Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, denied on Tuesday that the social media giant promotes hatred and divisions in communities, harms children, and consequently needs regulatory oversight. He asserted that the accusations against the company of prioritizing financial gain over safety are "simply not true."
In a lengthy memo to his employees posted on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg stated, "At the core of these accusations is the idea that we prioritize financial profits over safety and comfort. This is simply untrue." He added, "The argument that we deliberately promote content that makes people angry for the sake of financial profit is completely nonsensical. We make money from ads, and advertisers tell us constantly that they do not want their ads shown next to any harmful or anger-inducing content."
Zuckerberg continued, "I don't know of any tech company that builds products to make people angry or depressed. All moral and business incentives, as well as the products, point in the opposite direction."
Zuckerberg's stance came at the conclusion of a Senate committee session where a former Facebook employee testified. This employee leaked internal company documents and accused the social media giant of fueling divisions, harming children, and urgently needing regulation. Frances Haugen, a former content manager at Facebook, stated that the "blue giant" operates without oversight and urged Congress to make the platform safer.
Haugen testified before the subcommittee on commerce, consumer protection, product safety, and data security in her first public appearance after revealing several "shocking" details about how the social media platform operates. She is the source behind the leak of thousands of internal research pages from Facebook to the American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal."
