Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society
No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. By James Vincent <https://www.theverge.com/users/James%20Vincent> @jjvincent <https://www.twitter.com/jjvincent> Dec 11, 2017, 6:07am EST Chamath Palihapitiya speaks at a Vanity Fair event in October 2016. Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair Another former Facebook executive has spoken out about the harm the social network is doing to civil society around the world. Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels tremendous guilt about the company he helped make. I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works, he told an audience <https://youtu.be/PMotykw0SIk?t=21m21s> at Stanford Graduate School of Business, before recommending people take a hard break from social media. Palihapitiyas criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops weve created are destroying how society works, he said, referring to online interactions driven by hearts, likes, thumbs-up. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And its not an American problem this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem. He went on to describe an incident in India where hoax messages about kidnappings shared on WhatsApp led to the lynching <http://www.bgr.in/news/fake-whatsapp-messages-lead-to-killing-of-7-alleged- kidnappers-in-jharkhand/> of seven innocent people. Thats what were dealing with, said Palihapitiya. And imagine taking that to the extreme, where bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. Its just a really, really bad state of affairs. He says he tries to use Facebook as little as possible, and that his children arent allowed to use that shit. He later adds, though, that he believes the company overwhelmingly does good in the world. Palihapitiyas remarks follow similar statements of contrition from others who helped build Facebook into the powerful corporation it is today. In November, early investor Sean Parker said he has become <https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/9/16627724/sean-parker-facebook-childrens- brains-feedback-loop> a conscientious objector to social media, and that Facebook and others had succeeded by exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. A former product manager at the company, Antonio Garcia-Martinez, has said Facebook lies about its ability <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/02/facebook-executive-adver tising-data-comment> to influence individuals based on the data it collects on them, and wrote a book, <https://www.ft.com/content/47d1cd50-4aa5-11e6-b387-64ab0a67014c> Chaos Monkeys, about his work at the firm. These former employees have all spoken out at a time when worry about Facebooks power is reaching fever pitch. In the past year, concerns about the companys role in the US election <https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/30/16578022/facebook-senate-testimony-russ ia-126-million-people> and its capacity to amplify fake news <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/16/facebook-fake-news-tools -not-working> have grown, while other reports have focused on how the social media site has been implicated in atrocities like the <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/world/asia/myanmar-government-facebook-r ohingya.html> ethnic cleansing of Myanmars Rohingya ethnic group. In his talk, Palihapitiya criticized not only Facebook, but Silicon Valleys entire system of venture capital funding. He said that investors pump money into shitty, useless, idiotic companies, rather than addressing real problems like climate change and disease. Palihapitiya currently runs his own VC firm, Social Capital, which focuses on funding companies in sectors like healthcare and education. Palihapitiya also notes that although tech investors seem almighty, theyve achieved their power more through luck than skill. Everybodys bullshitting, he said. If youre in a seat, and you have good deal flow, and you have precious capital, and theres a massive tailwind of technological change ... Over time you get one of the 20 [companies that become successful] and you look like a genius. And nobody wants to admit that but thats the fucking truth. EM On the 49th Parallel Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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