Sheryl Sandberg was complicit
The keys to Facebook are now being handed over to bots that will further foment extremism and a partisan ideologue with a history of misusing his position to tip the scales in favor of his ideology. Hard to imagine, but Facebook is about to get even worse
PUBLISHED
During Sheryl Sandberg’s 14-year tenure at Meta, the company’s social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – devolved into cesspools of disinformation, racism, misogyny, violent conspiracy theories, and alt-right organizing.
Sheryl Sandberg knew this was a problem, and – like CEO Mark Zuckerberg – she failed to act. Sandberg leaves Meta, and the social media environment that Facebook helped create, in a far worse place than she found it. Hers is a legacy of enabling trolling, harassment, and abuse.
But beyond Sandberg’s legacy at Meta, a note from CEO Mark Zuckerberg about her departure should alarm everyone: it boasts about building a new content team that would "train our AI recommendation systems to help you discover the most interesting, relevant, and personalized content." This is a complete change of course from Facebook’s public claims that it would reduce disinformation and extreme content from newsfeeds by prioritizing ‘organic content’ from friends.
Additionally, Sandberg’s departure will further empower Facebook’s policy boss and longtime Republican party operative, Joel Kaplan. More than just a mere enabler, Kaplan actively uses the levers of Facebook to advance his ideological and partisan interests.
The keys to Facebook are now being handed over to bots that will further foment extremism and a partisan ideologue with a history of misusing his position to tip the scales in favor of his ideology. Hard to imagine, but Facebook is about to get even worse and much more dangerous.
After last year’s Capitol insurrection, Sandberg dismissed the company’s role in enabling the attack and falsely claimed that “these events were largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate.” We found, however, that “Stop the Steal” organizers had used Facebook and Instagram to promote events, including the rally that led to a mob breaching the Capitol.
Facebook sees 82 pc jump in hate speech; violent content rises 86 pc on Instagram in April
There has been a rise of around 82 per cent in hate speech on social media platform Facebook and 86 per cent jump in violent and inciting content on Instagram, according to a monthly report released by Meta.
The majority of the content in the report is based on detection by social media platforms before users reporting to them.
The majority of the content in the report is based on detection by social media platforms before users reporting to them.
According to the report released on May 31, Facebook detected 53,200 hate speech in April, which is 82 per cent higher compared to 38,600 detected in March, on which the platform took action.
The report showed that Instagram acted on 77,000 violence and incitement related content in April compared to 41,300 in March.
“We measure the number of pieces of content (such as posts, photos, videos or comments) we take action on for going against our standards. This metric shows the scale of our enforcement activity. Taking action could include removing a piece of content from Facebook or Instagram or covering photos or videos that may be disturbing to some audiences with a warning,” the report said.
Mark Zuckerberg's second-in-command will leave the company this fall, with Meta VP Javier Olivan taking her place
Written by Stephanie Condon, Senior Staff Writer on June 1, 2022
COO Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook Communities Summit 2019Meta
Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg plans to step down from her role and leave the company this fall, she wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Javier Olivan, currently Meta's Chief Growth Officer and VP of Cross-Meta Products and Infrastructure, will become the company's next COO, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in his own post.
As COO, Olivan will lead Meta's integrated ads and business products, in addition to continuing to lead its infrastructure, integrity, analytics, markeling, corporale development and growth teams. Olivan will have "a more traditional COO role" than Sandberg, Zuckerberg said, which will be focused internally and operationally.
"I think Meta has reached the point where it makes sense for our product and business groups to be more closely integrated, rather than having all the business and operations functions organized separately from our products," Zuckerberg wrote.
Sandberg joined Facebook as Zuckerberg's second-in-command in 2008.
"The debate around social media has changed beyond recognition since those early days," Sandberg wrote Wednesday.
Her departure comes at a pivotal point for Meta, as it transitions from a collection of social networking platforms into a "metaverse company." The social media behemoth is also under pressure from global leaders to improve its content moderation policies -- the company faces the daunting task of reining in malicious or harmful content without inappropriately censoring speech.
After leaving the company, Sandberg said she plans to focus more on her foundation and philanthropic work.
"I still believe as strongly as ever in our mission, and I am honored that I will continue to serve on Meta's board of directors," she added.
In his post, Zuckerberg acknowledged Sandberg's huge impact on the company, noting that in 2008, he "barely knew anything about running a company."
"We'd built a great product-- the Facebook website -- but we didn't yet have a profitable business and we were struggling to transition from a small startup to a real organization," he wrote. "Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company."
Show Comments
Mark Zuckerberg described the departure of one of his closest lieutenants as "the end of an era"
ByGiulia Bottaro1 June 2022 •
Sheryl Sandberg, the woman dubbed Mark Zuckerberg’s most valuable friend, has quit her second-in-command role at Facebook owner Meta after 14 years.
In a post on Facebook, Ms Sandberg said she was stepping down as chief operating officer of the company which she has been credited with transforming from a startup into a multibillion-dollar technology titan.
Meta’s shares slumped by almost 4pc following the announcement.
Ms Sandberg, who did not provide a reason for quitting, will remain on the board of the company and will be replaced by Javier Olivan, Meta’s chief growth officer, in the autumn.
In a separate post on Facebook, Mr Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive and founder, called Ms Sandberg’s departure “the end of an era”.
Mr Zuckerberg hired Ms Sandberg as the social media giant’s first chief operating officer in 2008. She has been key to turning Facebook into an advertising powerhouse that generated almost $120bn (£96bn) in revenue last year.
She also answered for Facebook’s privacy and policy missteps over the years, attempting to improve its relationship with the public and regulators.
Along the way, she became an influential author, publishing “Lean In” in 2013, and served as the highest-profile face of the company next to Mr Zuckerberg.
She has also been the public policy face of Meta, meeting with lawmakers, holding focus groups and speaking out on issues such as women in the workplace and most recently, abortion.
The pair met in 2008 when Mr Zuckerberg was 23-years-old. She left a senior role at Google to lead operations at the then fledgling online platform.
Ms Sandberg was brought in to oversee its business functions, including advertising, partnerships, business development and operations, so that Mr Zuckerberg could focus on products.
Meta now has four products with more than 1bn users, and its advertising business generated $27bn in sales in the first quarter.
Ms Sandberg said on Wednesday night: “When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life.
“I am not entirely sure what the future will bring – I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women.”
Mr Zuckerberg said Mr Olivan would not replace Ms Sandberg’s role as chief operating officer in Meta’s existing structure.
He added: “I’m not sure that would be possible since she’s a superstar who defined the COO role in her own unique way.
“Javi will become our next Chief Operating Officer... But this role will be different from what Sheryl has done.”
It is thought that Sir Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister turned Meta’s president of global affairs, will now report to Mr Zuckerberg alone.
Ms Sandberg’s departure comes as Mr Zuckerberg attempts to recentre his company around the “metaverse”, a series of online worlds accessed through virtual reality.
He rebranded the company as Meta last year and is spending billions to get ahead of rivals such as Apple and Microsoft in the new field.
Meta posted a rocky performance for the first quarter of 2022 as daily active users on Facebook beat expectations, but sales growth was the slowest ever.
Its core social networking business is suffering from the competition of video-sharing giant TikTok, while the advertising arm has been hampered by changes Apple has made to the iPhone, which in turn are making it more difficult to target adverts.
In February, the stock slumped by 26.4pc, knocking $230bn off its market capitalisation, which broke the records as the biggest ever one-day fall in a company’s value.
It came after the daily user numbers fell for the first time since the inception of Facebook in 2004, dropping by 1m at the end of last year.
No comments:
Post a Comment