Whistleblower Frances Haugen said the rebrand doesn’t make sense given Facebook’s ongoing security issues.
Lisbon:
In her first public address, after she leaked a bunch of damning documents about the inner workings of Facebook, whistleblower Frances Hogen urged her former boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to dedicate resources to a rebrand of the post instead. Give up and allow change.
“I think it’s unlikely that the company will change if [Mark Zuckerberg] The CEO remains,” Haugen said in a packed arena on Monday on the opening night of the Web Summit, a tech festival attracting dozens of thousands of people in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
The former Facebook product manager responded affirmatively to the question of whether Zuckerberg should resign, adding: “Maybe this is a chance for someone else to take the reins… Facebook will be stronger with someone who knows security.” Was ready to focus on.
With nearly 3 billion users, the social network changed its name to Meta last week, in a rebrand that focuses on the creation of “Metaverse,” a shared virtual environment it bets will be the successor to the mobile Internet.
But early adopters of the virtual world known as the Metaverse blasted Facebook’s rebranding as an attempt to capitalize on growing buzz over a concept that wasn’t designed to divert attention from the recent negative.
Commenting on the rebranding, Haugen said that it doesn’t make sense given the security issues, which are yet to be resolved.
“Facebook repeatedly expands and picks new territories, instead of sticking landing on what they’ve already done, which often erupts with applause,” Haugen told an animated crowd.
Facebook’s announcement came amid strong criticism from lawmakers and regulators over the corporation’s business practices – particularly its vast market power, algorithmic decisions and policing of abuse on its services.
The social media network, which operates a dual-class stock structure through which Zuckerberg and a small group of investors control the company, has hit back, saying the documents leaked by Hogan were used as a “false picture”. ” was to be painted.
Haugen told British and US lawmakers last month that Facebook would fuel more violent unrest around the world unless it curbs its algorithms that push excessive, divisive content and allow them to scroll. prey on vulnerable demographics.
“A major problem is that the foundation of the platform’s security is based on language-by-language monitoring of content, which is not the case in all countries where Facebook operates,” Haugen said.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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