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An internal memo revealed by the US site BuzzFeed, revealed that Facebook was negligent or unable to act in dozens of situations involving false accounts, harassment of activists, dissemination of disinformation, manipulation by government officials, or concerted actions to provoke riots. , in countries around the world, several of them in Latin America.
The text is a 6,600-word letter written by Sophie Zhang, who until this month worked as a data scientist on the social network, and was responsible for monitoring actions suspected of intervening in the political situations of countries, taking actions to neutralize them.
However, lacking sufficient resources and without the support of his superiors, Zhang confessed to his co-workers that he was unable to act in situations that contributed to destabilizing governments, or perpetuating them in power.
“In the 3 years that I was on Facebook, I was faced with multiple obvious attempts by foreign governments to abuse our platform on a massive scale, in order to deceive their own citizens and that in many cases ended up causing international news. Personally and without any supervision, I made so many decisions that affected presidents and prominent politicians globally, that I have already lost count ”, confidently.
Countries that import and countries that don’t
The information was released by Buzzfeed without Zhang’s consent in the public interest, considering that there are only two months left until the US presidential election. The publication, however, indicates that it did not reveal the full text so as not to provide personal information of the former employee.
In it, he tells how he had to “put out fires” quickly in situations that involved the United States or other relevant nations due to their political, economic or demographic situation.
I had to make countless similar decisions, from Iraq to Indonesia and from Italy to El Salvador. Individually, the impact may have been small, but the world is a very vast place. Finally I was the one in charge of insisting or not on a matter, and now I know that I have blood on my hands
– Sophie Zhang
One of them occurred in February 2019, when a NATO investigator reported to the company having discovered Russian activity “inauthentic”- a term that Facebook defines from automated bot accounts to massive accounts coordinated manually – working on a high-level American political figure. The investigator warned them that he would send his report to Congress the next day.
“I quickly investigated the case, determined what was happening, and eliminated the activity, managing to put out the fire,” says Zhang.
Something similar happened in Brazil during the 2018 elections that brought Jair Bolsonaro and the US parliamentarians to power. According to the data scientist, “we managed to eliminate 10.5 million reactions (likes) and false fan accounts (of pages) of prominent politicians in Brazil and the United States. They were important people from all walks of life in Brazil, and also a large number of mid-level politicians in the United States ”.
But not all countries received the same attention. In the chapters that cause the most guilt in Zheng, small nations such as Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ukraine or Azerbaijan, were not treated with the same diligence or were, completely ignored.
“I know I have blood on my hands”
Perhaps the rudest case is that which occurred in Honduras, where despite the evidence, Facebook took 9 months to act on a coordinated group of fake accounts that sought to increase the popularity of President Juan Orlando Hernández.
“We discovered that an administrator of the official website of the president of Honduras was responsible for happily handling hundreds of these fake accounts, without any shame, in an extreme display of daring,” says Zhang.
But despite the fact that the official reported the situation to the threat intelligence and policy breach review team, they took several months to act. Ultimately, it was local groups that got President Hernández’s marketing team to admit that they had orchestrated these actions. “Despite the open violation of Facebook’s terms, it took me almost a year for them to shut down their operations,” she claims.
Facebook recognized the fact in July 2019 and publicly announced it as a success. However, the network quickly reassembled without the company making mention of this fact or acting against it.
Some thought that I should give my full attention to the United States, and were shocked to see me advocate for these small countries. To sum it up, my methodology was of a global system, and I fought for Honduras and for Azerbaijan because it was where I saw that the most damage could be done.
– Sophie Zhang
Another was the case of Bolivia, where Zhang confesses to having detected “inauthentic” activity in support of an opposition presidential candidate in the 2019 elections, but chose not to prioritize it. Only months later, Bolivia fell into chaos under accusations of electoral fraud, which ended with the resignation of President Evo Morales, and “massive protests with dozens of deaths.”
The same happened in Ecuador, where Zhang also acknowledges having “found inauthentic activity in support of the current government (of President Lenin Moreno), but I decided not to prioritize it.” The former official now wonders if his decision could have an effect on how the government handled the covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the country, and if it could have made a difference to have acted.
“I had to make countless similar decisions, from Iraq to Indonesia and from Italy to El Salvador. Individually, the impact may have been small, but the world is a very vast place. Although I tried to make the best decision based on the knowledge I had at the time, finally I was the one in charge of insisting or not on an issue, and now I know that I have blood on my hands “, sentence.
“Facebook only cares about problems that cause a public relations crisis”
The enormous work and moral burden on Zhang began to take its toll on him emotionally, even making it impossible for him to sleep.
“Without any supervision, I was left in a situation where actions with immense influence were entrusted to me. A strategic response manager once told me that most of the world outside the West was the “Wild West,” and that I was its “part-time dictator.” She said it to me as a compliment, but it illustrated very well the tremendous pressure she was under, ”says the woman.
“We had to focus and prioritize the damage that could occur in the United States and Western Europe. By then it was impossible for me to watch or read the news from the rest of the world without feeling the weight of my own responsibility ”, confidence.
Zhang points out in his message to his former co-workers that Facebook has a habit of prioritizing issues that could cause a public relations crisis, before real-world problems.
“It is an open secret within the spaces of civic integrity that Facebook’s short-term decisions are motivated solely by the possibility of being impacted by a public relations crisis,” he says, noting that this year it was ordered to prioritize any topic that was covered by the New York Times or the Washington Post.
“So I began to see that priorities began to jump when others threatened to go to the press, and why a leader of my organization said that my civic work was not having the necessary impact, under the logic that if the problem was importantly, it would attract attention, it would turn into a press crisis and that would convince the company to devote more attention to this issue, ”he says.
One of Zhang’s main criticisms is that instead of civic work, the attention of the teams that were supposed to support her was “99% focused on eliminating (commercial) spam.” Therefore, instead of using the regular channels to denounce the political situations in these countries, it began to publish them in the internal forums of employees to achieve pressure.
“I realized that nobody respected my views in the office, unless I acted like an arrogant bitch”, he says.
When he formally asked Facebook for more resources to detect and stop political and election-related activity, he was told that “human resources were limited.” He also claims that he was ordered to stop focusing on civic work, “and that Facebook would no longer require my services if I refused.”
“Some thought that I should devote my full attention to the United States, and they were shocked to see me advocate for these small countries. To sum it up, my methodology was of a global system, and I fought for Honduras and for Azerbaijan because it was where I saw that the greatest damage could be caused, ”he says.
Zhang was fired this month. She assures that she rejected a compensation of 64,000 dollars (48 million Chilean pesos) if she signed a confidentiality agreement that would have prevented her from talking about her work, even internally. So, on her last day, she posted her memo on the internal employee forum, urging them to follow on Facebook and change the system from within.
“But you cannot, and should not try, to do it alone. Find others who share your convictions and values to work together. Facebook is too big a project for one person to amend it “, ends.
Other situations reported by Zhang
In Azerbaijan, the former official discovered that the ruling political party used “thousands of false accounts to massively harass the opposition.” Facebook began tapping into the incident only a year after Zhang reported it.
In UkraineZhang detected “automatic inauthentic activity” in support of both former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is a pro-European Union politician and former presidential candidate, as well as in support of Volodymyr Groysman, another former president and ally of former President Petro Poroshenko. “Volodymyr Zelensky and his faction were the only main political force that was not affected,” said Zhang of the current Ukrainian president.
After detecting that there was a coordinated manipulation attempt on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Health of Spain During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang helped remove 672,000 fake accounts “that also acted on similar targets globally.”
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