Former Facebook exec testifies before US Congress that the platform is designed to be as addictive as cigarettes

[Delicieuxz]

Facebook's former director of monetization Tim Kendall says he had a role in making Facebook as addictive as cigarettes — and worries that Facebook could be just as damaging to its users.

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In a testimony before the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee published Thursday, Kendall accused Facebook of building algorithms that have facilitated the spread of misinformation, encouraged divisive rhetoric, and laid the groundwork for a "mental health crisis."

 

"We took a page from Big Tobacco's playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset," Kendall said in prepared remarks submitted to lawmakers ahead of Thursday's hearing. "The social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 years have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity. At the very least, we have eroded our collective understanding — at worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war."

 

Kendall, who is now CEO of the time management app Moment, joined Facebook as its first director of monetization in 2006 and remained in the role until 2010. Kendall said he initially thought his role would involve balancing Facebook's interest in revenue with the wellbeing of its users, but that Facebook was interested in profits over everything.
 

"We sought to mine as much attention as humanly possible and turn into historically unprecedented profits," Kendall said.
 

Facebook's algorithm rewards shocking content and divisive rhetoric in order to evoke extreme emotional responses from users in order to hold users' attention and generate more ad revenue, Kendall told lawmakers. 
 

"These algorithms have brought out the worst in us. They've literally rewired our brains so that we're detached from reality and immersed in tribalism," he said.

...

 

"Driven by profit and power and in the face of obvious harm, these mega-companies successfully have convinced governments all over the world to essentially leave them alone ... big tech has helped divide our nations and has stoked genocide in others," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee.

...

"Free speech is increasingly under attack," said Rep. Cathy Rodgers of Washington, the ranking Republican on the subcommittee. "I am extremely concerned when platforms apply inconsistent content moderation policies for their own purposes"

Well, it isn't simply Facebook that is behind societal polarization and tribalism in the US. That existed before Facebook did, and the 'with us or against us' mentality was heavily leveraged for the Iraq invasion and every political crusade since.

 

So, I think the guy over-estimates Facebook's role in the overall picture a bit, but I'm not saying Facebook isn't the threat and predatory platform he says it is.

 

I like the statement made about tech mega-companies 'having successfully convinced governments all over the world to essentially leave them alone'. They have, regarding unrestrained data-harvesting, self-regulation, anti-competitive practices, anti-consumer practice, and it's a huge problem. And tech users have also played a big role in allowing some of those things to take-hold by passively accepting it as the new normal, rather than saying from the start that it isn't OK and demanding change - such as with Windows 10's data harvesting, which is in complete violation of the EU's GDPR, yet nothing is being done about it.

 

The comment about platforms applying inconsistent moderation is also very true - and it isn't just a top-down design, but is large due to unqualified, non-objective, and immature people being in the role as moderators. Most-all platforms, from Facebook and Twitter, to Wikipedia and Quora, to the Steam forums, suffer from being moderated as though if they're playgrounds for moderators' personal propaganda, biases, and prejudices, who flaunt disregard and very selective application of their respective platforms' own rules.

 

There's a lot to work through to clean the situation up, and it has to involve heavy regulation of tech companies, IMO, as they have proven themselves bad stewards and bad-faith actors who will say and do whatever it takes to set up regimes that place and keep them as masters over other companies and over their customers.

[Vishera]

44 minutes ago, comander said:

Ever play any free to play game? They've done everything they could to get people coming back regularly. Then, for many people, it's not too big of a jump to spend $5-20 to get an upgrade or a costume or...

The difference between the two is that in video games you buy stuff,but in Facebook advertisers pay for your attention.

[poochyena]

i mean, yea, thats capitalism. Make a product with highest demand as possible.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Shocking truth!

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously though this is no surprise.

[Tech Enthusiast]

What else would a company try to do with their product?

Make it taste like ass, so no one buys it?

 

Obviously, Facebook is trying to make people like it as much as possible. Like,... duh!

 

Plenty of reasons to be mad about Facebook, but this is certainly not one of it.

[whm1974]

I for one refuse to use Facebook or any other so called Social Media platforms. This is mainly due well justified fears of winding up in a sort of Bubble... Among other things.

[Doobeedoo]

Yeah, well known and exactly how most modern media are fleshed out to operate. Starting with your mind. I remember talk about this like decade ago. But anyway, one thing is for sure, most people don't have control over them selves. They can easily get persuaded to continue to consume media. 

[Drama Lama]

Who is actually surprised by that?

[Energycore]

22 hours ago, poochyena said:

i mean, yea, thats capitalism. Make a product with highest demand as possible.

If that's your end goal, I hear narcotics can evoke huge demand out of their users.

[poochyena]

48 minutes ago, Energycore said:

If that's your end goal, I hear narcotics can evoke huge demand out of their users.

Drug lords have net worths in the billions of dollars for a reason.

[divito]

I assume some people on here haven't seen The Social Dilemma documentary on Netflix yet.

[Andreas Lilja]

So basically like everything regarding computers and the internet?

 

I like Facebook.

[Energycore]

18 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Drug lords have net worths in the billions of dollars for a reason.

You're saying this like it's a good thing

[poochyena]

4 hours ago, Energycore said:

You're saying this like it's a good thing

yes. laws criminalizing drugs are the issue, not selling drugs.

[whm1974]

8 hours ago, poochyena said:

yes. laws criminalizing drugs are the issue, not selling drugs.

Well I myself favor drug rehab and treatment over long prison terms for those using in most cases. For Dealing? Which Street Drugs are we referring to? Stuff like Pot, LSD, and the like should be legal for adults to consume. The Hard stuff like Crack and Meth should remain illegal and somewhat harsh terms for dealing.

 

But again Rehab Centers for Users for most of them.