Zuckerberg on allegations against Facebook: “Illogical and just not true”

After the violent allegations against his group, Facebook boss Zuckerberg made his first statement. It is not true that Facebook puts profits above people. No tech concert wants to make people angry or depressed.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the accusation of his former colleague Frances Haugen that the online network puts profits above the well-being of its users. “That’s just not true,” Zuckerberg wrote in an email to employees. As an example, he cited a change that Facebook began a few years ago to show users more posts from friends and family instead of viral videos.

“The argument that we are intentionally promoting content to make people angry for money is deeply illogical,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “We make money from ads, and advertisers keep telling us that they don’t want their ads to be seen alongside harmful or angry content.” He doesn’t know of any tech company that makes products that make people angry or depressed.

The Facebook founder also defended the plan to develop a version of Instagram for ten to twelve year olds. “The reality is that young people are using technology,” he wrote. Instead of ignoring this, tech companies should develop services that meet their needs while keeping the environment safe, he argued.

US Senate deals with allegations

The former Facebook manager Haugen, who appears as a whistleblower, had testified a few hours earlier at a hearing in the US Senate. There she called on politicians, among other things, to force the online network to be more transparent. “Facebook shapes our perception of the world by choosing the information we see.” So far, however, only the Internet company itself knows how to personalize the users’ newsfeed.

The 37-year-old worked for Facebook for around two years and previously worked for Google and the photo platform Pinterest. At the online network she worked, among other things, on the defense against attempts to manipulate public opinion before elections. Haugen was a key source for a series of articles in the “Wall Street Journal” that has been putting Facebook under increasing pressure in the past few weeks.

“Out of context”

The accusation that Facebook knew from internal studies that Instagram was damaging to the mental health of some teenagers – but did not take consistent action against it – caused particular outrage in the United States. Zuckerberg criticized that the study results had been taken out of context. A “false narrative was constructed that we don’t care”.

The former public prosecutor Monicka Bickert, who has worked for the company for almost ten years, had previously made a similar statement. She said Haugen stole the records from Facebook. The study was taken out of context. The participants in the investigation were already mentally stressed. Facebook also ensured that polarizing entries in its algorithm were downgraded.