Facebook Outage and Whistle Blower
Among all its tangential controversies, Facebook has remained one of the most popular social media platforms, currently sitting at 2.89 billion monthly active users. On October 3, consumers received a bombshell report on 60 Minutes from whistleblower Frances Haugen. The next day, Facebook suffered a major outage. Not only Facebook, but apps under the same corporation, like Instagram and WhatsApp, were inactive for hours.
On October 4, just before 11 am CST, users began to notice that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger weren’t working. Many of its users started turning to Twitter to address their concerns. Twitter saw an 11% increase in its usage during the outage. Twitter’s main account tweeted, “hello literally everyone,” and received 2.4 million likes in four hours. Additionally, Telegram, a messaging platform, gained 70 million new accounts on that day.
Haugen, a former data scientist for Facebook, provided her testimony in front of Congress on October 5, unveiling many of Facebook's secrets through data provided by the users. She believed these were extremely harmful to society and specifically youth.
“I am here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy,” she said.
Haugen continuously emphasized how Facebook didn’t value the safety of its users and their lack of providing proper security features in the app’s algorithm. Facebook has frequently been under fire for providing a platform for hate speech and protecting white supremacist groups, as Haugen highlighted in her testimony.
“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,” she said. “I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profit and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits.”
The Wall Street Journal’s series, partly based on Haugen’s documents and also interviews with current and former employees of Facebook, found that Facebook favored elites and that the app was openly used by drug cartels and human traffickers.
The issue of safety has been questioned many times in the app’s history but considering recent circumstances, it seems that safety is now being assessed at a whole new level. Haugen discussed how Facebook “made young girls and women feel bad about their bodies.” This claim garners fear in many of Facebook’s young female users. Several may now feel that they are not suitably protected by an app that has, for so long, promoted safety to the public.
“I think that Facebook should prioritize the safety of its users over their profit. Social media should be a place where people can share happy moments of their lives,” an anonymous junior said. “It shouldn’t be a place that creates a negative environment, especially for children and teen girls.”
For profit exploitation turns off others as well.
“Facebook making money over not protecting people’s safety is an abuse of power and should not be allowed legally,” another student said.
Haugen noted that calling out Facebook’s harmful actions is the first step in the right direction; she drew a comparison between Facebook and tobacco companies amidst their scandals in the mid-1900s.
“When we realized big tobacco was hiding the harm it caused, the government took action. . . I implore you to do the same here,” she said.
Through the investigations on big tobacco, the improvement of subtle advertising towards teenagers was seen and, similarly, this Congressional oversight can allow control over Facebook’s reach to teenagers.
“I think the conversation surrounding the effects of social media on society, and especially teenage girls, is very important. I’m glad this problem is being addressed and I hope we can find solutions to minimize the damaging effects of social media,” a senior said.
Although social media can provide a hurtful environment for the developing minds of teens, it can still benefit self-discovery.
“I would say that while Instagram does harm teen girls, it can also benefit them,” an anonymous student said. “Some influencers try to be as honest as possible with who they are and they make teen girls accept who they are for themselves.”
By Fareeha Ahmad
Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 2
November 1st, 2021