Facebook under fire after new leaked documents

CNBC's Julia Boorstin breaks down Facebook's response to recent allegations that the social network failed to tamp down radicalizing content. Boorstin highlights Francis Haugen's testimony in the UK, prior to Facebook's earnings report Monday afternoon. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi The Facebook Papers, a series of articles published by a consortium of 17 U.S. news outlets beginning Friday, shed new light on the company’s thinking behind its actions leading up to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 and its ability to fend off hate speech in languages outside of English. Facebook shares were slightly positive in early trading Monday after the news outlets published their stories based on the leaked documents. The company is also scheduled to report quarterly earnings after markets close Monday. The documents were provided to the news outlets by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who took tens of thousands of pages of internal research with her before she left. She’s since provided those documents to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking whistleblower status. “At the heart of these stories is a premise which is false,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement in response to the flood of reporting. “Yes, we’re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie. The truth is we’ve invested $13 billion and have over 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on Facebook.” Here are some of the major themes the Facebook Papers have explored so far: Jan. 6 The documents revealed frustration among Facebook’s ranks about the company’s ability to get the spread of content that potentially incites violence under control. “Haven’t we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” an employee wrote on an internal message board during the riot outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to The Associated Press. “We’ve been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn’t be surprised it’s now out of control.” Facebook had put additional emergency measures in place ahead of the 2020 election to stem the spread of violent or dangerous content if needed. But as many as 22 of those measures were set aside after the election and before Jan. 6, internal documents reviewed by AP showed. A Facebook spokesperson told the outlet its use of those measures followed signals from its own platform and law enforcement. Language barriers Some of the reports showed how Facebook’s content moderation systems can fall flat when faced with languages besides English. AP reported that Arabic poses a particularly difficult challenge for content moderators. Arabic-speaking users have learned to use symbols or extra spaces in words thought to set off flags in Facebook’s systems, like the names of militant groups. While the methods are meant by some to avoid an overzealous content moderation system, AP reported that certain measures have managed to avoid Facebook’s hate speech censors. “We were incorrectly enforcing counterterrorism content in Arabic,” an internal Facebook document said, according to AP. Meanwhile, it said, the system “limits users from participating in political speech, impeding their right to freedom of expression.” Facebook told AP it’s put more resources into recruiting local dialect and topic experts, and has researched ways to improve its systems. » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-credit-cards/ #CNBC #CNBCTV