Inside Facebook

Some good news about social media, where the US government seems finally to be getting in the mood to consider serious regulation. This is mainly thanks to Frances Haugen, a whistleblower who worked for Facebook, and has recently leaked crucial documents and testified to US senators. She was part of a unit hopefully called Civic Integrity, which was responsible for monitoring posts during the Us election - but was then closed down as soon as the election was over. Even more important, she’s leaked an internal document which shows that Facebook were fully aware that Instagram was having a harmful effect on the self-image of teenage girls, but refused to take any action because while the regular clicking may be doing harm, it continued to bring in the revenue. Haugen compares it to research on the impact of cigarettes - if you know it’s doing damage, you need to do something about it. So simple, but a huge step forward so far as dealing with Facebook is concerned. Maybe the online monsters won’t be left entirely free to make up the rules for themselves.