Facebook vice president disputes reports against the platform

Facebook rejected recent reports from the Wall Street Journal. The famous newspaper quoted one business document series leaked to outline how Facebook executives have been slow in the address known problems on its platforms, like Instagram, which harm users. Let’s find out what the vice president of Facebook has revealed.

Facebook responds to Wall Street Journal allegations

Facebook’s Vice President of Global Affairs, Nick Cleggsaid the articles contained “deliberate mis-characterizations” and “conferred grossly false motives on Facebook leadership and employees.”

The Journal, doing reference to internal documentssaid Facebook researchers have raised alarms about “the negative effects of the platform” over and over again but the upper echelons have always ignored them.

The documents revealed the company’s research showing how Instagram can be bad for teen mental health. They also show that Facebook executives have failed to address employee concern over the platform’s reports. Furthermore, it appears that the platform offers preferential treatment to some high-profile users who violate its rules.

Clegg said that while it was “absolutely legitimate” for Facebook to be held accountable for the way addresses the harmful issues on its platforms, Journal reports used selected quotes from leaked material to create “a deliberately biased view of the larger facts.” Clegg later revealed:

At the heart of this series is an accusation that is simply false. That is, Facebook conducts research and then, systematically and voluntarily, ignores them if the results are uncomfortable for society. The fact that not every idea a researcher raises is being considered doesn’t mean that Facebook teams aren’t continually considering a number of different improvements.

Vice President sheds light on COVID-19 vaccine posts

Clegg also defended Facebook’s handling of posts on information on the COVID-19 vaccine, another problem reported in the Journal’s report. He said that “the intersection of social media and well-being” is still one evolving question within the research community. He also pointed out that social media is changing rapidly in response to an “ever-growing body of multi-method research and expert input”.

According to an article, Facebook researchers warned the company about anti-vaxxers. According to what was revealed, users were joining for flood the comments section of vaccine-related content with propaganda and others false claims. An internal report in early 2021 estimated that more than 40% of the comments on the contents related to vaccines appeared discourage people from getting the vaccine. Global health experts such as the World Health Organization and Unicef, victims of the comments, had also expressed to Facebook concerns about the problem.

These targeted anti-vax disinformation campaigns have increased after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reported that the platform he would not have acted heavily against anti-vaccination disinformation.