3 years ago
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By BARBARA ORTUTAY and KELVIN CHAN
Amid fallout from the Facebook Papers documents supporting claims that the societal web has valued fiscal occurrence implicit idiosyncratic safety, Facebook connected Monday reported higher nett for the latest quarter.
The company’s latest amusement of fiscal spot follows some an avalanche of reports connected the Facebook Papers — a immense trove of redacted interior documents obtained by a consortium of quality organizations, including The Associated Press — but besides of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s grounds to British lawmakers.
Facebook said its nett income grew 17% successful the July-September play to $9.19 billion, oregon $3.22 per share, buoyed by beardown advertizing revenue. That’s up from $7.85 billion, oregon $2.71 per share, a twelvemonth earlier. Revenue grew 35% to $29.01 billion. Analysts, connected average, were expecting net of $3.19 per stock connected gross of $24.49 billion, according to a canvass by FactSet.
Facebook shares roseate 2.5% successful after-hours trading aft closing up 1% for the day.
“For now, the gross representation for Facebook looks arsenic bully arsenic tin beryllium expected,” said eMarketer expert Debra Aho Williamson. But she predicted much revelations and described the findings truthful acold arsenic “unsettling and stomach-churning.”
CEO Mark Zuckerberg opened Facebook’s net league telephone with an oblique notation to the “recent statement astir our company,” past mostly repeated a statements helium made aft Haugen’s Oct. 5 grounds earlier a U.S. Senate subcommittee. He insisted that helium welcomes “good religion criticism” but considers the existent tempest a “coordinated effort” by quality organizations to knock the institution based connected leaked documents.
Haugen, meanwhile, told a British parliamentary committee Monday that the societal media elephantine stokes online hatred and extremism, fails to support children from harmful contented and lacks immoderate inducement to hole the problems, providing momentum for efforts by European governments moving connected stricter regularisation of tech companies.
While her grounds echoed overmuch of what she told the U.S. Senate this month, her in-person quality drew aggravated involvement from a British parliamentary committee that is overmuch further on successful drafting up authorities to rein successful the powerfulness of societal media companies.
Haugen told the committee of United Kingdom lawmakers that Facebook Groups amplifies online hate, saying algorithms that prioritize engagement instrumentality radical with mainstream interests and propulsion them to the extremes. The erstwhile Facebook information idiosyncratic said the institution could adhd moderators to forestall groups implicit a definite size from being utilized to dispersed extremist views.
“Unquestionably, it’s making hatred worse,” she said.
Haugen said she was “shocked to perceive precocious that Facebook wants to treble down connected the metaverse and that they’re gonna prosecute 10,000 engineers successful Europe to enactment connected the metaverse,” Haugen said, referring to the company’s plans for an immersive online satellite it believes volition beryllium the adjacent large net trend.
“I was like, ‘Wow, bash you cognize what we could person done with information if we had 10,000 much engineers?’” she said.
Facebook says it wants regularisation for tech companies and was gladsome the U.K. was starring the way.
“While we person rules against harmful contented and people regular transparency reports, we hold we request regularisation for the full manufacture truthful that businesses similar ours aren’t making these decisions connected our own,” Facebook said Monday.
It pointed to investing $13 cardinal (9.4 cardinal pounds) connected information and information since 2016 and asserted that it’s “almost halved” the magnitude of hatred code implicit the past 3 quarters.
Haugen accused Facebook-owned Instagram of failing to support children nether 13 — the minimum idiosyncratic property — from opening accounts, saying it wasn’t doing capable to support kids from contented that, for example, makes them consciousness atrocious astir their bodies.
“Facebook’s ain probe describes it arsenic an addict’s narrative. Kids say, ‘This makes maine unhappy, I consciousness similar I don’t person the quality to power my usage of it, and I consciousness similar if I left, I’d beryllium ostracized,‘” she said.
The institution past period delayed plans for a kids’ mentation of Instagram, geared toward those nether 13, to code concerns astir the vulnerability of younger users. Haugen said she disquieted it whitethorn not beryllium imaginable to marque Instagram harmless for a 14-year-old and that “I sincerely uncertainty it’s imaginable to marque it harmless for a 10-year-old.”
She besides said Facebook’s moderation systems are worse astatine catching contented successful languages different than English, and that’s a occupation adjacent successful the U.K. due to the fact that it’s a divers country.
“Those radical are besides surviving successful the U.K. and being fed misinformation that is dangerous, that radicalizes people,” Haugen said. “And truthful language-based sum is not conscionable a good-for-individuals thing, it’s a nationalist information issue.”
Pressed connected whether she believes Facebook is fundamentally evil, Haugen demurred and said, “I can’t spot into the hearts of men.” Facebook is not evil, but negligent, she suggested.
“It believes successful a satellite of flatness, and it won’t judge the consequences of its actions,” pointing to its mammoth one-level, open-plan firm bureau arsenic an embodiment of the philosophy.
It was Haugen’s 2nd quality earlier lawmakers aft she testified successful the U.S. astir the information she says the institution poses, from harming children to inciting governmental unit and fueling misinformation. Haugen cited interior probe documents she secretly copied earlier leaving her occupation successful Facebook’s civic integrity unit.
The documents, which Haugen provided to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, allege Facebook prioritized profits implicit information and hid its ain probe from investors and the public. Some stories based connected the files person already been published, exposing interior turmoil aft Facebook was blindsided by the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot and however it dithered implicit curbing divisive contented successful India. More is to come.
Representatives from Facebook and different societal media companies program to talk to the British committee Thursday.
U.K. lawmakers are drafting an online information measure calling for mounting up a regulator that would clasp companies to relationship erstwhile it comes to removing harmful oregon amerciable contented from their platforms, specified arsenic violent worldly oregon kid enactment maltreatment images.
Haugen is scheduled to conscionable adjacent period with European Union officials successful Brussels, wherever the bloc’s enforcement committee is updating its integer rulebook to amended support net users by holding online companies much liable for amerciable oregon unsafe content.
Under the U.K. rules, expected to instrumentality effect adjacent year, Silicon Valley giants look an eventual punishment of up to 10% of their planetary gross for immoderate violations. The EU is proposing a akin penalty.
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See afloat sum of the “Facebook Papers” here: https://apnews.com/hub/the-facebook-papers
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Associated Press writer Marcy Gordon successful Washington contributed to this report.
English (US) ·