A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
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Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#2"“I have personally made decisions that affected national presidents without oversight, and taken action to enforce against so many prominent politicians globally that I’ve lost count,” she wrote."
The scale of how the platform's being used for political manipulation in every country is enormous, and it's clear that if a junior data scientist is having to independently make these decisions, that there's little interest in proactively dealing with this.
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#3>Zhang said she turned down a $64,000 severance package from the company to avoid signing a nondisparagement agreement.
You really have to ask yourself what kind of place it is you're working for and what you're building, if a totally regular employee basically is paid hush-money to not speak about their job.
This isn't a private business any more, it's the mafia. People talk a lot about the culture of free speech and the rights of end-users, but we live in a world where a private company that builds a social media website, this isn't the NSA or anything, can stop an employee from speaking the truth.
It's time policy makers throw all of this out of the window, together with the anti-competitive non-competes that at this point affect IIRC, almost a fifth of the American workforce.
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#4~~Can we get the actual report Zhang published, rather than a BuzzFeed link? I mean is Buzz Feed really considered news?~~
EDIT:
I retract my comment, I was unaware of the distinct nature of Buzzfeed news from Buzzfeed proper,
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#5~~Can we get the actual report Zhang published, rather than a BuzzFeed link? I mean is Buzz Feed really considered news?~~ EDIT: I retract my comment, I was unaware of the distinct nature of Buzzfeed news from Buzzfeed proper,
They mention this in the writeup: it’s not going to be made public (yet).
Also BuzzFeed News does real journalism, despite the BuzzFeed origin of their group.
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#6>Zhang said she turned down a $64,000 severance package from the company to avoid signing a nondisparagement agreement. You really have to ask yourself what kind of place it is you're working for and what you're building, if a totally regular employee basically is paid hush-money to not speak about their job. This isn't a private business any more, it's the mafia. People talk a lot about the culture of free speech an…
I know someone who got extra severance conditional on non-disparagement when leaving a pretty modest Canadian tech company.
Is this a more rare event than I thought?
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#7>Zhang said she turned down a $64,000 severance package from the company to avoid signing a nondisparagement agreement. You really have to ask yourself what kind of place it is you're working for and what you're building, if a totally regular employee basically is paid hush-money to not speak about their job. This isn't a private business any more, it's the mafia. People talk a lot about the culture of free speech an…
I know someone who got extra severance conditional on non-disparagement when leaving a pretty modest Canadian tech company. Is this a more rare event than I thought?
It's pretty rare. Never have I ever met anyone who had or would sign such an agreement. Given my income bracket, I should have by now if it was merely uncommon. Then again, maybe not admitting to the agreement is part of the agreement. Insidious.
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#8Do any of the major platforms really have a handle on how to deal with these challenges? I'm not excusing the lack of oversight. But most companies that grow this quickly are a complete cluster inside. Imagine having to battle well funded state actors on top of trying to build a business.
Again, not saying Facebook shouldn't be held accountable. But it's always easy from the outside looking in.
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#9What is the public interest in publishing her name after she has expressed concerns about her safety? Shame on Buzzfeed.
"In her post, Zhang said she did not want it to go public for fear of disrupting Facebook’s efforts to prevent problems around the upcoming 2020 US presidential election, and due to concerns about her own safety. BuzzFeed News is publishing parts of her memo that are clearly in the public interest."
Re: A whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation
#10What is the public interest in publishing her name after she has expressed concerns about her safety? Shame on Buzzfeed. "In her post, Zhang said she did not want it to go public for fear of disrupting Facebook’s efforts to prevent problems around the upcoming 2020 US presidential election, and due to concerns about her own safety. BuzzFeed News is publishing parts of her memo that are clearly in the public interest.…
She's not exactly going at lengths to hide her identity, I'm watching it blow up on twitter with her named by full name.