A Facebook Whistleblower — with Sophie Zhang

Your Undivided Attention

Center for Humane Technology

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4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In September of 2020, on her last day at Facebook, data scientist Sophie Zhang posted a 7,900-word memo to the company's internal site. In it, she described the anguish and guilt she had experienced over the last two and a half years. She'd spent much of that time almost single-handedly trying to rein in fake activity on the platform by nefarious world leaders in small countries. Sometimes she received help and attention from higher-ups; sometimes she got silence and inaction. “I joined Facebook from the start intending to change it from the inside,” she said, but “I was still very naive at the time.” We don’t have a lot of information about how things operate inside the major tech platforms, and most former employees aren’t free to speak about their experience. It’s easy to fill that void with inferences about what might be motivating a company — greed, apathy, disorganization or ignorance, for example — but the truth is usually far messier and more nuanced. Sophie turned down a $64,000 severance package to avoid signing a non-disparagement agreement. In this episode of Your Undivided Attention, she explains to Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin how she ended up here, and offers ideas about what could be done at these companies to prevent similar kinds of harm in the future.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Structurally, we don't have a lot of information about how things operate inside the major
0:04.4	tech platforms.
0:06.0	Most people who leave these companies sign non-disclosure and non-despairagement agreements,
0:10.6	so they can't speak publicly about their experiences.
0:13.4	But Sophie Jong was different.
0:16.8	As a data scientist at Facebook, Sophie stumbled across a pattern that was going underneath
0:20.7	the radar.
0:22.2	Leaders of small countries, like Honduras, Azerbaijan, and Albania, were exploiting a loophole
0:27.8	to make them appear more popular than they actually were.
0:31.8	In 2020, on her last day at the company, Sophie blew the whistle.
0:36.2	She posted a 7,900-word memo to Facebook's internal site about how foreign leaders
0:41.6	were exploiting the platform.
0:43.5	She then turned down a $64,000 severance package in exchange for the privilege of speaking
0:49.4	out.
0:51.0	Today, on your individed attention, Sophie shares with us how she came to feel
0:57.6	responsible for the political futures of countries that she'd never even visited,
1:02.6	and what she thinks can be done to prevent that kind of exploitation going forward.
1:09.7	I'm Cristan Harris, and I'm Azaraskan.
1:12.5	And this is your undivided attention.
1:22.1	So I joined Facebook from the start, intending to change it from the inside.
1:25.7	I mean, I was up front with them about that.
1:27.8	I told them, I don't think Facebook is making the road about your place, that's really
	...

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