Facebook whistleblower claims site contributed to Capitol riots by turning off online safeguards too soon after 2020 election - sparking furious response from embattled tech titan
Facebook executives are preparing for a whistleblower to accuse the network of contributing to the Capitol riot by turning online safeguards off too soon after the presidential election.
The whistleblower, whose identity has not been publicly revealed, is expected to make the fresh allegations and reveal her identity in a bombshell interview with CBS's Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Facebook went into damage control Friday ahead of the interview sending a 1,500-word email to its employees attempting to prepare them for the allegations about to surface.
The Facebook whistleblower is set to make fresh allegations and reveal her identity in an interview with CBS's Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes on Sunday
The whistleblower will accuse her former employer of relaxing its emergency 'break glass' measures put in place in the lead-up to the election 'too soon', enabling the Capitol riot (above)
Mark Zuckerberg at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in November. Facebook went into damage control Friday ahead of the interview sending a 1,500-word email to its employees
The email, from the company's Vice President of Policy and Global Affairs Nick Clegg and obtained by the New York Times, launched into a lengthy defense and slammed the accusations as 'misleading'.
The whistleblower has caused a headache for Facebook in recent weeks after quitting the firm and taking with her a trove of tens of thousands of pages of internal company documents.
Some of these secrets have already been leaked to the Wall Street Journal for a series of reports dubbed the 'Facebook Files', including damning revelations the company knew its platform Instagram is toxic to young girls' body image.
The email, from the company's Vice President of Policy and Global Affairs Nick Clegg (above), attempted to prepare staff for the allegations and launched into a lengthy defense of the company
With more damaging allegations headed for the company Sunday, Clegg warned employees: 'We will continue to face scrutiny.'
According to Clegg's email, the whistleblower will accuse her former employer of relaxing its emergency 'break glass' measures put in place in the lead-up to the election 'too soon.'
The ex-employee will claim this played a role in enabling rioters in their quest to storm the Capitol on January 6 in a riot that left five dead.
The relaxation of safeguards including limits on live video allowed prospective rioters to gather on the platform and use it to plot the insurrection.
Clegg pushed back at this suggestion, insisting that the so-called 'break glass' safeguards were only rolled back when the data showed they were able to do so.
Some such measures were kept in place until February, he wrote, and some are now permanent features.
'We only rolled back these emergency measures – based on careful data-driven analysis – when we saw a return to more normal conditions,' Clegg wrote.
'We left some of them on for a longer period of time through February this year and others, like not recommending civic, political or new Groups, we have decided to retain permanently.'
Clegg listed several safeguards which have been put in place in recent years and reeled off a list of success stories of handling misinformation around the election and shutting down groups focused on overturning the results.
'In 2020 alone, we removed more than 5 billion fake accounts — identifying almost all of them before anyone flagged them to us,' he wrote.
'And, from March to Election Day, we removed more than 265,000 pieces of Facebook and Instagram content in the US for violating our voter interference policies.'
Clegg admitted such policies were not ideal and resulted in many people and posts were impacted by this heavy-handed approach.
But, he said, an 'extreme step' was necessary because 'these weren't normal circumstances.'
'It's like shutting down an entire town's roads and highways in response to a temporary threat that may be lurking somewhere in a particular neighborhood,' he said.
'We wouldn't take this kind of crude, catch-all measure in normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances.'
He wrote that the company had removed millions of pages and groups from hate groups and dangerous organizations such as the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists and content pushing #StopTheSteal election fraud claims.
'Between August last year and January 12 this year, we identified nearly 900 militia organizations under our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy and removed thousands of Pages, groups, events, Facebook profiles and Instagram accounts associated with these groups,' he wrote.
The former employee is also expected to claim the social media giant is responsible for making America increasingly polarized - something Clegg claimed 'isn't supported by the facts.'
Clegg pinpointed a specific allegation about its technology's role in America's problems.
The former employee will pin much of the blame on a change in algorithm in 2018 which makes users more likely to see posts from Facebook friends and groups they are already part of - suggesting they are grouped with like-minded people.
In January 2018, the News Feed algorithm was changed to promote so-called Meaningful Social Interactions (MSI).
While ranking more highly posts from friends, family and groups, posts from publishers and brands are now ranked lower.
Clegg pushed back at the accusation this contributed to polarization.
'Of course, everyone has a rogue uncle or an old school classmate who holds strong or extreme views we disagree with – that's life – and the change meant you are more likely to come across their posts too,' he said.
'But the simple fact remains that changes to algorithmic ranking systems on one social media platform cannot explain wider societal polarization.'
'Indeed, polarizing content and misinformation are also present on platforms that have no algorithmic ranking whatsoever, including private messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp.'
The email also pushed back at an accusation that Facebook benefits from the divisiveness created on its platform.
'We do not profit from polarization, in fact, just the opposite,' he wrote.
Donald Trump speaking at a rally moments before his supporters stormed the Capitol
The whistleblower will claim the relaxation of measures on Facebook allowed rioters to plot the insurrection on the platform
'We do not allow dangerous organizations, including militarized social movements or violence-inducing conspiracy networks, to organize on our platforms.'
The VP called any suggestion the blame for the Capitol riot lies with Big Tech 'so misleading' and said the blame should be on the rioters themselves and the people who incited them.
'The suggestion that is sometimes made that the violent insurrection on January 6 would not have occurred if it was not for social media is so misleading,' he wrote.
'To be clear, the responsibility for those events rests squarely with the perpetrators of the violence, and those in politics and elsewhere who actively encouraged them.'
The lengthy email to staff ended by urging the workforce to 'hold our heads up high' and 'be proud' of their work.
This attempt to pre-empt the fallout from Sunday's interview with a letter to employees came after Facebook execs held a series of emergency meetings on the issue.
Sources told the Times Clegg and the Strategic Response teams have has multiple meetings and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have given plans the green light.
Zuckerberg himself is said to be laying low to avoid negative press.
The whistleblower has already surfaced a series of damaging revelations about the social media giant.
Internal company documents revealed execs were aware Instagram could be harmful to teenage girls but continued to rollout additions to Instagram that propagated the harm anyway.
According to the documents given to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook had known for two years that Instagram was toxic for young girls but continued to add beauty-editing filters to the app, despite six per cent of suicidal girls in America blaming it for their desire to kill themselves.
Research showed one in five teens said that Instagram made them feel worse about themselves
When Facebook researches first alerted the company of the issue in 2019, they said: 'We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.'
'Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.'
One message posted on an internal message board in March 2020 said the app revealed that 32 per cent of girls said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies if they were already having insecurities.
About one in five said the app made them feel worse about themselves.
This week, Instagram halted its plans for Instagram Kids following backlash over the issue.
The CBS interview won't be the end of the matter either.
The whistleblower filed complaints against Facebook anonymously last month to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
She has also agreed to testify in front of Congress before the end of 2021 that Facebook has been lying about its success in removing hateful and violent content and misinformation from its platform.
The social media giant confirmed that Antigone Davis, its global head of safety, would also testify before the Senate Commerce Committee Consumer protection panel.
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