The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 20 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Haugen: Facebook VIP Cross-Check Whitelisted Users and Delayed Reviews Three Days
“In reality, because they weren't willing to spend a very small amount of budget, they didn't actually put that second check in for most safety systems. So for most safety systems, people got white listed. So if you were in cross check, the safety systems no lo…”
Haugen: TikTok's algorithms deliberately bias toward happiness to suppress politics
“TikTok is a very manipulative experience algorithmically, right? They bias towards happiness. They bias towards humor. Like, they don't want you talking about sad topics because political topics often are sad topics, right?”
Haugen: Facebook's Average User Is Substantially Less Literate Than Twitter's
“I think the reason why Twitter did it and Facebook didn't was Facebook's average user is substantially less literate than Facebook, than Twitter's is.”
Haugen: Facebook's algorithm drove 65% of joins to German neo-Nazi groups
“In 2016, they found out that 65% of people who joined neo-Nazi groups in Germany, where they are illegal, like you can't have a neo-Nazi Facebook group in Germany, joined them because Facebook suggested that group to people.”
Haugen: Whistleblower disclosures helped correct Meta's inflated stock price
“I think there's a good chance that the information did cause the stock to correct back to something closer to its natural valuation.”
Haugen: Users Found Facebook Feeds Less Meaningful After 2018 Algorithm Change
“Back in 2018, Facebook switched from just seeing how long they could keep you on Facebook, to seeing could they drive you to do interaction. And they called it meaningful social interactions. Stuff that got more interactions was considered better content. Even…”
Haugen: TikTok manually censors all of its highly popular content
“TikTok manually censors all their highly popular content.”
Haugen: Meta Oversight Board Scope Is Limited Strictly to Moderation Appeals
“It really should be called the content moderation appeals board because that is the entire scope of what they can do. They can't ask about the performance of the content moderation systems. They can't even ask, like, what language are the content moderation sy…”
Haugen: Meta increased safety spending two to three times post-leak
“We've seen them having to increase the amount they spend on safety by two to three times, which is huge compared to the past times they've increased safety.”
Haugen: 80% to 90% of Global Content in Most Languages Exists Only on Facebook
“80 or 90% of all the content in, in the majority of languages in the world is only on Facebook.”
Haugen: Facebook Deprioritizes News Out of Fear Over Backlash
“The reason why they're deprioritizing news is because they're scared, right? Like, they're getting all this criticism about things like, you know, ethnic violence”
Haugen: Automated Moderation Flags Activist Counter-Speech as Violations
“When I talk to activists around the world that work on issues like women, like violence against women, gay rights, they say across the board, our accounts all get taken down. Because these systems that are meant to keep us safe, because they're not done in a v…”
Haugen: Zuckerberg's vision of 12-hour daily metaverse use won't happen
“Do I think Mark's vision of spending 12 hours a day in the metaverse will come true? No.”
Haugen: No university in the world teaches social network design choices and consequences
“You cannot take a single class,
Where you really understand here's the spectrum of choices we have, you know, here's the very wide eclectic palette of colors we could paint with to build social networks, and here's the consequences of those choices. You cannot…”
Haugen: Meta stock fell substantially more than social media peers
“But it's fallen substantially more than the other social media companies.”
Haugen: Adding Reshare Friction Substantially Decreases Misinformation
“Putting a little moment of intentionality before someone reshared something actually substantially decreases misinformation.”
Haugen: Chinese studies show VR is substantially more addictive than phones
“The big problems with the metaverse are things like you know, studies out of China have shown it's more addictive, or more habit-forming like substantially more so than phones, because it's immersive.”
Haugen: Facebook Formed 60-Person Election Working Group in April 2020
“In April of 2020, in preparation for the U.S. Election, ah, they held an internal working group. It's like, 60 people, I was one of the people on it who were tasked with coming up with, quote, soft interventions to prepare for the election.”