Hi,

"Carol Smith," a fake Facebook account created by a researcher for testing
purposes, was nondescript in all respects. "Carol's" profile indicated she
was a conservative mother from North Carolina interested in Christianity
and parenting; she followed Fox News and Donald Trump, but indicated no
particular interest in conspiracy theories.

In just two days, Facebook's algorithm suggested that "Carol" join
Facebook groups dedicated to QAnon, the far-right conspiracy group.^1

Dozens of damning revelations like this came out of the Facebook Papers,
the trove of internal documents leaked by whistleblowers. The Facebook
Papers make clear: Facebook knew its platform was harming users and
promoting extremism — and won't do anything about it. That’s why it’s time
to take on their power directly.

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition: Tell Congress and federal regulators to break up
Facebook!

ADD YOUR NAME

The Facebook Papers demonstrate that Facebook knows it has a near monopoly
on social media — and that they abuse their power to help protect
right-wing extremists.

Internal documents show Facebook knows that 78% of adults, and nearly all
teenagers, use an app owned by Facebook, whether Facebook itself, or
Instagram, or WhatsApp. The documents also show Facebook's grand ambition
is to leverage that market power to become a "super app" that users rely
on for every aspect of their lives.^2

What does Facebook do with that power? For one thing, they moderate their
site in ways that suit what the company’s Republican lobbyists demand.

The Facebook Papers show that Facebook's own staff were appalled that
Republican operative and Facebook Vice President Joel Kaplan, who was a
key ally of Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 Supreme Court confirmation
hearing, would weigh in on issues related to speech on the site.^3

A leaked report from a Facebook data scientist written in December 2020
stated "Facebook routinely makes exceptions for powerful actors when
enforcing content policy." Previous revelations showed Facebook often
exempted Donald Trump from content rules.^4

In short, the world's most widely used social media app has an algorithm
that pushes normal people to embrace extremist conspiracies, and they
moderate the content you see to favor the far right.

These are just some of the many abuses Facebook has committed, alongside
breaches of personal privacy and its manipulation of the political
landscape. Stopping this requires taking on Facebook's monopoly power. As
long as the company owns so many social media services, they’ll have
little incentive to change their behavior. That's why regulators must
break up Facebook.

Time and again, Facebook proves it will not moderate itself. The company
is too big to entrust with our access to information, our mental health,
and our democracy.

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition: Break up Facebook!

Thanks for taking action,

Izzi and the team at Demand Progress

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

Sources:
1. The New York Times, "Facebook Papers Show Employees Raised Concerns
About Misinformation," [ [link removed] ]October 22, 2021.
2. Politico, "Facebook documents offer a treasure trove for Washington's
antitrust war," [ [link removed] ]October 25, 2021.
3. Politico, "Facebook staff complained for years about their lobbyists'
power," [ [link removed] ]October 25, 2021.
4. ibid.
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