Houston Public Media

SIGN IN NPR SHOP DONATE News 88.7

On Air Now

NEWS CULTURE MUSIC PODCASTS & SHOWS SEARCH HOURLY NEWS LISTEN LIVE PLAYLIST

BUSINESS

'The Wall Street Journal' Takes A Deep

Dive Into The Facebook Files
September 17, 2021 · 5:09 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

3-Minute Listen PLAYLIST

NPR's A Martínez talks to Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz about the
paper's reporting on Facebook that found that the company knows its platforms are
riddled with flaws that can cause harm.

NOEL KING, HOST:

Facebook reportedly knows that it exposes its users to misinformation, violent

imagery, human trafficking, calls for violence against specific ethnic groups and a
lot more. And Facebook has tools to stop all of this. But internal documents
NPR thanks our sponsors Become an NPR sponsor
obtained by The Wall Street Journal suggest it's not using them. I should note here
that Facebook is an NPR sponsor. Jeff Horwitz is a Wall Street Journal reporter.
He's part of the team that conducted a four-part investigation.

Jeff, start by telling me about XCheck.

JEFF HORWITZ: So XCheck was the system Facebook created to try to make sure it
didn't mess up on really high-profile user complaints. And it had to do this because
its normal process for adjudicating content issues isn't reliable enough for what it
considered to be VIP users. And so what it ended up doing was putting 5.8 million
or so users of its nearly 3 billion around the globe into this program that gave them
special privileges and, in fact, better treatment during enforcement. And in fact, for
some users, it completely exempted them from all rules at all, which meant that
users could basically just do whatever they wanted on the platform. This resulted in
billions of views of violating content on the platform that Facebook knew it could've
stopped and also allowed powerful popular accounts, such as that of Neymar, the
Brazilian soccer player, to show what Facebook deemed to be revenge porn...

KING: Oh.

HORWITZ: ...To more than 50 million people.

KING: Oh. OK. Well, that's a lot. But that's just one part of it. I mean, you also wrote
about how Facebook rewards outrage content, the stuff that makes people really
mad and then makes them engage. And Mark Zuckerberg, you write, had a chance
to fix it. And what happened?

HORWITZ: So the company realized that promoting engagement and creating sort
of algorithms that promote engagement ended up promoting really angry content
and that you could see internally that Facebook researchers were worried that they
were making politics and political discourse around the world much, much more
contentious and vitriolic. And they realized this but then didn't want to roll back the
changes that they'd made to their algorithm because that would hit their growth
metrics.

KING: The fourth part of your series details horrific things that can be found on
Facebook, including job postings that lure women into situations akin to slavery.
Tell me about what you found and why that has been allowed to go on.

HORWITZ: So this is sort of a crisis of, I suppose, a lack of concern in some

respects.

KING: Huh.

HORWITZ: Facebook was very much aware that it had a problem with human
trafficking on its platform, large scale. And in fact, in some instances, it even
allowed people to sell maids so long as they were doing it through, quote-unquote,
"brick-and-mortar" establishments in the Persian Gulf and Gulf states. And they
simply tolerated this until Apple, the - you know, maker of my iPhone, decided that
it needed to tell them that it was going to either kick them off the App Store - so
remove Facebook and Instagram from its App Store - unless they took care of it
immediately. They did it then, but then they let the problem get back out of hand.
And there's no question that they knew that there were massive amounts of this
stuff on their platform.

KING: What has Facebook's response been to your reporting?

HORWITZ: Facebook has said that they're working to get better. They're not
denying any of this stuff.

KING: Hmm.

HORWITZ: This is drawn directly from their documents. And they, you know,
basically, sort of are - they're arguing that perhaps we're being a little bit negative
and that they are good.

KING: Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz. Again, this series is really great.
Thanks, Jeff.

HORWITZ: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SUBLAB AND AZALEH'S "VIDURA")

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org
for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a
proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or
revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the
audio record.

Sign Up For The Planet Money Newsletter

Just the right amount of economics, sent weekly.

What's your email? SUBSCRIBE

By subscribing, you agree to NPR's terms of use and privacy policy. NPR may share your name and email address with your
NPR station. See Details. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

More Stories From NPR

ECONOMY
Jobs Friday: Return of the airhorn?

BUSINESS
Uncle Sam wants YOU to fight inflation

TECHNOLOGY
Hackers tied to China are suspected of
spying on News Corp. journalists

POLITICS
The House passed a bill aimed at boosting
U.S. competitiveness with China

ECONOMY
In a big surprise, the job market surged in
January even as omicron cases spiked

BUSINESS
Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama
vote for second time in union effort

Popular on NPR.org

GLOBAL HEALTH
Discovery of HIV variant shows virus can
evolve to be more severe — and contagious

NATIONAL
Minneapolis police kill a Black man while
executing a no-knock warrant

MOVIE REVIEWS
'The Worst Person In The World' is an
achingly precise portrait of young adulthood

SPORTS
The Beijing Winter Olympics' cauldron
lighting made a political statement

POLITICS
Pence says Trump is wrong to insist VP
could have overturned election results

HEALTH
Americans get sicker as omicron stalls
everything from heart surgeries to cancer
care

NPR Editors' Picks

NATIONAL
First Black University of Alabama student to
share a building name with a Klan leader

POLITICS
Michael Avenatti is convicted of stealing
nearly $300,000 from Stormy Daniels

NATIONAL
Waffle House shooter found guilty on 4
counts of murder

NATIONAL SECURITY
Explaining the U.S. military presence in
Europe as 2,000 more troops deploy

WORLD
Ontario premier calls on COVID restriction
protesters to end their 'occupation'

BOOK REVIEWS
Coming of age with three contemporary YA
novels

READ & LISTEN CONNECT ABOUT NPR GET INVOLVED

Home Newsletters Overview Support Public Radio

News Facebook Diversity Sponsor NPR

Culture Twitter Ethics NPR Careers

Music Instagram Finances NPR Shop

Podcasts & Shows Press Public Editor NPR Events

Contact & Help Corrections NPR Extra

terms of use privacy your privacy choices text only © 2022 npr