Facebook officials have long known about how the platform recommendations can lead users to the conspiracy theory of “rabbit holes.” Now, we know how clear the image thanks to the document provided by Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen.
During the summer of 2019, a Facebook researcher found that it only took five days for companies to start recommending the Qanon group and other disturbing content to a fiction account, according to an internal report whose findings were reported by NBC News, Wall Street Journal and another Friday. The document, titled “Carol Travel to Qanon” is also in the recording cache provided by Haugen to the Securities Commission and Exchange as part of the Whistleblower complaint.
It was reported to illustrate how a Facebook researcher founded a new account for “Carol,” which was described as “conservative mother.” After liking some conservative pages, but “mainstream”, the Facebook algorithm began to suggest more content of suburban and conspiracy. In five days joining Facebook, “Carol” saw “group with Qanon affiliates,” conspiracy theory of “white genocide” and other content described by researchers as “extreme graphics, conspiracies and graphics.”
The fact that Facebook’s recommendations triggered the theory of Qanon conspiracy and other related movements had been well-known outside the company for some time. Researchers and journalists have also documented the increase in conspiracy theories which two from Fringe during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. But these documents showed that Facebook researchers raised alarms about conspiracy theories before the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal noted that researchers suggested steps such as preventing or slowing content together again but Facebook officials mostly chose to take the steps.
Facebook does not immediately respond to questions about documents. “We are working since 2016 to invest in people, technology, policies, and processes to ensure that we are ready, and start our plan for the 2020 election itself two years earlier,” wrote VP’s Facebook integrity on Friday night. In that statement, Rosen applied the various steps he said Facebook took a week and the moon before the 2020 election – including banning Qanon and militia groups – but did not directly overcome the company’s recommendations before the Qanon ban on October 2020.
The documents came to the pressure for Facebook. Now there are two Whistleblowers who have submitted documents to the SEC say the company has misled investors and prioritizing growth and profits for user safety. Supervision tends to increase because more than a dozen media organizations now have access to several of these documents.