Spin Sucks 168: Exploring the Dark Side of Social Media

Facebook knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. That is the central finding of a Wall Street Journal series, based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research reports, online employee discussions, and drafts of presentations to senior management.

Time and again, the documents show, the researchers at Facebook have identified the platform’s ill effects. Time and again, despite congressional hearings, its own pledges, and numerous media exposés, the company didn’t fix them. The documents offer perhaps the clearest picture thus far of how broadly the Facebook problems are known inside the company, up to the chief executive himself.

To boot, last week, a woman named Frances Haugen went on 60 Minutes to describe all of the documents she gathered during her two-year tenure. Haugen is protected as a whistleblower by the SEC and will continue to work with lawmakers to provide documentation and information as it relates to “the company’s lack of openness about its platforms’ potential for harm and unwillingness to address its flaws.”

And that, my friends, is what we’re going to discuss on this week’s episode of the Spin Sucks podcast.

Resources Included

* Wag the Dog

Frances Haugen

Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter to Employees

* Spin Sucks: How to Use Shared Media In the PESO Model Process

Brian Stelter CNN Transcript

* The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt.

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Tried to Make Its Platform a Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead.