it said.
A tool for analyzing algorithms
In general, Frances Haugen welcomes the ongoing debates in the United States on social networks and welcomes the Digital Services Act (DSA), the new law in Europe that aims to bring order to the digital jungle.
And he continued his fight: to force social networks to be more transparent about their algorithms and how they influence opinion and behavior.
He is raising funds to create a social media simulation tool, which scientists can use to study the effects of the algorithms in detail.
The debates about social media, and what it should be, have changedhe welcomes.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
