A senior Facebook executive blamed the platform’s users for the misinformation and claimed he didn’t have enough money or staff to stop it.
New Meta Technical Director Andrew Bosworth has called Facebook “fundamentally democratic technology” and said it would be wrong to prevent people from accessing and sharing false information about the vaccine.
“If we took every dollar and every human we had, that wouldn’t stop people from seeing a speech they didn’t like on the platform,” Bosworth said in an interview with the chief correspondent of Axios technology, Ina Fried.
Fried asked if Facebook could “move faster” to eliminate the spread of disinformation – and, citing revelations uncovered by ex-employee Frances Haugen via the Facebook papers, noted that “Facebook only deals with things when they become disastrous ”.
Pressed to find out if Facebook and other social media are amplifying the spread of disinformation, Bosworth called it a demand issue.
“People want this information,” Bosworth said. “I don’t believe the answer is” I will deny these people the information they are looking for and I will apply my will to them “.
Scroll down for video
–
Longtime Facebook developer and recently named Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (left) has ducked blame for damaging content on social media platforms and on the people who use them, calling misinformation a societal problem
–
Andrew Bosworth [(eft) whether he could ‘do more’ to stem the flow of misinformation on the platform when he steps in as the Chief Technology Officer of Meta next year. Bosworth has been working with Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg (right) since 2006, and conceived of Facebook’s scrolling ‘news feed’ design, now used by the platform and its affiliates like Instagram
–
–
–
She asked Bosworth if he could “do more” to stem the flow of disinformation on the platform when he becomes Meta’s CTO next year. Bosworth has worked with Facebook since 2006 and designed the design of Facebook’s scrolling “news feed”, now used by the platform and its affiliates like Instagram.
“It would not eliminate all opportunities for someone to use the platform maliciously. “
Although Bosworth acknowledged that “people’s speech can be dangerous,” he argued that “individual humans are those who choose to believe or not to believe a thing” – and those who choose to “share or not share. one thing ”, too.
“At some point the responsibility is, and should be in any meaningful democracy, on the individual. ”
He called Facebook a “fundamentally democratic” technology, despite revelations in October that the company was using its “XCheck” program to allow celebrities, politicians and high profile users to bypass its rules of conduct when they posted. on its platforms.
Disinformation on Facebook is believed to have played a role in the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, in which disenfranchised supporters of Donald Trump’s vote went on a rampage in Washington DC, fueled by the belief that the election had been ‘stolen’ to their candidate.
–
“I am uncomfortable that we have enough basic ‘rightness’ – even in our most scientific centers of study – to exercise [the censorship ideas that we deem harmful] about another human… and what they want to say and what they want to listen to, ”he said.
“Instead, we have what they want to hear, which is really the best way to approach the algorithm. “
“You’re talking to a random person – ‘do you use Facebook, do you use Instagram, do you use Snapchat? They do and they like it.
But, for many reviewers, it doesn’t matter whether users “like” the experience they get from social media apps. As Fried pointed out in his questions, “there are people who think that these tools are inherently dangerous, that our democracy is less healthy, our health is less healthy because we have misinformation.”
“If we took every dollar and every human we had, it wouldn’t eliminate people seeing speeches they didn’t like on the platform,” Andrew Bosworth (pictured) said in the interview.
–
“I love the way I can connect with my cousins who live far away. I don’t feel any better that COVID is worse in our country because of the spread of disinformation, some of which is happening on Facebook, ”she said frankly.
“Are you convinced that the overall impact of what you do, not just the good… is better than if we didn’t have these tools? “
Bosworth did not answer the question.
‘I don’t feel at all comfortable saying [a person using a social media platform] didn’t have the option to have a voice because I didn’t agree with what they said.
Twitter users scoffed at Bosworth’s evasion of Facebook’s role in spreading disinformation on its platforms.
Twitter users mocked Bosworth’s escape from Facebook’s role in spreading disinformation on its platforms
–
“Andrew Bosworth is completely offline,” wrote one user. “Facebook has magnified the social problems and they are not responsible at all. Without Facebook, the size of our problems and divisions wouldn’t be as big as they are. ‘
Other users were more rude with their scrutiny.
“Here at Meta, we’re fueling smooth-brained s *** gibbons,” one cheeky Twitter user wrote. “Just because they’re running around turning everyone on doesn’t mean we’re bad guys. ”
Other users were more rude with their scrutiny
–
–
Not all news on the site expresses the point of view of the site, but we transmit this news automatically and translate it using programmatic technology on the site and not from a human editor.
