FactualThe elements revealed in favor of the “Facebook Files” revive the questioning of the regulation of the social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
“We have to regulate Facebook. ” This is the message that Frances Haugen was to bring to the elected representatives of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market on Monday 8 November. A certainty that the American should repeat before French deputies and senators, Wednesday, then Thursday during an interview with Cédric O, the secretary of state in charge of the digital transition. The former employee of the social network who became a whistleblower has already called for reforms in front of American, British or German parliamentarians. Listen to this engineer “Will enrich the democratic discourse and our current legislative work”, said committee chairwoman Anna Cavazzini (Verts / ALE). Mme Haugen is “A catalyst for change”, had already greeted an American senator.
The “Facebook Files”, a dive into the workings of the “likes” machine
The “Facebook Files” are several hundred internal Facebook documents copied by Frances Haugen, a specialist in algorithms, when she was an employee of the social network. They were provided to the US regulator and Congress, then transmitted by a US parliamentary source to several media, redacted from the personal information of Facebook employees. In Europe, these media are, besides The world, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, the WDR and NDR television channels, the Tamedia Group, Knack, Berlingske and OCCRP.
They show that Facebook is devoting more resources to limiting its damaging effects in the West, to the detriment of the rest of the world. They attest that these effects are known internally but the warning signs are not always taken into account. Finally, they prove that Facebook’s algorithms have become so complex that they sometimes seem to escape their own authors. Find all our articles by clicking here.
Certainly, but what to do? The “Facebook Files”, these internal documents sent by Mr.me Haugen to regulators and consulted in particular by The world, have shown shortcomings in hate speech moderation systems, particularly outside the United States, side effects of algorithms, which promote divisive speech … This news meets the work already underway on both sides of the Atlantic to supervise the digital giants. But the advanced tracks still cause debates, which Facebook feeds, while saying that it wishes “More regulation”.
Strengthening accountability
Attempts to frame Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook, recently renamed Meta), as well as Twitter, YouTube or TikTok, have often sought to strengthen their accountability. Indeed, social networks are considered as hosts and can not be worried about the publications of their users, unless this content has been reported to them.
The European DSA will require social networks to put in place “reasonable, proportionate and effective” security measures, then to publish the number of content removed, the reason, etc.
Some policies would like to limit this protection, included in the 2000 e-commerce directive in Europe and section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 in the United States. But these initiatives have come up against the dialogue of the deaf between the Democrats and the American Republicans, some accusing Facebook of being too lax towards hate speech, others of “Censor” conservative voices.
Above all, making social networks responsible could push them to “Overcensure” legal content and to limit freedom of expression: this was recalled by the French Constitutional Council by invalidating, on June 18, 2020, the obligation to remove clearly illegal content within twenty-four hours provided for in the proposal law by Laetitia Avia (The Republic on the move, Paris).
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