Illustration: Elena Scotti, Photo: Shutterstock
“The internet not only connects us to our friends, families and communities, but it is also the foundation of the global knowledge economy.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Aug. 21, 2013.
“Facebook has been a useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate, in a context where, for most users, Facebook is the Internet.” – United Nations Human Rights Council, Sept. 12, 2018.
In one of Silicon Valley’s largest leaks, a former Facebook product manager slipped financial regulators stacks of documents containing thousands of confidential memos, chat logs, and a veritable library of hidden research. The leak was designed to convince the feds that the gravity and scope of Facebook’s design flaws and misdeeds vastly exceed anything its executives ever divulged to their investors.
The documents, captured by whistleblower Frances Haugen and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, were also handed to members of a Senate Commerce subcommittee chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut who last month called Instagram “a breeding ground for eating disorders and self harm.” Subsequently, Gizmodo and some 300 other mostly Western journalists independently obtained access to the papers.
We believe there’s a strong public need in making as many of the documents public as possible, as quickly as possible. To that end, we’ve partnered with a small group of independent monitors, who are joining us to establish guidelines for an accountable review of the documents prior to publication. The mission is to minimize any costs to individuals’ privacy or the furtherance of other harms while ensuring the responsible disclosure of the greatest amount of information in the public interest.
Save $59Apple AirPods
Turn up the volume
The latest AirPods 3 and Pro are on sale, but Apple's 2nd Generation AirPods—though getting older by the day—bring the heat with a 37% discount.
Buy AirPods 2 for $100 at Amazon
The committee includes, in no particular order:
- Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff technologist at the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Daniel works at the intersection between technology and civil rights and civil liberties, in particular questions around how our tools and infrastructure shape access to our rights of privacy, speech, assembly, and justice.
- Pri Bengani, senior research fellow, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University. Pri’s work focuses on using computational techniques to research the digital media landscape, including investigating closed platforms like WhatsApp, partisan and politically funded local news networks, and the intersection of platform companies with the media.
- Michael Zimmer, Associate Professor in Computer Science, Marquette University. Michael is a privacy and data ethics scholar whose work focuses on digital privacy & surveillance, the ethics of big data, internet research ethics, and the broader social & ethical dimensions of emerging digital technologies. Michael also curates The Zuckerberg Files, a digital archive of all public utterances of Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, spanning 2004-2021.
- Damon McCoy, Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Damon earned his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research focuses on empirically measuring the security and privacy of technology systems and their intersections with society.
- Laura Edelson, PhD Candidate in Computer Science, New York University Tandon School of Engineering. Laura is a cybersecurity researcher who studies the spread of misinformation and hate in online political communication. She leads the AdObserver and AdObservatory projects at NYU and is a Belfer Fellow with the Anti-Defamation League.
- Ethan Zuckerman, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Information and Communication, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Ethan directs the UMass Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, focused on reimagining the internet as a tool for civic engagement. He is co-founder of Global Voices, an international civic media community, and co-creator of Media Cloud, an open-source tool for quantitative media analysis.
While our group is itself largely American, our first decision was to require local experts when reviewing any document focused on another country. One of the committee’s chief responsibilities is to vet local experts to work alongside our reviewers.
The internet was a much smaller place when Facebook arrived in 2004. Back then, beyond hookups and house parties, the social network held little sway over events in the real world. Unrecognizable today from its origin as a dorm-room novelty, Facebook is now one of the richest and most influential companies on the planet and the most pervasive information platform ever created. A tentacular machine that has altered the face of politics and life itself on a global scale. At its best, Facebook is a tool that connects billions, narrowing the divide between disparate peoples and cultures in ways previously unimaginable. At its worst, it has served as history’s most efficient delivery system for toxic propaganda, empowering bigots and extremists to commit egregious crimes against humanity, quite literally being wielded as an instrument of war.
Perhaps owing to its sheer ubiquity, Facebook is often portrayed as a bulwark against, if not the victim of, the very crimes it begrudgingly facilities: In headlines, it is constantly battling misinformation, taking action against extremism, curbing data abuse, and moving to protect its users. Much more rare are stories about the violent collision between Facebook’s outwardly professed goal of “bringing people together,” and that of its underlying technologies, which seem to derive greater profits when driving people apart, and into increasingly dark places.
Beyond privacy reasons, the documents require additional review to ensure that we aren’t just handing criminals and spies a roadmap for undermining what controls Facebook does have in place to defend against propaganda that spreads lies, hate, and fear. That would undermine any benefit the world stands to reap from this act of whistleblower justice.
Our work is just beginning, but we’re eager to release our first batch of documents as soon as possible. To get the ball rolling, the first release will likely consist mostly of documents that warrant the least amount of inspection. To learn more, check back for updates at the top of this article in the coming days.
Correction: A previous version of this article appeared to indicate Gizmodo obtained access to the Facebook Papers directly from Sen. Blumenthal’s office, which is not the case. It’s been updated for clarity.
