12/22/21, 10:01 PM How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation | MIT Technology Review said. Not only does it require Facebook to enumerate every possible form of abuse, but it also requires the company to be proficient at moderating in every language. Facebook has failed on both counts—and the most vulnerable people in the world have paid the greatest price, she said. The main culprit, Haugen said, is Facebook’s desire to maximize engagement, which has turned its algorithm and platform design into a giant bullhorn for hate speech and misinformation. An MIT Technology Review investigation from earlier this year, based on dozens of interviews with Facebook executives, current and former employees, industry peers, and external experts, corroborates this characterization. Her testimony also echoed what Allen wrote in his report—and what Rio and other disinformation experts have repeatedly seen through their research. For clickbait farms, getting into the monetization programs is the first step, but how much they cash in depends on how far Facebook’s content-recommendation systems boost their articles. They would not thrive, nor would they plagiarize such damaging content, if their shady tactics didn’t do so well on the platform. As a result, weeding out the farms themselves isn’t the solution: highly motivated actors will always be able to spin up new websites and new pages to get more money. Instead, it’s the algorithms and content reward mechanisms that need addressing. In his report, Allen proposed one possible way Facebook could do this: by using what’s known as a graph-based authority measure to rank content. This would amplify higher-quality pages like news and media and diminish lower-quality pages like clickbait, reversing the current trend. Haugen emphasized that Facebook’s failure to fix its platform was not for want of solutions, tools, or capacity. “Facebook can change but is clearly not going to do so on its own,” she said. “My fear is that without action, the divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning. What we saw in Myanmar and are now seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying no one wants to read the end of it.” (Osborne said Facebook has a fundamentally different approach to Myanmar today with greater expertise in the country’s human rights issues and a dedicated team and technology to detect violating content, like hate speech, in Burmese.) In October, the outgoing UN special envoy on Myanmar said the country had deteriorated into civil war. Thousands of people have since fled to neighboring countries like Thailand and India. As of mid-November, clickbait actors were continuing to post fake news hourly. In one post, the democratic leader, “Mother Suu,” had been assassinated. In another, she had finally been freed. Special thanksremaining to our team. Design and development by Rachel Stein and Vitorio. Art 2 free stories Sign in AndreSubscribe direction and production by Emily Luong and Stephanie Arnett. Editing by Niall Firth and Mat https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1039076/facebook-google-disinformation-clickbait/ 23/27