This is awkward. Monday is when we put together pages like the one you’re reading now. Usually, we scour the comments on our social media pages for reader feedback, because people just don’t write thoughtful, good old-fashioned letters to the editor anymore. (Or even emails, for that matter.)
But on Monday, the mighty Facebook (and Instagram and WhatsApp, which the social media company also owns) went mysteriously offline. The blackout happened on the heels of a whistleblower named Frances Haugen coming forward, who had been leaking internal memos to the Wall Street Journal, sparking a series of bombshell reports that indicated, among other things, a fraught internal culture at the tech giant, including acknowledgments that it was contributing to the negative mental health of young girls and stoking political divisions.
On Sunday, Haugen appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about why she did it.
“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” she said. “And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.”
We guess this is a good time as any to say FUCK FACEBOOK. The company decimated local news by forcing media outlets to provide their content for free in hopes of getting traffic, and allowed misinformation about the election and COVID-19 to run rampant. Support your local news!
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