1 2 B. Facebook Prioritizes Hate Speech and Misinformation to Increase User Engagement 41. Facebook knows that the most negative emotions—fear, anger, hate—are the 3 4 5 most engaging. Facebook employs psychologists and social scientists as “user researchers” to 6 analyze its user’s behavior in response to online content. An internal Facebook presentation by 7 one such researcher, leaked in May 2020, warned: “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s 8 attraction to divisiveness…. If left unchecked, … [Facebook would feed users] more and more 9 divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.” 19 10 42. To maximize engagement, Facebook does not merely fill users’ News Feeds with 11 disproportionate amounts of hate speech and misinformation; it employs a system of social 12 rewards that manipulates and trains users to create such content. When users post content, other 13 users who are shown that content are prompted to “like,” “comment” on, or “share” it. Under 14 each piece of content, users can see how many times others have liked or shared that content and 15 can read the comments. See Figure 1. 16 17 18 19 20 (Figure 1.) 21 22 23 43. A study published in February 2021 confirmed that, “[i]n online social media platforms, feedback on one’s behavior often comes in the form of a ‘like’—a signal of approval 24 25 26 27 28 19 Jeff Horwitz, Deepa Seetharaman, Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive, WALL STREET JOURNAL (May 26, 2020), https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-it-encourages-division-top-executives-nixedsolutions-11590507499. CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT 14 Case No. __________________